Humidifying

Humidifying your guitar during the cold (dry) months is extremely important. If you don’t humidify your guitar it is likely to crack and warp in a variety of ways. Each year, I perform many expensive repairs on guitars that have been neglected and not humidified. Ideally, Guitars are built at around 50 percent humidity. Keeping them around 50 percent would be healthy, but when the heat comes on in the winter it is almost impossible. The goal is to keep the humidity as high as you can.
The best way is to keep your instrument in a hardshell case with a wetted Dampit or similar sponge type humidifier whenever not being played. Wetting the humidifiers at least two times a week may be necessary in some circumstances, i.e. very dry heat or a poorly sealed case. If a soundhole cover is supplied with your humidifier do not use the cover as it will prevent humidity from getting to the neck. For this reason I do not reccommend the On-Tek humidifier. Another good way to humidify your instruments is by using a large room humidifier in a smaller room with a door that can remain closed. This is a good way to humidify multiple instruments. If you use this method the humidifier needs to be kept filled and running twenty fours a day. It is hard to impress upon people how important this is. Think of your guitar as a sponge with strings on it. When a kitchen sponge dries out on a sink it does not come back to it’s original shape, it’s distorted. The same things happen to a piece of wood that is cut and glued at fifty percent humidity. Especially, when it has 100-200 pounds of string tension on it. Humidifying is not necessary when the heat is off, but should begin the first day that the heat comes on for the cold season.