Keeping your guitars in shape!

asura · November 2015

Hello all,

was wondering how you guys like to take care of your gypsy guitars and keep them in their best shape! :-)

Do you maintain your gypsy guitars in a different way from your archtops or electrics?
Do you have a luthier that does all your set-up work?
Or maybe you do it yourself?

I've had my gypsy guitar for a little under a year now, and I haven't done any servicing aside from changing my strings and keeping my fretboard conditioned. Haven't done any fret work, neck alignments or anything of the sort and I feel like I'm getting more buzz on certain frets than I used to!

I'd appreciate if you guys share how you like to care of your special guitars cause I wanna know learn how to treat mine with the love and respect it deserves too haha

Thanks!

Jazzaferri · November 2015

Quite frequently in the spring and fall I check the neck relief/shape. We are pretty lucky in the Apacific Northwest that humidity is pretty even most of the year.

Gets a bit drier inside in fall and a bit moister in summer. I don't use a humidifier. Guitars go through a bit of change in fall and spring, then settle down again.

Maybe needing a tiny tweak of the truss rod. I clean them once or twice a year with a damp cloth.

That's it for me.

alton · November 2015

Thanks for the reminder @Jazzaferri!

Here in New Hampshire it is hot and humid in the summer and dry and cold in the winter. My neck relief goes way down in the winter and while I don't get any string buzz, the lower action makes my guitar less vibrant sounding.

I am lucky enough to be good friends with a very talented luthier (and Django fan). He made me a couple of shims to put under the feet of my bridge to get the tone back during the winter months.

I use a case humidifier as the forced hot air in my house sucks any moisture out of the air. Does it make a difference? I don't know but it surely won't hurt.

rob.cuellari · November 2015

I live in NYC (used to be jersey) and my guitar seems to dry out all year long! what i've done to remedy this is a combination of two humidifiers in my guitar (while it's in the hard case almost all times when i'm not playing it).

First this thing goes in. But I've emptied all of the absorbent material. I'm pretty sure this material is to help compensate for guitars that are in too much of a humid environment.

I know that when it is full of water, if I use only this humidifier, the humidifier is empty within a few days (while in soft case, hard case it lasts a while.

http://www.samash.com/oasis-guitar-humidifier-oasisxxxx

What I do after that is place one of these pouches in the guitar in addition to the tube. This seems to protect the guitar from drying out even in the soft case.

https://reverb.com/item/359423-planet-waves-humidipack-acoustic-guitar-auto-humidity-control-system?_aid=pla&currency=USD&pla=1&gclid=CPiQlLbV_MgCFZIYHwodBnYF3g

The added bonus of using both in combination is that the pouches never dry out. I've used the same pouches for almost 2 years. (i know that generally they have to be changed regularly when the humidity is low in the air, but i've found a "hack")

alton · November 2015

@rob.cuellari I use that same Oasis humidifier. I really like it.

Jeff Moore · November 2015

I think the only active "caring" for my guitars is all about humidity. Not smashing them and doing set up work is some other category. If you keep the humidity stable, they pretty much do the rest themselves.

There's a cheap $8.00 analog (non electric) humidistat sold by Ace hdwe. Cheap plastic thing with one flat coiled spring and a dial to read. Bone simple. I've used them for years. I don't know about their actual accuracy, but when I put two in the same room, they always say the same thing, so at least "relatively" their quite accurate.
I want them to read between 40 and 60 (relative humidity) for the whole room, because I don't case the guitars I play, and the cased guitars are in that room. If its over or under 40-60, I go to work. I have to either use a humidifier or de-humidifier and monitor enough to stay in the 40-60 zone. I take the whole room approach because its good for my own health and its the lazy man's way not to have to case and uncase each time I want to noodle. And I can pick up one of several without any bother.

asura · November 2015

Thanks for the input everyone! :-)

I actually use that oasis humidifier as well!

However my guitar has been getting a lot of buzz lately and it seems to be getting worse...

Any suggestions to what i could do? What do you guys do when/if your guitar needs some extra care?

BillDaCostaWilliams · November 2015

asura wrote: »

However my guitar has been getting a lot of buzz lately and it seems to be getting worse...

Glad you raised this issue, Asura - I was horrified to find I had a nasty buzz from frets 1-5 on my new Selmer style guitar last week (in retrospect I realize we were having an unusually rainy couple of weeks)

From Bob Holo's video and some online research I concluded it was a neck relief issue and with some trepidation (having never attempted this previously) I loosened the truss rod a quarter turn. Result: all resolved and the guitar is once more a delight to play.

Buco · November 2015

Definitely get something to read humidity levels in a room where you keep your guitar. You need to know what the level is in order to take a proper action if needed. During the winter in Chicago when no room humidifier will win against the radiators I keep my guitar in the case with one of those snake humidifiers, dampit, and monitor both room and case humidity.
All I need to do is make sure I don't let it dry out.

I always say a proper set up, making sure the neck has a correct relief and the frets are level, is worth it even on cheaper guitars. If you have someone who's familiar with these guitars have them check it out.
Buzz could be a change in humidity, usually indicates the guitar is drying out, but could be the neck or frets too.

Jeff Moore · November 2015

Buco's comment made me think how upon entering this room, the cheap gauge is the first thing I look at. I'm sometimes surprised how much and how quick humidity changes. You gotta keep up with it. The quick visual check, like checking the time, allows you to keep up with it.

If, like a lot of us, you like your action as low as possible, at some point(s) you have to shim (or unshim) the bridge to get it right. Time (not just humidity) changes the wood. It's easy, and as long as the neck is straight and no frets have climbed out of their slots, shims are all you need.