To hang, or not to hang?

[littlebadboy]

To hang it, or not? I live in the Midwest, where the four seasons bring extreme weather conditions, with humidity as low as 22% in winter. My wife doesn't want to use a whole-house humidifier anymore because she's worried it may cause mold in the attic again. I'm thinking of removing my guitars from their cases and hanging them on the wall year-round for easy access; is this a good idea?

 

[Alnus Rubra]

To hang it, or not? I live in the Midwest, where the four seasons bring extreme weather conditions, with humidity as low as 22% in winter. My wife doesn't want to use a whole-house humidifier anymore because she's worried it may cause mold in the attic again. I'm thinking of removing my guitars from their cases and hanging them on the wall year-round for easy access; is this a good idea?

I used to, but for all the time it takes to remove them from a case, I don’t any more.

But that’s just me.

You do you brother. Just take care of Darth Paul.

 

[deathworlder]

22% can damage your home...
There is or was something else going on with your attic.
Spray foam insulation?

 

[veinbuster]

To hang it, or not? I live in the Midwest, where the four seasons bring extreme weather conditions, with humidity as low as 22% in winter. My wife doesn't want to use a whole-house humidifier anymore because she's worried it may cause mold in the attic again. I'm thinking of removing my guitars from their cases and hanging them on the wall year-round for easy access; is this a good idea?

I wouldn’t, particularly acoustics.

 

[littlebadboy]

22% can damage your home...
There is or was something else going on with your attic.
Spray foam insulation?

Because we had molds on the roof boards, we had it treated professionally. We lacked insulation, so they also added Blown-In Fiberglass Insulation as it had almost nothing. It's a 1950s built house that we bought a few years ago after COVID.

 

[deathworlder]

Because we had molds on the roof boards, we had it treated professionally. We lacked insulation, so they also added Blown-In Fiberglass Insulation as it had almost nothing. It's a 1950s built house that we bought a few years ago after COVID.

Sounds like you had a roof leak?

Hope they put a ventilation channel between the wood and insulation...

Insurance companies won't insure if they are aware...it traps moisture and causes mold.

Edit-nvm, missed the "fiberglass" part

 

[bodia]

I’m in suburban Chicago and hang all of mine. Four are in an upstairs bedroom, and seven are in the basement. I run a humidifier in the basement, and one in our master bedroom, but not the bedroom with the guitars. As for the humidity, the lowest I’ve had this year in the basement was 41 and the bedroom was 46.

 

[Senor Verde]

I live in Mineapolis and hang mine 24/7. No issues ever, although non of mine are acoustics.

 

[JasonE]

I used to live in NW Ohio. I had a few guitars out all the time and the rest in their cases. I had a humidifier on my furnace for the house. Even with that my humidity would still get lower than I wanted it to be. I had a stand alone humidifier in my music room to supplement the one on the furnace. I never had any issues.

 

[Moondog Wily]

I am a case man myself! I use the Boveda humidity/de-humidity packs in each case. One in each electric guitar case, two in each acoustic guitar case. Hanging them on the wall may provide convenience, but it also exposes them to elements beyond humidity like dust and light exposure. In my perfect world, humidity controlled studio with no outside light. Best to you and your babies whatever you choose!

 

[Floyd_Argus]

Anytime the humidity drops below 40 percent and you're **not** running a humidifier to correct for that, your guitars are at risk. Fret sprout, cracks at the neck joint, bridges lifting up on acoustics, etc.

 

[ruger9]

I hang mine, have for 20 years now. Northeast (NJ) so I get cold winters, humid summers. They aren't hanging OVER a baseboard radiator, that's the only no-no I would think. String Swings. I trust them 100%. But I also know how to hang heavy things: you either get a stud, or you hang a ledger board (hitting all the studs) then hang the guitars off that. I have T&G wood walls with plywood behind, so I could drill anywhere.

 

[TheCraftsman]

Out of sight out of mind, if you can simply grab the guitar you’ll play it more, at the end of the day that’s what they’re for

 

[László]

Here's the condensed version of my usual rant:

Hanging guitars can do them no good things, but several bad things:

1. Neck bowing;

2. dry/shrunk fretboards;

3. fret sprout;

4. dust and cooking oil accumulation in electronics (cooking oils permeate a house which is why lots of dust accumulation gets gummy).

Casing them with the humidipaks that Moondog uses is what I do, too. Humidipaks both release moisture in winter and absorb moisture in summer by chemical magic, and they don't leak. A single 45% pad is all you need in each case for this approach to work. PRS keeps its factory at 45% RH, by the way (I asked).

This does a few good things, especially in winter:

1. A case buffers changes in humidity and temperature that occur in every home to keep setups much longer and reduces neck bowing;

2. Keeps the guitar from accumulating dusty goo;

3. Keeps the wood in good shape and prevents fret sprout.

I live in Michigan where it's hella cold in winter and muggy in summer. I spent a lot on my guitars, so I take care of them.

My guitars have not needed a setup since 2012 (I started casing them with humidipaks in 2013 if memory serves). I have one from 2013, one from 2014, one from 2023, and one from 2024. The 2013 is a PS acoustic. The 2014 is a PS McCarty Singlecut.

Did I mention that none of my guitars has ever needed a setup in 12 years? Jack Gretz set them up from brand new, and that's how they stayed.

