Humidity affecting sound?

[Jannie]

I live in the NW where it's humid most of the time. My apt this winter runs between 42% and 51% on average. Outdoors it will be 80+% on a cloudy day which is normal. Someone from here asked Bob Taylor about dealing with our humidity (it's in the questions and answers) and he said not to worry about it- Taylor gets their spruce from an area near here.

My GC3 has been driving me nuts and it just occurred to me today that it might be because of the humidity. I also think when the humidity is up that I've been blaming the soul less sound on the strings, and that's when I try yet another brand or type, im on my 9th set. Today I was bummed, the sound was all there, I guess it was doing what it was supposed to and the action was very nice- so why wasn't I enthused when last night I thought my guitar had soul, finally!!!

It wasn't that it sounded tight or really dead, there just wasn't anything special about the sound at all and I'd blamed it on my hearing or strings that seem to do something I don't understand. It's crazy when you know that yesterday I had the best sounding Taylor ever made.

All I know is that last night with two day old EJ19 Bluegrass strings, I had finally found its sweet spot. This afternoon I went to Utube and listened to Martin vs Taylor guitar samples.

So most  of these last few weeks the humidity has been around 50% in my apartment, I thought that was fine but at a Martin show and tell a couple of nights ago Richard Starkey from Martin said watch out if it gets up to 50%. I have never met anyone here I the NW who did anything about he humidity issue, now that I've been reading here and mention it to someone else they just look at me like I've turned super geek.

How do I dry out my apartment and should I. Please tell me Im just imagining this, I swear the sound this afternoon was so lackluster that I was ready to give up playing completely.

I did notice at the Martin show that they tuned all of about 15 guitars early evening just before and then were real puzzled because as they picked up each guitar to demo, they were out of tune. I doubt very much if the shop had any humidity control.

[Jannie]

Sorry about my terrible iPhone typing.

[sachi]

Jannie, my guitars change with the humidity also. I don't have to worry much here either (we're near the coast, so it stays reasonably humid) but in the summer it can get up over 70% humidity. My EC in particular sounds utterly dead when it's that high! So I tend to leave it in the case in summer and play it in winter. My 000-18, on the other hand, does fine in the summer.

My GC-5 does not seem to be affected much either, thankfully. Maybe the mahogany in the GC and 000-18 makes the difference?

[jjrpilot-admin]

Maybe a dehumidifier for the room?  I wonder if that might do the trick...not sure.  My folks used one in our old basement back when I was a little kid...and man, that think would pull tons of moister from the air.

[Jannie]

Where do you even find something like that? Fred Meyer? Home Depot?

[S MS Picker]

IMHO, if your apt is 41-50% , that should be excellent for your guitar.Do you keep it in the case when not playing?
I have the Planet Waves Humidipaks in all my guitars. They not only provide 27 grams of water/packet, but also absorb up to 11 grams /packet.
Steve

[DennisG]

Jannie,

If the humidity in your apartment is between 41 and 50 percent, you should be in good shape.  I also live in the Pacific Northwest, and I have the opposite problem:  my humidity indoors is in the 30s due to the heater drying out the air.  I keep the good guitars in their cases and use HumidPaks, which keep the humidity at about 50 percent.

[Scriptor]

Your inside humidity range seems good ... high humidities certainly affect the guitar tone and resonance but we're talking 70+ I'd say ...

Other things that affect what you percieve would be: 
1) acoustics of the room you're playing in
2) how close to a reflective surface you are sitting
3) strings
4) your health (hearing/congestion etc)

I find I enjoy my Taylor's acoustic tone best in a spare bedroom with hardwood floors and lower ceiling ... I can hear my tone reflected back to my ears better there ... 

[Jannie]

Thank you, yes my ears are part of it I know and I've tried to pick instruments to work well with my hearing knowing I may need to adjust by trying different strings and in this case I changed the saddle, and I do need to play it in a different location sometime, just to get perspective. But thanks for the info on the humidity, at least I can rule that out and yes I keep it in the case when not in use.

Okay I thought, I'll try playing in the bedroom, same carpet and walls but what a difference, full, rich, a completely different guitar. I've played while sitting on my couch for so long it has me wondering what the original set of strings sounded like.