Chords for Maintaining proper guitar humidity

Tempo:
71.1 bpm
Chords used:

E

F

C

G

Bb

Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
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Maintaining proper guitar humidity chords
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[E]
[N] Hey everyone, my name is Ross Chevalier, I'm the founder of theguitarguy.ca.
I'm here with my good friend Ken Doucette.
It's coming up on the end of October, Ken, and for those of us who live in the northern climates
The furnace is coming up.
Yeah, we're seeing that friend we haven't seen for a while.
That's going to have an impact on our guitars.
Absolutely it will.
So one of the things that I've noticed, and as you know I tend to keep my guitars out
visible means gets played, in case means gets forgotten.
One of the things that I've noticed in the last couple of weeks is that just hanging
on the wall they've all gone sharp.
That's right, well we've gone from a very humid summer, a very hot humid summer, and
we're going into a drier season.
Every time that furnace comes on it's going to be robbing moisture out of our air.
So it's very important as a musician that you've got a decent humidifier on your furnace.
What other things should people be looking at at this time of the year?
Well bearing in mind a humidifier on your furnace is great for human beings, but it's
rarely adequate for your musical instrument.
Your musical instrument really wants to be between 45 and 50% humidity.
So with the furnace ones they might spike up to around 40, but they tend to dissipate very quickly.
So the option is to buy humidifiers designed for your guitar.
Oh really?
Absolutely.
Lots of manufacturers doing it these days.
Planet Waves does a nice one, Kaiser has their Soundhole one, and Oasis is the one I've been using lately.
Okay.
And it does great things for your instrument.
Primarily as a player it'll stabilize your instrument.
It'll feel the same as it did all through the rest of the year.
From a more economical viewpoint it will protect your warranty.
A dried out guitar is the one thing that will null and void any good warranty out there.
Now folks think mostly about humidification in the context of acoustic guitars.
True.
[F] But the rules still apply to electric.
Absolutely they will.
They won't react as drastically as an acoustic guitar, but once again for having your guitar
feel the same way it has been every time you picked it up, that little bit of humidity
just as I say stabilizes the playability of the instrument.
Now for an electric guitar there's no soundhole to put one of these humidifiers into.
I know the Planet Waves one still odds between the strings.
That's right.
I'm not familiar with the Oasis with the Kaiser plugs on the soundhole, it's got a big sponge in it.
I use those on my acoustics.
What do you do for [C] the electric guitar?
The Oasis actually they do [G] put out a [E] case humidifier.
So it's [N] the same idea but it'll click into place in your case.
It's a non-drip, it uses a gel that absorbs the water and releases it over the course
of time and the unit itself will shrivel up when it is dry so it's very easy to spot when
you need to recharge that humidifier.
Excellent.
So that's in case.
Now what if you're someone like myself, you've got a guitar, your guitar, a couple guitars
out on a stand, hanging on a wall rack, something like that.
What about one of those in-room humidifiers, does that help?
Absolutely it does.
So one of the water-based ones?
Exactly.
If your room, you know, if you have a door that you can close so you're containing that,
that's always the best way.
If you have the door open the moisture will dissipate out to the rest of your house at that point.
Of course, of course.
But absolutely, they're a great thing and you know, a little digital hygrometer which
we also have from Oasis keeps you in the know at all times, takes the guesswork out of it.
I've got one of those up on the wall where I keep my guitars and if it ever drops below
40% then you know, I've got something to concern myself with.
That's right, that's right.
Excellent.
So any other maintenance or fall thoughts for folks?
Obviously the humidification over a dry winter where the furnace is running are going to
be important but some of our viewers are going to be in climes where they don't get 40 below.
Any other thoughts that folks should just be thinking about?
Well, I always used to use the statement that if you're comfortable, your guitar is comfortable.
I mean, up where we are here in Newmarket, you know, it gets pretty cold in the winter.
People still need to take their guitars to their gigs or to the studio.
You know, always trying to bear in mind you don't want the instrument to go through too
much severe temperature change.
If you're in a situation where your instrument has been in the car and it's been very cold
