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Today's Birthday
A reminder: The sun heats guitars quickly
I'm not online much coming in to Djangofest, but the reason I came to Djangobooks today was to give a quick reminder that it's August of the hottest year in quite a while and the sun can sneak up on you and damage your guitar quickly - so be careful.
It was sunny today - not overly hot - in the 80's which is a full 20+ degrees cooler than the heat-waves we've had this year. But it's a cloudless sky, so to find out just how quickly a guitar heats up in the sun, I set a guitar on a chair on the patio and went in to fix a cup of coffee - a five minute task at best.
After fixing coffee, I came back outside and measured the surface of the guitar at 146F. Keep in mind that's five minutes of exposure, and I didn't even set it to catch maximum exposure. It was about 30 degrees off axis to the sunlight and sitting up at an angle. I wanted to see what guitars faced when left in the stand on stage or at a jam. Had it been laying flat or directly facing the sun, it would likely have been even hotter. 145F is an important figure as it's where you begin to see damage. Wood dehydrates quickly and aliphatic resins begin to soften. It's only a few degrees away from the temperature at which the protein, and hence strength, in hide glue begins to degrade. Granted, hide glue can survive higher temperatures once it is dry, but at these kinds of temperatures, with the introduction of moisture (sweat, spilled drink) hide glue will begin to soften and reverse.
Now ... Don't all go out and panic and shove your guitars under the bed for the rest of the month... Playing guitar in the summer is a wonderful thing and your guitar will be fine if you take care not to leave it out in the sun (whether in its case or not - a guitar in a case in the sun is not a lot different than a guitar in a car in the sun - it will heat up quickly.) Just use your noggin.
Anyway - that's all I had to day. Just "be careful out there" ;-)
I was surprised - I was guessing high 120's to low 130's maybe. But 146F sitting upright at an indirect angle to the sun after five minues ?!? ... I had no idea it would get into the mid-upper 140's. And keep in mind that I'm in Portland Oregon - we don't even get "real" sun here. I've lived in a few sunny states. Sunlight is a whole different sport in the arid states.
It was sunny today - not overly hot - in the 80's which is a full 20+ degrees cooler than the heat-waves we've had this year. But it's a cloudless sky, so to find out just how quickly a guitar heats up in the sun, I set a guitar on a chair on the patio and went in to fix a cup of coffee - a five minute task at best.
After fixing coffee, I came back outside and measured the surface of the guitar at 146F. Keep in mind that's five minutes of exposure, and I didn't even set it to catch maximum exposure. It was about 30 degrees off axis to the sunlight and sitting up at an angle. I wanted to see what guitars faced when left in the stand on stage or at a jam. Had it been laying flat or directly facing the sun, it would likely have been even hotter. 145F is an important figure as it's where you begin to see damage. Wood dehydrates quickly and aliphatic resins begin to soften. It's only a few degrees away from the temperature at which the protein, and hence strength, in hide glue begins to degrade. Granted, hide glue can survive higher temperatures once it is dry, but at these kinds of temperatures, with the introduction of moisture (sweat, spilled drink) hide glue will begin to soften and reverse.
Now ... Don't all go out and panic and shove your guitars under the bed for the rest of the month... Playing guitar in the summer is a wonderful thing and your guitar will be fine if you take care not to leave it out in the sun (whether in its case or not - a guitar in a case in the sun is not a lot different than a guitar in a car in the sun - it will heat up quickly.) Just use your noggin.
Anyway - that's all I had to day. Just "be careful out there" ;-)
I was surprised - I was guessing high 120's to low 130's maybe. But 146F sitting upright at an indirect angle to the sun after five minues ?!? ... I had no idea it would get into the mid-upper 140's. And keep in mind that I'm in Portland Oregon - we don't even get "real" sun here. I've lived in a few sunny states. Sunlight is a whole different sport in the arid states.
You get one chance to enjoy this day, but if you're doing it right, that's enough.
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