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Topic: Humidifier for dobro? |
Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 15 Jan 2025 7:02 am |
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| Since relative humidity can go below 20 % this time of year where I live, I have humidifiers in all my acoustic guitars. But I haven't found any that will fit a dobro. Does anyone know of a suitable product? |
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Larry Allen
From:
Kapaa, Kauai,Hawaii
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Posted 15 Jan 2025 6:07 pm 50%
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Aloha PER. The 50 years I lived in Alaska I kept my 12’x18’ music room at 50% with a regular humidifier ..during the coldest times it would take 1/2-1 gal/day..  In the summers I used a DAddario dehumidifier. 
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Excel steels & Peavey amps,Old Chevys & Motorcycles & Women on the Trashy Side |
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Mike Auman
From:
North Texas, USA
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Posted 15 Jan 2025 7:19 pm
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Per, I concur with Larry. I gave up on individual instrument humidifiers, and bought a whole-house humidifier that keeps everything indoors at 30-40% in the winter. Helps the winter nosebleeds too!
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Long-time guitar player, now wrestling with lap steel. |
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D Schubert
From:
Columbia, MO, USA
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Posted 15 Jan 2025 9:03 pm
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In the world of rural and hillbilly music, we use an Irish humidifier (1/2 a potato) in the string compartment of the case. Inexpensive, effective, replace as needed.
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GFI Expo S-10PE, Sho-Bud 6139, Fender 2x8 Stringmaster, Supro consoles, Dobro. And more. |
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Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 15 Jan 2025 10:08 pm
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| Thank you guys, but not what I'm looking for. It's hanging on my living room wall, not in its case, and I don't want the hassle of a big electric humidifier. |
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Chris Clem
From:
California, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2025 7:58 am
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| Most all guitar woods are built at about 10% humidity (give or take). Humidity in a house never gets that low and changes at a very slow rate. There may be other reasons to add a humidifier in your house but protecting your guitar wood is NOT one of them.....and adding a humidifier in a guitar case is just doing more harm then good. |
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Larry Allen
From:
Kapaa, Kauai,Hawaii
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Posted 16 Jan 2025 10:58 am 50%
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No cases here either, just ready to play wall!
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Excel steels & Peavey amps,Old Chevys & Motorcycles & Women on the Trashy Side |
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Jeff Highland
From:
New South Wales, Australia
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Posted 16 Jan 2025 12:01 pm
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| Chris Clem wrote: |
| Most all guitar woods are built at about 10% humidity (give or take). Humidity in a house never gets that low and changes at a very slow rate. There may be other reasons to add a humidifier in your house but protecting your guitar wood is NOT one of them.....and adding a humidifier in a guitar case is just doing more harm then good. |
Chris, you are right that most guitar woods are at about 10% humidity but that is the actual water content of the wood, NOT the atmospheric conditions during the build.
Most builders will build their guitars at 40 to 45% Relative Humidity which is a measure of how saturated the air is.
At this relative humidity the wood will reach equilibrium at about 10% moisture content, but will still shrink or swell as it loses or gains moisture with changes in the atmosphere.
_________________
Duesenberg Fairytale
1949 Supro Supreme
1950 National New Yorker
2008 Highland Baritone Weissenborn
2020 Highland New Yorker.
2020 Highland Mohan Veena
2021 Highland Weissencone |
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Allan Revich
From:
Victoria, BC
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Posted 16 Jan 2025 9:33 pm
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Best of all is to humidify the whole house. Many furnaces have built in humidifiers. Otherwise, humidify the guitar room. If that is completely impossible (doubtful) humidify the case and keep the instrument cased. Humidifying the body cavity only is a bad idea because the humidity is not evenly distributed. It doesn’t touch the fretboard so you get “fret spout”. It doesn’t reach the outside of the instrument. And there is the risk of water damage if the humidifier leaks into the body.
Or you can move to the Pacific Northwest where the indoor humidity is in the Goldilocks zone year round.
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Current Tunings:
6 String | G – G B D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D (re-entrant)
https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database |
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Dan A Carey
From:
Rhode Island, USA
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 28 Jan 2025 9:05 am
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I use Oasis humidifiers and keep one in the case with my Dobro. I have no experience in leaving guitars hanging on the wall for an extended period but logic says a room humidifier would be essential.
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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