outside, the worst thing you could do is fly that case open once you got inside.
You want to give it time to climatize.
And generally, you bring it in and undo the latches on your case.
Don't open the case and that way it will start to acclimatize over the course of an hour
or so depending on the severity of the difference in temperature.
And another reason that I think that this is important, and correct me if I'm wrong,
because in addition to being a great player, I also know that you're a brilliant tech,
a lot of these vintage instruments that we're seeing coming out from our higher-end manufacturers,
they're going back and using that 50s style nitrocellulose finish.
Absolutely.
And unless I'm horribly mistaken, massive temperature changes can have a really negative
effect on that finish.
Absolutely.
That's a soft finish.
Nitro really allows the wood to breathe.
What you probably notice is on old instruments of nitrocellulose is the crackling effect,
the spidering effect, which I don't mind that myself, but I don't want to bring it on.
Well, if you can get a real 56 strap for a 58 Les Paul, yeah.
That's part of the charm.
But we probably don't want that to happen on our brand new guitar.
Okay.
So, humidification, manage the temperature extremes, let the guitar acclimatize to different
temperatures as you're moving around, but don't stop playing.
Don't stop playing.
Just because it's cold out.
We're taking all these precautions to make sure that guitar still plays like butter 12
months of the year.
Anything that we need to think about for amps or any of the electronics?
Once again, in a live style situation, if you're dealing with a tube amplifier, we don't
want to take a hot tube out into 30 below weather.
So the more we can sort of acclimatize and sort of babysit our gear, the longer you will
be maintenance-free, trouble-free.
I think that's very key.
One other thing that you might want to think about, folks, is that when you do come from
very, very cold into, say, a club or a gig atmosphere where you've had people, the humidity
level is going to be higher.
You're going to get some condensation happening as the device warms up.
So watch for corrosion buildup.
[Bb] Good points.
Yeah, absolutely.
Check those batteries before you go [Cm] out [D] and plug in because you might be unpleasantly surprised.
[N] All things that we can look at.
Ken, thanks as always for being with us.
Look forward to doing more sessions with you.
Absolutely.
I've been Ross Chevalier.
This is theguitarguy.ca.
Thanks very much for watching.
Thank you.
Key:  
E
2311
F
134211111
C
3211
G
2131
Bb
12341111
E
2311
F
134211111
C
3211
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[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ Hey everyone, my name is Ross Chevalier, I'm the founder of theguitarguy.ca.
I'm here with my good friend Ken Doucette.
It's coming up on the end of October, Ken, and for those of us who live in the northern climates_
The furnace is coming up.
Yeah, we're seeing that friend we haven't seen for a while.
That's going to have an impact on our guitars.
Absolutely it will.
So one of the things that I've noticed, and as you know I tend to keep my guitars out
visible means gets played, in case means gets forgotten.
One of the things that I've noticed in the last couple of weeks is that just hanging
on the wall they've all gone sharp.
That's right, well we've gone from a very humid summer, a very hot humid summer, and
we're going into a drier season.
Every time that furnace comes on it's going to be robbing moisture out of our air.
So it's very important as a musician that you've got a decent humidifier on your furnace.
What other things should people be looking at at this time of the year?
Well bearing in mind a humidifier on your furnace is great for human beings, but it's
rarely adequate for your musical instrument.
Your musical instrument really wants to be between 45 and 50% humidity.
So with the furnace ones they might spike up to around 40, but they tend to dissipate very quickly.
So the option is to buy humidifiers designed for your guitar.
Oh really?
Absolutely.
Lots of manufacturers doing it these days.
Planet Waves does a nice one, Kaiser has their Soundhole one, and Oasis is the one I've been using lately.
Okay.
And it does great things for your instrument.
Primarily as a player it'll stabilize your instrument.
It'll feel the same as it did all through the rest of the year.
From a more economical viewpoint it will protect your warranty.
A dried out guitar is the one thing that will null and void any good warranty out there.
Now folks think mostly about humidification in the context of acoustic guitars.
True.
[F] But the rules still apply to electric.
Absolutely they will.
They won't react as drastically as an acoustic guitar, but once again for having your guitar
feel the same way it has been every time you picked it up, that little bit of humidity
