Humidity and temperature always affect wooden acoustic instruments. They directly affect tuning stability. I recently bought a weather station for my home. It gives temperature and humidity readings for both indoor and outside levels with remote sensors. I’ve learned a few things about my guitar with this new information (and the door at the end of the hall that sometimes sticks).
For decades I’ve played bluegrass. The majority was spent playing outdoors. Temp has an immediate impact. But, it was affecting the instruments of other pickers the same way. It wasn’t that noticeable in a group of people with the exception of extreme changes.
Big changes in temperature have an immediate effect on steel strings. Example… As a teen I played many times at a community center up the road a little ways. It seated 250 people, had a good stage, sound system and lights. Usually had 4 or 5 bands one night a month.
There was a 10x10 little building out back where the next band would tune/rehearse while waiting to go on stage. It had a space heater for cold nights. Unfortunately it couldn’t be used after stuffing 25 or 30 instrument cases into the room along with the next band, a fire hazard.
In winter the room might be 45 degrees, slightly warmer than outside but it had a roof. A band gets ready, gets the que and hits the stage where it’s 90 degrees under the lights. Within 30 seconds every instrument would be completely out of tune. The audience was used to this… a band comes on, plays one song, then everyone has to stop and re-tune.
That said I never noticed a difference with humidity changes til now. In the past I had changes in tuning I couldn’t explain. My new weather station has the explanation.
I’ve noticed there is a big lag with humidity changes, a 24 to 48 hour lag. It depends on the amount and duration of the high humidity. Finally!!! an explanation for the seemingly random changes to the tuning of my guitar. Say I get a day of rain… then 1 to 2 days later every string on my guitar goes sharp. There were too many variables for this to make sense, is the heat in my house on? How long was the rain storm? How much rain actually fell? Is it still muggy outside or did it clear immediately?
This weather station gives me the actual humidity percentage changes inside and outside my home. It still took me a few months to understand the lag time.
If there are any folks planning on building instruments or work with wood veneers this site might be handy… helpful in understanding humidity and wood. Anyone have a door in their home that suddenly gets tight for no apparent reason like me? A window gets sticky? Well, it might be the rain you got 2 days ago that caused it. It definitely affects my guitar. I could just never see the pattern because of the long delay.
https://theartoflutherie.com/guitar-humidity/
For decades I’ve played bluegrass. The majority was spent playing outdoors. Temp has an immediate impact. But, it was affecting the instruments of other pickers the same way. It wasn’t that noticeable in a group of people with the exception of extreme changes.
Big changes in temperature have an immediate effect on steel strings. Example… As a teen I played many times at a community center up the road a little ways. It seated 250 people, had a good stage, sound system and lights. Usually had 4 or 5 bands one night a month.
There was a 10x10 little building out back where the next band would tune/rehearse while waiting to go on stage. It had a space heater for cold nights. Unfortunately it couldn’t be used after stuffing 25 or 30 instrument cases into the room along with the next band, a fire hazard.
In winter the room might be 45 degrees, slightly warmer than outside but it had a roof. A band gets ready, gets the que and hits the stage where it’s 90 degrees under the lights. Within 30 seconds every instrument would be completely out of tune. The audience was used to this… a band comes on, plays one song, then everyone has to stop and re-tune.
That said I never noticed a difference with humidity changes til now. In the past I had changes in tuning I couldn’t explain. My new weather station has the explanation.
I’ve noticed there is a big lag with humidity changes, a 24 to 48 hour lag. It depends on the amount and duration of the high humidity. Finally!!! an explanation for the seemingly random changes to the tuning of my guitar. Say I get a day of rain… then 1 to 2 days later every string on my guitar goes sharp. There were too many variables for this to make sense, is the heat in my house on? How long was the rain storm? How much rain actually fell? Is it still muggy outside or did it clear immediately?
This weather station gives me the actual humidity percentage changes inside and outside my home. It still took me a few months to understand the lag time.
If there are any folks planning on building instruments or work with wood veneers this site might be handy… helpful in understanding humidity and wood. Anyone have a door in their home that suddenly gets tight for no apparent reason like me? A window gets sticky? Well, it might be the rain you got 2 days ago that caused it. It definitely affects my guitar. I could just never see the pattern because of the long delay.
https://theartoflutherie.com/guitar-humidity/
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