Need advice on humidifying guitars in a cold climate

[egosheep]

I've recently moved to Toronto, and as I feared, I'm getting some sharp fret ends on a few of my guitars from the wood shrinking in the dry weather. Right now, and for the forseeable future, I'm in a small bachelor apartment with no real way to humudify the room. Can anyone help with advice on how to deal with some of these issues? I have heard about stuff like putting a wet sponge in a plastic bag in the case. Curiously enough, my 330 has been the least affected, but I want to be proactive and try to fix some of the issues that have popped up in my other guitars. Hopefully I can restore the necks over time and won't have to have the fret ends filed. Any advice would be appreciated!

[admin]

You can get some small economical humidifers that will humidify you and your guitars. I keep mine at 40 percent relative humidity in the winter months and it makes a very big difference.

[wj350]

I used a table-top model made by Air-O-Swiss (you can find them on Amazon) in my music room; very nice little units, the ones I had were digital, you could program them to work to a specific percentage, and they automatically turn on/off. Quiet, effective, easy to use and clean (cleaning is important). You can find them (or similar makes) on Amazon if there are none around in local stores.

[johnallg]

Bill - your sig - going to ... what?

[egosheep]

Thanks for the advice... I'll look into getting a humidifier.

[cjj]

OK, so does anyone have any thoughts on what types of humidifiers work best, especially with well water?

I mean, the ultrasonics are supposedly nice and quiet, but if you have any minerals (such as from well water) I've heard they leave a lot of white mineral "dust" all over everything.

The "warm mist" types sort of boil the water, I guess and will probably get mineral buildup inside, but don't spread it all over your guitars.

Then there's evaporative recirculating ones that blow air with a fan over some sort of wick. I'd suppose they have a similar buildup like the warm mist ones. I suppose if you clean 'em out often enough it's not a big deal.

Anyone have experience with the different types and "hard" water?

[FretlessOnly]

I got a cheap humidifier from Target and it beat the pants off the one I paid 3x for at Brookstone. Go figure. This one is fan-driven and cool output - no steam and no heated output; just humidity where you need it. With hard water, you'll just need to keep an eye on the filter, which is a wicking mesh oval. I can't imagine that you'd disperse any minerals to the room with this mechanism.

The unit also has high/low settings and selection of 35% - 55% humidity (I choose 45-50% as I don't run it 24/7), and it auto-cycles as needed. Under $25 and I've had it for three winters now. I've changed the filter three or four times.