FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

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Question:
I own an acoustic guitar, and one day while shopping I found a ``guitar humidifier''. Then I recalled I once saw this word on the ng, but didn't pay attention. Now I wonder: what is it?  Does my guitar need to humidified? Never heard that before. Any of you can help me? I'm just curious... why is it so imperative for an acoustical guitar to stay at that level of humidity?

Answer:
With an electric, it's a good idea to try and keep the guitar in a humidity range of 45 - 70 percent.  But with an acoustic guitar, it's *critical* to keep it in that range. Case humidifiers (or whole-house humidifiers, if your home has one) work fine, but you'll also need a hygrometer to hang on the wall near where you store your guitar. The digital type is the most accurate. One word:  humidity.  Wood never completely - or at least never *should* completely - dry out.  Even well-seasoned timber for burning in wood stoves, etc, has a moisture content of about 23%.  And speaking of firewoood . . . Have you ever seen the end of a piece of fresh-cut firewood?  Looks exactly like what it is:  A fresh cut piece of tree or tree limb.  Stack it up, and let it sit outside for a few months, and you'll see that it has cracked into a wheel spokes pattern all the way around.  The wood is drying out. Acoustic guitars are made of very *THIN* wood, which is about as dry as it should ever get the day you buy it.  It also has tremendous stresses on itself because of the strings.  Get it used to 50% relative humidity for many months (which is fine with the guitar), and then let it drop to 18% humidity over two weeks at the beginning of the heating season; that guitar will *crack* - no question of it.  Also, the bridge could pull up, the neck joint loosen, the neck angle change, and on and on.  And THAT'S why it's so critical to exercise a bit of control over the guitar's environment. It's not like keeping watch over it like it's in intensive care or anything, but you have to guard against too little humidity in the air near it.