Humidity and temperature changes

Hi guys,

I need advice from some of you guys who have or build humidity/temperature guitar storage furniture.

I don't know if such things exist but here's my situation.

I live in northern Canada, temperature ranges from 35 C in summer and down to -30 or even 40 in the winter. I also live in an appartement that uses hot water systems to warm the building. Water rads just kills humidity and temperature changes are very bad. Let's just say I don't get a constant temperature in my rooms.

It's getting real bad, I have to retune my guitars everytime I play. I'm afraid those changes will affect them in a very bad way over time.

I'm even thinking of keeping them in their cases to minimise changes.

What I'm looking for is like a cabinet with a built-in humidity control. Being in a cabinet, I hope the temperature changes will be lessened.

So did some of guys ever heard or build such cabinets? Or do you know some equipement that could help?

Thanks

Sudden change in weather is a very bad thing to happen to a guitar ... I believe that keeping your guitar in a hardshell case when unplayed should make the temp changes easier on the guitar.
Some of my friends put a small bag of carbon (I think it was carbon) , that absorbs the humidity in the guitar's case ... I don't know wether it's a good idea or not .

Anyway , I think that guitarists like you should move south ! :p

LOL

We get down to about -30 here in Iowa and the lack of humidity is a killer. Add to that summer humidity 100% for months on end and you get the picture. However I refuse to live with out AC in the summer so that also takes care of our excessive summer humidity.

For the first two yeas I was here I used to wrap up all my axes and keep em in hard cases with those little humidifiers. That worked well as long as I kept the guitars in there cases.

However as I like to play em occasionally, I found this to be a pain so now they live on stands and we humidify the whole apartment using a Vicks steam humidifier or 3. These things work really well and stop also me from waking up in the middle of the night with nosebleeds / feeling desiccated !

I do have to occasionally adjust the set up of the electrics however generally they and the acoustics are pretty well behaved all year round.

I think that would be a really cool thing to do! Just get a cabinet with doors and windows from WalMart or Canadian Tire (Crappy Tire for us Canucks) or wherever, and then you'd need a humidifier/dehumidifier hooked up to it. I would think that you'd need just a little bitty one, since the normal sized ones are designed to humidify/dehumidify entire rooms and that'd probably harm your guitars.

Then all you'd need are some hook-type things to hold up the guitars... I've seen them for sale at guitar shops; it's actually what they use in music stores to hold up the guitars on the wall... I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

I think it would be a fun little project with much usefulness! Let us know what you think/how it goes!

I actually thought of going to a woodworker (not sure if that's the right way to call them, excuse my lack of english knowledge lol).

I guess I will need a special wood or coating. I'm not sure if it's better to have a wood that "drinks" or not. since it's gonna be between 40-60% humidity (that's what I've been told would be the target), I not sure if all woods react the same.

So maybe I'll make them "build" me one from scratch. I'll definively use those wall stand Eggman. I have a straight one but I'll need those curved one. I don't want to have a Wall-wide cabinet lol

Since I'll have a cabinet I think I'll make it lockable for security. What the heck!

I could go overboard and make it so it keeps the inside at a temperature between 14 and 24 Celsius but I'm not too sure about heating system in a wooden box if you know what I mean....

If it were me, I'd probably make sure it was easy to access, since I don't want it to be a pain to get/put away my axes. Thus, no sliding doors, etc. I'd probably also put a window, so I can admire them when they're all hung up.

thats an interresting thread .. i´m goin to ask my luthier what he has to say about this. i personally have never had a problem with humidity. at least not to an extent where the guitars get out of tune. infact i dont have to retune my guitars at all even after weeks. the temperature in the room where my guitars are fluctuates between 25-28 C in summer to 21-24 C in winter. but most of the time it is about 23 C. outside the temp varies from 50°C to -25°C

We probably have the same kind of climate as where you are, Azrael, but I totally understand Benoit's problems. Even in Toronto, which is southern Ontario, probably a good 5-6 hours south of Benoit, the humidity changes are crazy from summer to winter. In the summer, it's nothing but humidity. In the winter, everything gets soooo dry from the lack of humidity + heating. I'm always worried about my axes getting warped from the season changes, and I can feel the action change from summer to winter on my acoustic.