Cobweb Audio Music Articles

Care for the Acoustic Guitar

By Lee Griffith

By far, the most important thing you can do to protect youracoustic guitar is to control the humidity of its environment. Askany guitar repair person. They are the ones who see, time and timeagain, the damage done to guitars and other fretted instruments byhumidity levels which are too low.

Most acoustic guitars are the happiest in a relative humidity (RH)above 40%. In fact, most acoustic guitars are built in a relativehumidity range of 45%-50%. The greatest danger to your guitaroccurs during the fall, winter and early spring. In coldtemperatures you need to heat your home; and when you heat yourhome, the air in your home becomes drier. It can often drop to lessthan half of the RH of the factory in which your guitar was built!

When the RH of your (and your guitar’s) home descends to lower than35%, all kinds of terrible things can happen. Cracks can occur inthe top, the bridge can lift from the top and the neck angle canchange. The warranties of most guitar manufacturers will excludeguitars that have been stored in an inappropriate humidity. Thenecessary repairs can be quite pricey.

The good news in all of this is that the solution is quite simple.Store you guitar in a hardshell case and keep and maintain anin-case humidifier. There are a number of different brands andtypes of humidifiers on the market, in prices ranging from about$12-$20. Check with your music dealer for the best one for you.Don’t forget to check and add water as often as necessary. If youreally want to keep on top of things, purchase a hygrometer (ahumidity meter). These can cost anywhere from $50 to $150, but aneconomy model will be accurate enough.

Another important factor in caring for your instrument is, don’tuse strings that are too heavy (thick). Most manufactures suggestthat you use light gauge strings, not mediums. Some players balk atthis, but the fact is, volume and tone are often more a matter ofplaying technique than of string gauge. If you have a vintageguitar, you might want to consider extra-lights. Another route youcan go (which I do with most of my vintage instruments), is to use“silk and steel” strings. I think these are just wonderful, for anumber of reasons: but one is, they put much less stress on yourguitar. Read my article, “Acoustic Guitar Strings—The Merits ofSilk & Steel” at:

http://ezinearticles.com/?id=518535

One other important caution regarding the care of your guitar: Ifyou use a capo, do not leave the capo on the instrument when you'renot playing it. The capo, when clamped on the neck, holds thestrings down on the fretboard and creates extra tension on the neckand the top of the guitar. All acoustic guitars are destined, atsome point in time, to have problems due to the tension of thestrings. Why hasten the process by leaving a capo clamped on yourguitar?

Taking these steps to care for your acoustic guitar may seem a bitburdensome, at first. But if you start applying these principlesnow, your guitar will give you many years of playing pleasure.

Copyright © 2007 Lee Griffith. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lee Griffith is an avid acoustic guitar player and a vintage instrument enthusiast. He invites you to receive a FREE REPORT on a revolutionary acoustic guitar lesson kit, along with his weekly newsletter via email. just click on http://optin.flatpickpost.com

Check out Lee's blog, "The Flatpick Post" at http://flatpickpost.com