Would like input on proper humidification

[Ron Daves]

In the Desert, I've had two guitars crack as a result of drying out too much.

As a result, I have used all kinds of commercial humidification devices and have watched humidity with a planet waves humidity monitor.

Then, I found that the most workable and least expensive humidification device consists of small sponges, wrung dry and patted with paper towels and placed inside a slitted food storage bag.

In my early attempts at humidification, I kept several sponges in the peghead end of the case and also inside the guitar body. The sponge that goes inside the body is inside a knee-high nylon sock that I swiped from my wife. The sponges that are inside the peghead compartment are just left laying there inside the slitted food storage bags.

Lately, I started putting the sponge bag and the Planet Waves only inside the sound hole, keeping both items inside nylon stockings. I tied the stockings in a simple knot and just draped them over the strings.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I should go back to controlling humidity in both the peghead area and also inside the guitar bodies or should I be concerned only about the humidity inside the guitars? Today, I checked one of my guitars for humidity inside the body and it was 50%, however, there were no sponges in the peghead area and the humidity there was 31%.

Thought I'd ask some of you gurus what you think.

[Bob Gramann]

I also use sponges in a holy plastic bag to humidify my guitars when I'm traveling. I keep them in the peghead cavity and figure that the moisture gets through the case from there. A lot depends on how air tight your case is. If it doesn't close tight, the end away from the sponge will be much drier than near the sponge. The neck needs the humidity--you don't want a cracked fingerboard or protruding fret ends. I don't put sponges in the soundholes. I've seen too many guitars brought to me with mold inside the body. Yeccch!

[Michael Lewis]

Lots of older instruments have acclimatized to desert conditions without much damage, then again, lots more have suffered cracks and loose braces.. The trick is to allow this to happen very slowly as it is the rapid changes that are so destructive. The most important thing to remember is to avoid the extremes of the RH scale, and the less fluctuations of RH the better.

[Mark Day]

I live in the Midwest in an apartment with forced air heating and the humidity can vary quite a bit. Somewhere here there is another similar thread, but I'll again throw in my cheap solution. There is a type of sponge material that grows when it is soaked in water and shrinks when dry (much more so than an ordinary sponge). They make cute little novelty items out of the stuff like sea creatures and such. They hold quite a bit of water and dry slowly so you don't have to re-hydrate them very often. You know when they need it because they shrink noticeably. I just place them in my cases. Fortunately there is enough room to keep them from touching the instruments, but I suppose you could put them in a bag of some sort. You might want to put them in a bag anyway unless you have a sense of humor. Definitely not as elegant as planet waves stuff, but they are super cheap and they work.
http://www.dollartree.com/Magic-Growing ... a-_-941140