Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Time to humidify

#21

I’ve noticed lately that my wal-mart special hygrometer has been reading rather low lately (30% steady for about a week) even with a dampit in the soundhole of my guitar. I remoisten it about every three days by the way. It’s been pretty cold here, the wood burner is going everyday along with the furnace running and we live in an old farmhouse up on a hill with alot of wind. So… I thought I’d try the half an apple test and see what readings I’d get. I was shocked! :open_mouth: In about a twenty four hour period it went from 30% to 53% with the half apple along with the dampit. I also noticed that within just a couple minutes of opening the case it will go from 53% to 44% just from letting the house air into the case. I may have to drop back to just a slice instead of a half.

How 'bout them apples?! :slight_smile:

J.W.

#22

How about them apples indeed!
Another thing that can help: When you take a shower, don’t turn on the exhaust fan. I usually see a bump of about 5% on that end of the house when I do that.

#23

I had my D18 GE sitting out of it’s case at the end of the house away from the humidifier for a few days (I think it was 3). Humidity was reading around 35 in that room. This is similar conditions where I had left other guitars sitting out for several days with no noticeable effect. However, on the GE, it’s top had dropped enough to where the belly was about even with the edges of the guitar. That is to say, a straight edge place just below the bridge did not rock. I have since kept it on the more humid end of the house and kept the case humidification going. After three or four days, there is a bit of belly, but it’s not quite back up where I like it. Why did that guitar sink in the same conditions that didn’t affect others similarly? I don’t know. Maybe adirondack is more prone to shrinking. Maybe my other guitars are already drier. Regardless, I figured I’d post that not all guitars react to humidity the same way.

As a side note, the GE sounded really good with it dried out like that. Maybe they sound best a bit drier than “ideal.”

#24

That’s interesting.

It could be the lighter bracing or the position of the bracing being an inch below the soundhole ( I think that’s correct on a Golden Era). That would cause the bridge area to be weaker giving the string tension more leverage against the bridge. But after I read what I just wrote, I would think that would cause it to belly more. Maybe it is the Adirondack. I dunno, I’m glad you caught it before it got worse.

Did you get any string buzz? That would lower the action some I would think.

My house is so dry, I’ll play one for awhile and put it back in it’s case and get another one out and play it. That keeps them in the humidification and not be exposed too long. It seems to be working, I haven’t seen any noticable changes in them all winter and this has been a rough one.

J.W.

#25

It did lower the action a bit. The strings were approaching getting buzzy, but not enough to where it bothered me. I measured the action today (after the top had come back up a bit), and the difference at the 12th fret wasn’t really measurable to my eye. Anyway, it played and sounded wonderful, but it was headed in a structurally bad direction.

As far as the effect of the bracing position, that could well be the culprit and I didn’t think of that. It does seem kind of counter-intuitive that as it dries, it sunk. The way I think of it is that the top (and bracing) pull back tighter as they shrink (which in turn creates more opposition to the string tension thereby reducing belly). Hey, I just had a great idea. If I dry out my back, will that give me six pack abs?

#26

My head now hurts from reading this thread.

There was some sort of ADD-yet-staying-on-topic ju-ju going on that is perplexing me as I’m not even sure it’s plausible.

#27

I hear ya! I can’t even enjoy an apple anymore. Always wanting to save half…. John

#28

I took a half an apple away from my 3-year old last night and put it in my banjo case. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more confused look on her face.

#29

Hey guys and gals, get the case humidifiers going, steal a half an apple from your confused toddlers and fill up the humidifiers. The airmass moving across the US is one of the driest of the winter (and we’ve had quite a few dry ones this season). At a jam tonight we noticed a small neck block crack on a friend’s gorgeous bearclaw top :cry:

#30

It’s time for my regularly scheduled humidity warning. I got my humidifier fired up for the first time since spring. The latest front dropped it quite a bit.

#31

Yep, put new filters in mine and have it on standby! Fired up the heater and started burning wood a couple of weeks ago.

#32

Got all my sponges ready to go! It was 70 and sunny on Tuesday. Supposed to be a high of 40 on Friday and possible snow on Sunday.

If everything goes as planned the next couple days, I may need to buy one more sponge. GAS is a terrible thing. :smiley:

#33

Whatcha getting Shawn?

Maybe he/she could throw in a sponge into the deal? :smiley:

#34

I’m supposed to meet Buck (Todd from UMGF) Saturday to buy his '06 D18A. I just can’t hold off on these any longer. :slight_smile:

#35

I have looked at that one on buy/sell a few times. Looks about perfect. I hope you dig it!

#36

Thanks Mike. I’m pretty excited! This will be the first one I’ve played.

#37

Hey Shawn… To paraphrase an old “Boy’s Life” joke:
How do you keep a turkey in suspense? Tell us forum members you are going to look at a D18A and then don’t post for a few days :smiley:

#38

Yeah Shawn, what’s up with that anyway. We “turkeys” would like to know the rest of the story!

J.W.

#39

Sorry about that guys! :laughing:

I brought her home with me! I’ve been playing the crap out of it the last two days. It’s sounds pretty darn good although it feels a little stiff like my D28 did when it was new. Even though it is 8 years old I don’t think it’s been played a lot, or at least not played with a heavy right hand. When I play it pretty hard for over an hour, I can feel it starting to come alive and developing a whole other level of sound/tone. I’m guessing it has a pretty stiff piece of Adi as it’s pretty tight and even grained. Sounds great capoed, just rings like a bell. It has some fairly new strings on it so I still hear alot of “new string zing” so it’s hard to really hear the guitars real tone.

This guitar has a lot of hype to live up to in my mind and I’m not going to give it a pass on rep alone. I am totally happy with it as it is, but I just know it has more to give, I can feel/hear it at times. Only time will tell.

Getting a picture together…

#40

Sorry if these are too big.

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0447_1_zpsc48a3a0f.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0447_1_zpsc48a3a0f.jpg

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0454_1_zpsdccaf4b4.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0454_1_zpsdccaf4b4.jpg

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0448_1_zpsfc1d6b4c.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0448_1_zpsfc1d6b4c.jpg