SE Hollowbody IIs and humidity

[Hotspur]

I live in Los Angeles, so the humidity rarely gets THAT low, but it's been in the 30s all day today and has dipped (very briefly) as low as 25 a few days ago.

For my acoustic, I have a sound hole humidifier - one of the little sponge things in a plastic hanger.

I generally don't worry about my solid-body electrics (SE Chris Robertson and a partscaster Strat.)

I'm not sure how concerned to be about my SE HBii. I know laminate guitars are less susceptible to humidity changes than solid wood ones, but should I be looking for some sort of humid pack for it? (Obviously, the same sort of thing I have for my acoustic won't work). I'm getting a new multi-guitar stand (no dogs or toddlers in the house) and am considering if it's okay to leave the HB out of it's case.

Would love to hear people's thoughts about all this.

 

[veinbuster]

A few days at a time with 30 humidity isn’t going to do a PRS hollowbody any harm. I might case it when I knew humidity was going to be low for a spell.

 

[Doug B]

I don't let mine get below 40%.

 

[Hotspur]

I don't let mine get below 40%.

What's your humidification solution?

 

[dogrocketp]

You should be ok with the SE. my guitars are never out on display. I also keep my other tools in their toolboxes.

 

[RallyFanatic]

SEs are laminated with a block under the bridge, they won’t be affected like an acoustic in terms of having the bridge sink or the body crack. But any guitar, solid or otherwise, will exhibit adverse effects from prolonged exposure to very low or high humidity in terms of tuning stability or developing sharp fret ends, etc.

In LA I think you’ll be fine but if you wanted to take an extra step Oasis make a humidifier that clips inside the case near the headstock, similar to the ones that go in an acoustic sound hole. Or get a room humidifier and be prepared to clean it diligently.

 

[Daryl Jones]

Humidity is a bit of a worry for me. In the winter I can control my current room with a small humidifier as long as we're home on our regular schedule with work etc. Summer is usually ok since it stays around 40-50% with no assistance; we seldom need to run the a/c during summer (we use just a couple small room units) in our local climate, except for last summer but that was just way out there, so the moisture extractors don't really factor in much. But during winter with the heat on full bore constantly (-30 to -40*c isn't uncommon around here) running full bore every day, it's virtually impossible to keep the whole house at anywhere in the 30% range. We have radiant heating and a wood burner so no forced air with a ducted humidifier system to help balance the humidity. With no trips in the near future given current travel issues all is well. But if we ever do get to head for the Caribbean again for some diving for a couple weeks, that is a worry. Not a problem if we were to have a house sitter while gone, but that's not always an option. When I only had a couple guitars I could case them and they were fine, but I don't have enough cases for each one to store them for weeks on end, and then there's always the extra room required for more cases/gear. I've already resigned myself to setting up a music room in the basement in the near future to free up the spare room again, but that still doesn't solve the humidity factor...

 

[Doug B]

What's your humidification solution?

I’ve got 2 single-gallon cool mist humidifiers.