Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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.