One of the most important things of taking care of any acoustic instrument is humidifying them. I am originally from Western Colorado where the humidity is never much higher than 10%. Now I live in Nashville and the humidity is usually not less than 50%. My guitars are much happier here but I still humidify them occasionally. In some cases you have to de-humidify your instrument which is much harder to do effectively.

How do you humidify your instrument? If there are any questions on how to humidify your instrument feel free to post.

I have one of those PlanetWaves egg-shaped humidfiers for my Lakland. The maple neck dries over the winter and the frets sprout on me. Haven't had that problem with other basses, but the Lakland wood seems to be affected more easily.

PlanetWaves makes an acoustic guitar humidfier that has a section that fits into the sound hole and comes with a digital gauge, and I've heard they work well.

There are also Damput humifiers that look like a green snake. They work well for acoustic instruments like mandolin although they a redesigned for violin.

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Fretted maple FBs do have that problem, it's
not peculiar to the Lakie. Just take it into the
bathroom when you shower, and the frets will
"un-sprout". Even a rosewood or an ebony FB
can sometimes suffer fret sprouting, but only
if there's any frets in them ! So, natchurlee,
I've taken the direct approach to solving the
fret sprouting problem ... no frets, no sprouts.

Mostly, I do nothing about humidifying. My
hollow bodies hafta make it thru the winter
at ambient humidity, which has done them
no harm, and I am wary of using humidifiers
for them. I bleeb that damage arises not so
much from absensce of humidity, but from
the changes ... the frequent cycling ... from
dry to humid. As I see it, normal seasonal
cycles are infrequent, and are very gradual.
But removing an ax from its humidor into a
dry winter environment for a few hours and
then returning it to its humidor ... now that
strikes me as increased cycling ... and not
at all gradual, either.

Anywayz, the whole humidor thing seems
"cultish" to me, as does waxing a Warwick.
I have a few Wicks, and I never wax them.

If I lived where there's never any humidity
like maybe Phoenix, I might consider doing
something about humidifying, but I would
avoid allowing the humidor to maintain the
"ideal" humidity, cuz then I'd be increasing
the width of the cycle, as well as frequency.
I'd wanna seek the minimum effective level.



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I never humidified any of my instruments, I probably should but I usually keep them in cases, I used to keep them out when I played more often. Either way I don't tend to get much issues other then the need for a setup every once an a while.

I've always used Dampit. Especially for my upright. For as much as your Lakland might be shifting inbetween seasons Laklander, an upright moves like crazy, to the point where finding an octave G can become a problem and thumb position is a whole new thing to learn every 6 months.

Yeah, I got those as soon as I possibly could. Saved my intonation, and my job security.

The funny thing about this topic is that it seems high end instruments are much more susceptible to humidity problems. Laminate instruments and lower grade wood don't react as much to the changing moisture.

Some say that too much humidity isn't necessarily a bad thing but if you can't keep it at that high level of humidity, cracks are sure to occur. Most guitars are happy around the 50% mark. It is good to try to keep your instruments right in the middle due to that fact that is quickly changing humidity that does the damage.

As Shack says above, humidity also effects playability and intonation. If you can keep your instrument consistent, you will have a consistent playing instrument.

Words everyone should remember, MattG. 50% is a happy place.