Guitar tuning and humidity

Welcome back Guys and Gals to the Online Guitar Genie Blog.
In my last post we were examining guitar tuning and different steps you can take to cure the tuning blues. An important fact to keep in mind is that a guitar is practically a living breathing thing and it reacts to its environment. If your house, room, basement, jam room etc is exceedingly dry or damp it will affect your instrument if left in that environment for long periods of time. Acoustic instruments are especially sensitive to these factors. I recommend a good acoustic guitar humidifying system such as the Planet Waves model to keep your guitar properly humidified. These units are very effective and hover in the 7/10$ range, that is money well spent!
As far as electric guitars go, it is less of an issue because of the solid body nature of most electrics. I do however often see necks on electric guitars react to the relative humidity so here is a little trick to keep things balanced. I throw a small bag of silica gel in to each of my guitar cases. Silica gel is a product you see inside packaging for electronics, televisions,radios,cell phones etc. It helps to absorb the excess humidity during transport. I am sure you have seen these little bags of what seems like sand and wondered what they do??? Well they are very helpful and probably free in most cases. You can find them in left over electronics boxes or you can order them on ebay for just a few cents for each package. If your guitar is affected by too much humidity or insufficient humidity, it can affect different areas of the instrument, cause it to warp, bow, dry out etc and the result is that it will not play in tune properly, so this is an issue to keep a constant eye on. In my next post we will be examining on stage/live performance tuning hints.
That’s all for now my friends see you next time for another magic carpet ride around the amazing world of the guitar.
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