How do you store your guitars?

[Alexey Korobko]

Hi, this is my first real topic here, so, please, excuse me if I do something wrong.

I live in South California closer to the desert, so, humidity here is really bad (9% at winter at the moment). Because of the I store my guitar in case with humidifier in the sound hole. I play daily and keep guitar case laying on the floor all the time.
Now I am getting one more guitar. Having two guitar cases laying on the floor will make it little bit more complicated.So, I have started thinking about some kind of guitar cabinet. Here are the questions.

1. Do you use it and if so, what is that (picture or link would be great)?
2. How is it humidified inside the cabinet - it is built in humidifier or some additional device?

I am actually considering making that cabinet myself. But if I do, which humidifier should I use? Maybe it does not worth an effort...

Sorry for so many questions. I will share the results, if I build it and it will actually work

[Mike Atkinson]

Buy a humidifier for the room.
Buy a hygrometer for the room.
And keep the humidifier in your soundhole. Lean the cases against the wall

I keep my current, rather inexpensive guitar, on a stand, all day, everyday. Right now, the Hygrometer says the room is at 43% humidity. That's pretty high for February. But, I'll take it. It was well above freezing today. When it is very cold, the room gets down to 30%.

My $0.02 offered for free.

[spanishguitarmusic]

I live in Canada so the humidity isn't a problem here at all, maybe only a bit for a few really humid weeks in the summer. I only store my guitar in the case without any humidifier and keep it in the closet of my room.

[Alexey Korobko]

Buy a humidifier for the room.
Buy a hygrometer for the room.
And keep the humidifier in your soundhole. Lean the cases against the wall

I am planning to install whole house humidifier next year. I cannot have my room closed all day long - so, here is why central humidifier. But even with that, it works only when heating is on. So, not sure what to do in summer.

Did you have an experience with cabinets?

[Scott Phillips]

It’s been my experience that cabinets typically don’t have a good seal, but that shouldn’t be a problem if you use a room humidifier. There was a forum member here that had a display case for her expensive luthier built guitar, and it wound up with a crack in the top. New England in winter time with central heating. I just keep mine in its humicase. No problems. I can’t control the humidity very well in the house. Right now the indoor humidity is 34%. And it’s going to go lower as it is supposed to get down to 22 degrees tonight.

[mcote]

I keep both of mine on stands (in a side room where I practice) with a freestanding humidifier in the winter (I live in New York) and a room air conditioner in the summer. It has worked very well for me but I have to mess around with the humidifier a bit every day, adding water, making sure the filter is damp, etc. I also have an inexpensive hygrometer in that room to monitor the humidity.

[FirminArchambault]

Beside my guitars, I also have wood for building guitars in my apartment. In Japan, during winter the humidity goes down to 15-20% and in summer it goes up to 80%. Probably the conditions I have are similar to yours. Since I also have wood, I try to control the humidity in the whole apartment instead of just in the guitar boxes.

1) I bought one 2 hygrometers one digital and one analogue. I bought humidifiers that are in the mid-range price (maybe around 50 US$) because they have 2% humidity accuracy in worst case which is quite sufficient. If you go for cheaper one, they may have up to 5-10 or more % accuracy, I did not feel comfortable with such accuracy. I bought 2 humidifiers because, I feel safer to have 2 distinct measures from different instruments. The digital is like a big pen takes measure in 3 seconds, it is convenient to measure in several rooms or in the guitar box the humidity. The analog one takes several minutes measure.

2) I bought a professional humidifier with a tank of 6 l (it cost me around 250 US$) . I set it up to 60% humidity and have an a humidity that ranges from 40% humidity when it is colder to 60% when it is warmer. The advantage of the 6 l tank is that I can humidify a 40-50 square meters surface, and just add water 2 times a day at morning and at night. When I had smaller humidifiers, I would have to change the water every 3 hours which was very inconvenient. I would suggest not using air conditioning to warm up a room in dry season, because it drastically drains water

3) In summer humid season, air conditioning on dry mode is sufficient to keep humidity from 55% to 60%.

4) As a personal taste I like my guitars I like them to breathe so I open slightly the boxes so that the humidity can circulate. By leaving the guitar boxes slightly open, I feel safe because I know that the humidity of the room is the same as the humidity of the guitars.
I hope this helps, if you need more details or help. Feel free to contact me.

[soufiej]

http://www.classicalguitardelcamp.com/v ... 1&t=117395

[Rasputin]

I am actually considering making that cabinet myself.

I think you may be able to use the body of the guitar as the cabinet, by using the type of humidifier that closes the soundhole off. What's not clear is how effectively the moisture can get into the the heel and neck, and especially the bridge and fingerboard, where there is glue in the way. A lot depends on how much hassle you can put up with. For me, sticking the guitar back in the case - and putting the case away on days when I am having feng shui issues - is not that much less hassle than putting it in a cabinet. Mostly - like you - the case would end up lying around on the floor, which is not the best look, and for this reason the soundhole humidifier is the way forward for me. That said, I am not expecting to have to contend with 9% RH, that is pretty extreme...

[Alexey Korobko]

Thank you for all the answers. I will try room humidifier, but I guess, the safest option is still keeping guitars in case with humidifier inserted into sound hole.

[albert-canuck]

My guitars are now on a guitar stand in a large room that has a small humidifier. I also have a couple of large aquariums that help but the rh is still in the mid 30% range at 22 C which is a little low. In the summer the humidity is in the mid 50% range. I should buy another humidifier to help out in the winter. I like to keep the guitars on an open rack as it is so much more convenient to just grab a guitar. Plus I love the look of them.

Here is a pic with my new flamenco guitar added to the collection. The small humidifier is on the glass topped end table.

[Alexey Korobko]

My guitars are now on a guitar stand ...

That is a great collection!

[Contreras]

Just wondering about the thinking around the position of the cases, as in 'lying on the floor' (can't fall anywhere I suppose) or 'propped against the wall'. Is it purely a matter of what's convenient?
Personally, mine are always in their cases unless I'm playing, re-stringing etc. Don't trust stands at all.

[albert-canuck]

My guitars are now on a guitar stand ...

That is a great collection!

Thanks. I am going to retire next year so I am looking forward to much playing.

[BellyDoc]

I thought like you do. I built a cabinet and I'm very happy with the degree of stability I have, in terms of humidity control.

It's no small deal though. You'll want something big enough to hold some guitars, it's got to be pretty well sealed up and you probably want some glass in the doors so that you can see your instruments, but that's up to you.

My humidity control is a bucket of saturated potassium carbonate solution. Interior humidity is really stable at about 43%

Sealed cabinets with built in humidity controls are commercially made, but they're not cheap. If you're already tooled up to the level where you can build custom cabinets from hardwood, then there's no doubt you can save some significant money. If you're moderately or lightly tooled up for wood work and you want to try to go the DIY route by modifying some sort of existing cabinetry, then you could end up sinking a lot of money into this if you're not careful... or even if you are! There are tons of pitfalls. Basically you're going to turn a cabinet into a boat.