Very low humidity year round

[jhalbert]

Hello,

My name is Jeff. This is my first post. I looked around to see if this has already been a topic of conversation. I didn't see anything so hopefully I'm posting this in the right place. I bought an unfinished maple neck recently and now I'm just waiting for it to arrive which is exciting. I'm pretty much like a 10 year old waiting for christmas lol. it's dry where I live, very dry like desert dry. Every day it's pretty much 10 to 15% rel humidity. right now my hydrometer reads 22% and it's been raining for the past few days. I'm not exactly sure what to do about this. Everyone talks about letting the wood settle and acclimate to where you are but when guitars acclimate to where I am all the frets pop out and the necks twist and all kinds of terrible things happen. If anyone has dealt with this and has any advice I would be very grateful to hear it.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Not entirely sure what you're asking.
I also live in a very dry climate. Your frets are going to need leveled anyway since Warmoth does not do that, and at that time, the fret ends would get filed smooth if they are protruding as a result of wood shrinkage.
I've never had any problems with any of my Warmoth necks, and I ordered all of them unfinished (I eventually put a finish on them before the guitar is assembled).

 

[jhalbert]

thanks for response. I might be totally overthinking this. My original plan was as soon as i get the neck put a simple oil finish on it bolt it on to a guitar body that i already have and then start playing it. obviously I want to do any fretwork that needs to be done but I also need to practice a bit on a beater guitar that i have before trying to dive into fretwork on a brand new neck. I can do setups and solder well but beyond that most of this stuff in practice is new to me. but I am very excited to learn how to do fret work and nut filing etc. You say you are also in a very dry location, do you do anything special for letting your necks stabilize to your environment? I have a couple of guitars i pulled out of cases recently that haven't been out since I moved here and (due to my ignorance on how just how big a deal humidity level is for guitars) it seems like I have some issues that are due to how dry it is here so i'm trying to make sure i do this correctly. Im now planning on getting some case humidifiers for all my guitars going forward...apologies if my questions don't make sense. It could be a you don't know what you don't know kind of
situation for me lol.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I'd rather have dry than humid.
Acoustic guitars are a different story.

 

[supertruper1988]

I lived and worked on guitars in Phoenix AZ for most of my career. Your frets will sprout, meaning the ends will protrude beyond the edge of the fingerboard. And on rare occasion, necks that werent properly dried before construction and shipping can twist. Warmoth, as far as I know, has a pretty rigorous standard for how they handle wood so I dont believe that to be as big of an issue.

Another note, they they dont warranty maple if it doesnt have a hard finish applied by them or you. Oil is not sufficient. I would strongly recommend a few coats of a satin nitro or a satin wipe on poly to protect your investment.

An upside to a climate like that is that once the neck is settled, you will need to make minimal adjustments over the years. I have some guitars that I adjusted at assembly, then never touched until I moved to the east coast where its a lot more humid.

 

[Rick]

I live in a climate where in the winter it's dry as a bone and in the summer humid. It takes me about a month to paint a guitar with whatever I'm using (usually top coated with something oil based), and then 3 months, once I've assembled everything to get things just right, and after that I never have a problem.

 

[jhalbert]

Thanks for the feedback. I have a MIM strat and this climate has caused alot of fret sprout but also every single fret on the neck has lifted enough to get a feeler gauge under it. I think it wasn't dried properly before they fretted it maybe? I also have a Gibson CL-30 deluxe acoustic that sounds great. I pulled it out of the case recently and the entire top had checked so I'm trying to be super careful going forward. I'll look into a hard finish I can apply myself. BTW Rick congrats on your cool guitar builds.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I'm in Colorado. It's super dry here (insanely dry in winter). The yellow Strat in my avatar was built in 2013. I ordered the neck unfinished. I had the fretboard sprayed with satin urethane clear, the face of the headstock a gloss urethane clear, and I finished the back of the neck with about 9 coats of Tru-Oil, and then a coat of gunstock wax. Now almost 13 years later, I have had zero issues with the neck or frets. The fret ends do not even protrude past the edges of the fretboard.

 

[jhalbert]

Cool guitar. That's my kind of controls lay out especially getting the only knob you need out of the way lol.

 

[aarontunes]

I'd rather have dry than humid.

Times a million.