racman wrote:
Thx Bob - what do you use to chec the humidity levels as I just leave the humidifier in the guitar and check when it gets dry before refilling? In summer normally once every 3 weeks or so and in winter about once a week.
I would love to be a little more scientific in this regard unless it comes at a huge cost which would then make me more than content to continue bumbling along as I do now... ?
I have a little home digital climate station that I bought at Cape Union Mart. It is accurate for temperature and humidity, ignore the predictive aspect of it (rain, cloud etc) as this does not work on the highveld.
These are available for about R500.
I also have a little
coloured strip that I got when I bought a damp-it humidifier in the UK. This has segments, one for each 10% from 0 to 50, that change colour with humidity. The more blue I see the drier it is.
The rule of thumb given to me by Andy McGibbon and Mervyn Davis is that if your skin is feeling dry then you should be humidifying your guitars. However I take a cautious view of this as my Morgan really doesn't like a dry highveld winter and if left to it's own devices will develop a nasty buzz. I usually start humidifying that when Easter falls - that's not scientific but it's a good enough rough guide for what is the most temperamental of my guitars. However this year it has held out until early May. Might go a bit longer, but I started humidifying this evening.
The little strip that came with the damp-it works well enough. I don't know if there's a damp-it dealer in SA.
