Guitar humidifier

There's a Westinghouse dehumidifier in the $200 range that has worked well for me.
Evaporative humidifier if you have high mineral content water.

-tommy

[Ben-Had]

Since you're in a basement you may be ok with adequate humidity depending on how well it's sealed. I firmly believe that most hardware store type hygrometers are not accurate...digital or analog. There are better options. Google "Wet Bulb Hygrometer" and put one together. You'll need small fan, an accurate bulb style thermometer, a piece of cotton shoestring and a little water. Take a dry bulb temp followed by a wet bulb temp. Snip a few inches of cotton shoe string and slip it over the thermometer bulb. Dampen it with water and blow the fan on it until the temp has stabilized. Use a wetbulb chart and plot the humidity. The cooler the wet bulb, the drier the air. That will give you a snapshot of the precise amount of humidity to compare against your digital meter readout. After this you know how much to compensate your digital hygrometer.

I used to use a wet/dry bulb in the military to monitor humidity during field exercises to ensure troop safety. Just my opinion but I think the new digitals are so close the extra effort isn't worth it.

[watergunn]

Sounds like a great science experiement.

I was in the Army in artillery for 12 years.

I remember the "CAT" wet bulb warnings we had in the summers.

It always seemed hotter in the woods than in town.

[watergunn]

Just wanted to give you all an update and a warning about RH!!!

I had two guitars that actually got so dry that the tops appeared to have ripples on them and the lacquer actually cracked right down the center of each.

I followed john Halls advice and put a small cup of water ineach and over several days they returned to normal.

In the meantime I purchased a large humidifer and it has run now for several days. The humidity is now at 50%.

The guitars that had not cracked all shows signs of top shinkage. You could actually see the ripples on the grain in the tops.

Over the course of several days all are back to normal and glass top smooth.

I learned my lesson about RH the hard way!!

Please pay attention to it. I thought it was no big deal.

LESSON LEARNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tippie53]

we often have to burn our butt and sit on the blister . We all learn more from mistakes than success