Warnings In The Wood - Signs That Your Guitar Needs Humidification & Attention
While we’ve touched on how to properly care for your guitars, now we’ll discuss the warning signs that signal intervention or repair might be imminent for your guitars.
There are some simple ways you can tell if your guitars are in need of repair or attention due to being “too dry”. You won’t need any expensive tools, and in some cases you won’t need any tools at all other than your own hands - and maybe a careful eye for details! Let us outline a few aspects of your instruments to look at and evaluate if your guitar needs a little rescuing.
Listen. Start with the most basic aspect of your guitar and strum it for a few minutes. If it sounds fine, then you can relax for a bit until the next steps. If everything sounds like a buzzy mess (nothing but unclear notes, fret buzz, etc) then attention is most likely needed. When guitars start to dry out, two major areas get affected: the neck and the body. On acoustic guitars, the body reacts more dramatically than on a solid body electric guitar since acoustic guitars are made of thinly milled tone woods.If your acoustic guitar has dried out, the top will “sink” or begin to cave in. When this action happens, the bridge & saddle will lower resulting in a reduction of action/string height. This will inevitably create fret buzz.
Necks (in general) move in a similar fashion across the gamut. When a neck dries out, the wood will contract and the truss will overcompensate causing a back-bow and further reduction in proper action. Once the back-bow is great enough the first few fret positions will be nearly unplayable resulting in choked notes and buzz.
Feel. So we’ve listened to our guitars and maybe there was buzz, or maybe not. The next thing you should immediately take note of is the feel of the neck and fingerboard. Quickly run the palm of your hand up the sides of the fingerboard and take note of the surface. It should feel smooth and comfortable to the touch. If you felt a sharp scrape up the entire length of the board, then dryness has reared its head! The more the wood dries out, the more it constricts exposing the fret edges and tangs that were once flush with the properly humidified surfaces. This warning sign is extremely common and is actually confused for poor fretwork from manufacturers. So many instruments are given bad reviews due to improper warehouse storage or owner negligence when it is simply a matter of bringing the guitar back to its proper level of humidity.
Look. This can get tricky, but instead of having you try and assess the back bow in the neck or if the top of your acoustic is sinking I want you to focus on the bigger warning signs that you can easily spot without any serious training. Take a look at your fingerboard. Is it chalky gray in color where it was once a rich brown hue? Are there any cracks that you never noticed before in the fingerboard grain? If so, you need humidity intervention.
Electric guitar bodies may exhibit splitting or rippling in the finished surfaces due to the constricting woods beneath. Likewise acoustic guitars will have a similar rippling effect (like a ruffle potato chip) when extremely dried out. But the worst signs of under-humidification are cracks. A fresh split in any surface of your guitar is a big warning sign of severe dryness, and no crack should be ignored. Additionally, the glued down bridge of your guitar might begin to lift from the body (either from the edges or the center). You might not be able to see this without the use of a simple household tool - a piece of paper. If you can slide a sheet of copy paper under any part of your guitar’s bridge, then separation has begun and it might only be a matter of time before it begins to pull off completely.
None of these symptoms are death sentences for your instruments. It’s important to observe any change in your guitar’s look, feel, and sound and contact a professional to remedy the issues at hand. It could be as simple of a solution as a seasonal setup and the sale of a humidification system, or maybe a recommendation of how to properly store and care for your guitars in the future. But no matter the advice, it should be listened to and adhered to if possible. If a doctor tells you that you should be taking certain measures to remain healthy and you don’t follow the advice, there is a high probability that you will see negative results in your health. The same applies to a musician who fails to heed the advice of a luthier or technician regarding an instrument’s proper care & feeding.
In any event, there are professionals like us to help you and your stringed things when it is needed, you just need to see the signs that help is needed.