They stay perfect. They look brand new. The pots aren't scratchy. I play them just as often as when I kept them out on stands back in the day. But they stayed nicer and I don't have to have them set up 2-3 times a year.

Oh, one more thing: Booger-eating morons with pizza grease or god-knows-what-else on their fingers keep their hands off your guitars (who even knows where their hands have been!) and can't ding them doing stupid things. You get to ding them doing stupid things all by yourself!

It's your money, they're your instruments, so it's not my call. Just making a recommendation here.

 

[Abe]

Without any apparent mold problems in this house I personally made my way to now having them mostly all out and racked and hung most the time. A nylon, an acoustic, a 12 strings acoustic, 3 PRS electrics, then there are more than a dozen other guitars and basses in this house. My brother doesn't fuss over the humidity his are kept at on the first floor with mostly solidbodies, but I do upstairs here with more acoustics and all my electrics being hollowbodies or semihollow. Find myself liking the relief and action dialed in while at 45%-55% RH and kept at that humidity as much as possible. It really saves some time for me in a couple ways. 1.) It looks like I might reduce the times per year I'm tweaking truss rods, and 2.) I'm just more likely to play a bit more guitar more often when they are out and within reach.

I wouldn't do this if the humidity was swinging around too much but my setup seems to be working. Perhaps in the summertime my humidifier can compete well with the air conditioner as well as it currently is with the winter heating.

I do have Boveda humidity packs for their time spent in their cases at home or while being transported as well.

Of course there's always a reason one might want to have every axe in a case unless playing. Airborne contamination, cat urine, projectile vomit. LoL. We never know.

 

[Floyd_Argus]

Here's the condensed version of my usual rant:

Hanging guitars can do them no good things, but several bad things:

1. Neck bowing;

2. dry/shrunk fretboards;

3. fret sprout;

4. dust and cooking oil accumulation in electronics (cooking oils permeate a house which is why lots of dust accumulation gets gummy).

Casing them with the humidipaks that Moondog uses is what I do, too. Humidipaks both release moisture in winter and absorb moisture in summer by chemical magic, and they don't leak. A single 45% pad is all you need in each case for this approach to work. PRS keeps its factory at 45% RH, by the way (I asked).

This does a few good things, especially in winter:

1. A case buffers changes in humidity and temperature that occur in every home to keep setups much longer and reduces neck bowing;

2. Keeps the guitar from accumulating dusty goo;

3. Keeps the wood in good shape and prevents fret sprout.

I live in Michigan where it's hella cold in winter and muggy in summer. I spent a lot on my guitars, so I take care of them.

My guitars have not needed a setup since 2012 (I started casing them with humidipaks in 2013 if memory serves). I have one from 2013, one from 2014, one from 2023, and one from 2024. The 2013 is a PS acoustic. The 2014 is a PS McCarty Singlecut.

Did I mention that none of my guitars has ever needed a setup in 12 years? Jack Gretz set them up from brand new, and that's how they stayed.

They stay perfect. They look brand new. The pots aren't scratchy. I play them just as often as when I kept them out on stands back in the day. But they stayed nicer and I don't have to have them set up 2-3 times a year.

Oh, one more thing: Booger-eating morons with pizza grease or god-knows-what-else on their fingers keep their hands off your guitars (who even knows where their hands have been!) and can't ding them doing stupid things. You get to ding them doing stupid things all by yourself!

It's your money, they're your instruments, so it's not my call. Just making a recommendation here.

I agree with alot of this. The one aspect where I differ, is instead of having to invest in humidipaks for each guitar and check and maintain the water level in each of them, I run a single room humidifier unit. Only one humidifier unit to have to check and maintain. The additional benefit is that that my sinuses and my health also get to benefit from that properly humidified air, not just the guitars. My sinuses are kept from drying out and getting irritated during winter months, and I am preventing the possibility of the flu virus from proliferating in my music room because the flu virus actually disintegrates in air where the humidity level is maintained at 45 degrees or above. For that reason, I also run a larger humidifier in my living quarters downstairs.

 

[Rider1260]

I have a whole house humidifier and the best it can do is 25% and that causes window icing in freezing weather , yes I could get new windows but that cuts into guitar money.
I have for decades hung my guitars and years ago I just adjusted the guitars twice a year and a hit of fretboard oil yearly.
The last 10 years I have been keeping my basement in a ballpark humidity between 40-50% and the PRS and my accoustic seem very happy with that , if I cased my guitars I would likely not play as much and frankly I just like looking at them.
A whole house humidifier will not cause mold in your attic but it also will not get you to the humidity a guitar likes, If you have a guitar space humidify and dehumidify that room IMHO
and lastly I have seen more poorly stored in cased ( most folks don't care like Les ) guitars with neck bowing ( likely not as big of an issue with guitars with double acting truss rods ) Those guitars stored under beds and such. If you case them store them vertically or on there side not flat.

 

[László]

I agree with alot of this. The one aspect where I differ, is instead of having to invest in humidipaks for each guitar and check and maintain the water level in each of them, I run a single room humidifier unit.

That works great, too.

I use the humidipak simply to avoid having to fill a room humidifier and clean it. My whole house humidifier doesn't work as well as a room humidifier.

 

[DISTORT6]