It’s not a canoe paddle!

theDeepender

Yup…
Joined
Aug 6, 2022
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I’m guessing that this isn’t as much of an issue with PRS owners, but I still see this every now and then. When I finished restoring a buddy’s yard sale guitar, I gave him the standard lecture. “That’s a musical instrument; not a canoe paddle. You can’t just keep it in your car. You’ve got to protect it from temperature and humidity changes. If not, all of a sudden it’s not going to play as nice, or frets will start popping.” He looked at me like I’d told him his hair was on fire. Why is it that people think that, just because it’s a solid body, you can just toss it in a trunk and leave it there until the next gig.
 
Treat ‘em like they’re toddlers.:)
My wife gets jealous of the way I treat my guitars. Since I also work on guitars a bit, I often see the effects of neglect and I am perhaps a bit overly cautious. If it’s cold, or the temperature inside my car could get hot, I won’t leave my guitar in the car long enough for a meal, or for a visit with family. I’m either going to make the trip home to drop off the guitar, or it’s going in to the restaurant or relative’s home with me. (And I’ve done both) My wife says, “I know you can’t leave your precious guitar in the car”.
 
A guitar can literally fall apart in a hot car. Yet to experience it but have been told the story. Glue loses it.

I have a friend on the way to a gig and lowered rear passenger window to vent for some reason, and took a left and his bass (in a case) flew out the window skidded across the intersection and slammed into the curb.

It was a Modulus bass, and we and Modulus support were not surprised it was totally fine..Bass and case!

My point is even the car travel can be dangerous to a guitar.
 
Ehhh.. I mean, if you’re a traveling musician or touring at all you have to leave ‘em somewhere.

My first PRS has seen pretty much every weather condition in every state of the continental US, and it’s fine.

It’s been in airplane cargo holds, flipped trailers, postal trucks, boats, and even a gondola a couple times.. it’s fine.

Sometimes my PRS has sat in a trailer overnight In freezing conditions and then pulled out of its case and used in a hot and sweaty club, only to be wiped down, put back in its case and thrown back into a cold @ss trailer. There was no waiting 24 hours for it to acclimate to room temperature.


I get what OP was saying, and yeah, you gotta take care of your gear but,.. it’s a guitar, not a case of explosives.

And in my experience, the most dangerous place for a guitar has been on a stand in my house.
 
Ehhh.. I mean, if you’re a traveling musician or touring at all you have to leave ‘em somewhere.

My first PRS has seen pretty much every weather condition in every state of the continental US, and it’s fine.

It’s been in airplane cargo holds, flipped trailers, postal trucks, boats, and even a gondola a couple times.. it’s fine.

Sometimes my PRS has sat in a trailer overnight In freezing conditions and then pulled out of its case and used in a hot and sweaty club, only to be wiped down, put back in its case and thrown back into a cold @ss trailer. There was no waiting 24 hours for it to acclimate to room temperature.


I get what OP was saying, and yeah, you gotta take care of your gear but,.. it’s a guitar, not a case of explosives.

And in my experience, the most dangerous place for a guitar has been on a stand in my house.
You beat me to it. I've done the same thing where it's negative outside. You show up later than expected for some reason after a 12-16 hour drive. All you have time for is a line check so it's straight out of the case to the stage.

I've also been to the other extreme where it's 110+ outside with another 10+ hour ride and go straight inside for soundcheck.

Guitars are surprisingly resilient if they're made well.
 
In college I had the good fortune to attend a Carol Kaye seminar and after I carried Carol's gear to her car, she opened the trunk and it was full of guitars and basses. Carol warned me to stay away from 1970's Ibanez guitars as the glue couldn't withstand the temps in her trunk and they fell apart.
 
I've decided that guitars aren't worth taking care of.

"You also apparently think your own body isn't worth taking care of."

"Well, I got my body for free. It's not like I'm going to screw up the investment at this point, right? When I'm dead, my body's not gonna be worth much. And when I'm dead, I won't even be able to care about my guitars. So there's no point in taking care of them at all."

"You used to feel differently."

"The folly of youth."

"I saw that you did a string change on a couple of guitars in the past week."

"Every so often, I go insane."
 
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