Humidity Question

[StoneLove]

Hey All,
I've recently set up a humidified "shop" in my spare bedroom where I plan to build my first kit guitar. I keep it from 45%-50% RH. I live in Arizona where it is very very dry.

Here is my question: Since I have set up my work area and acquired some of the necessary tools to build/repair my own guitars, my uncle and brother have asked me to make some minor repairs and set up some of their acoustic guitars. If I bring their guitars into my humidified work room (45-50% RH) do I need to wait a few days before I begin working on them to acclimate to the room humidity? Do I wait a week? Two weeks?

I'm wondering what other shops do when they bring in a guitar for repair. One of these guitars is my Uncle's main rig and I'm not sure if he wants it out of his hands for weeks at a time. How do other shops handle acclimating customers guitars and time frame for repairs? Thanks for the advice!

[tippie53]

work on the guitar in the RH it is used to. If you keep it in a case at 45% the your shop is fine

[StoneLove]

Thanks for the reply, John. So if the guitar has no been properly humidified I will want to allow sometime to acclimate to proper humidity before doing repairs on it? And after repair is done, put it in a case that is properly humidified? Thanks again!

[tippie53]

to a degree you want the guitar aclimated to its environment

[ruby@magpage.com]

I have no experience in dry climates, but it seems as though you should repair the guitar in the same RH that it lives in. If the guitar is not humidified and is OK, then repair it not humidified??

Ed

[Danl8]

If the guitar is going back to a dry environment, the now humidified wood will go back to its 'native' state, so plan for the expected change. If the repair is small, it might not matter whereas, for example, a significant patch to the top might be better made in a drier setting. I used to build in upstate New York and Illinois mostly in winter at 10-20% RH. The few instruments I have from that period do ok in the dripping mid-Atlantic weather here and have gone back to 20%RH dozens of times without harm. I am certain that taking that beautiful Blues Creek D~43 would not fare well going the other direction, however.