just as I say stabilizes the playability of the instrument.
Now for an electric guitar there's no soundhole to put one of these humidifiers into.
I know the Planet Waves one still odds between the strings.
That's right.
I'm not familiar with the Oasis with the Kaiser plugs on the soundhole, it's got a big sponge in it.
I use those on my acoustics.
What do you do for [C] the electric guitar?
The Oasis actually they do [G] put out a [E] case humidifier.
So it's [N] the same idea but it'll click into place in your case.
It's a non-drip, it uses a gel that absorbs the water and releases it over the course
of time and the unit itself will shrivel up when it is dry so it's very easy to spot when
you need to recharge that humidifier.
Excellent.
So that's in case.
Now what if you're someone like myself, you've got a guitar, your guitar, a couple guitars
out on a stand, hanging on a wall rack, something like that.
What about one of those in-room humidifiers, does that help?
Absolutely it does.
So one of the water-based ones?
Exactly.
If your room, you know, if you have a door that you can close so you're containing that,
that's always the best way.
If you have the door open the moisture will dissipate out to the rest of your house at that point.
Of course, of course.
But absolutely, they're a great thing and you know, a little digital hygrometer which
we also have from Oasis keeps you in the know at all times, takes the guesswork out of it.
I've got one of those up on the wall where I keep my guitars and if it ever drops below
40% then you know, I've got something to concern myself with.
That's right, that's right.
Excellent.
So any other maintenance or fall thoughts for folks?
Obviously the humidification over a dry winter where the furnace is running are going to
be important but some of our viewers are going to be in climes where they don't get 40 below.
Any other thoughts that folks should just be thinking about?
Well, I always used to use the statement that if you're comfortable, your guitar is comfortable.
I mean, up where we are here in Newmarket, you know, it gets pretty cold in the winter.
People still need to take their guitars to their gigs or to the studio.
You know, always trying to bear in mind you don't want the instrument to go through too
much severe temperature change.
If you're in a situation where your instrument has been in the car and it's been very cold
outside, the worst thing you could do is fly that case open once you got inside.
You want to give it time to climatize.
And generally, you bring it in and undo the latches on your case.
Don't open the case and that way it will start to acclimatize over the course of an hour
or so depending on the severity of the difference in temperature.
And another reason that I think that this is important, and correct me if I'm wrong,
because in addition to being a great player, I also know that you're a brilliant tech,
a lot of these vintage instruments that we're seeing coming out from our higher-end manufacturers,
they're going back and using that 50s style nitrocellulose finish.
Absolutely.
And unless I'm horribly mistaken, massive temperature changes can have a really negative
effect on that finish.
Absolutely.
That's a soft finish.
Nitro really allows the wood to breathe.
What you probably notice is on old instruments of nitrocellulose is the crackling effect,
the spidering effect, which I don't mind that myself, but I don't want to bring it on.
Well, if you can get a real 56 strap for a 58 Les Paul, yeah.
That's part of the charm.
But we probably don't want that to happen on our brand new guitar.
Okay.
So, humidification, manage the temperature extremes, let the guitar acclimatize to different
temperatures as you're moving around, but don't stop playing.
Don't stop playing.
Just because it's cold out.
We're taking all these precautions to make sure that guitar still plays like butter 12
months of the year.
Anything that we need to think about for amps or any of the electronics?
_ Once again, in a live style situation, if you're dealing with a tube amplifier, we don't
want to take a hot tube out into 30 below weather.
So the more we can sort of acclimatize and sort of babysit our gear, the longer you will
be maintenance-free, trouble-free.
I think that's very key.
One other thing that you might want to think about, folks, is that when you do come from
very, very cold into, say, a club or a gig atmosphere where you've had people, the humidity
level is going to be higher.
_ You're going to get some condensation happening as the device warms up.
So watch for corrosion buildup.
[Bb] Good points.
Yeah, absolutely.
Check those batteries before you go [Cm] out [D] and plug in because you might be unpleasantly surprised.
[N] All things that we can look at.
Ken, thanks as always for being with us.
Look forward to doing more sessions with you.
Absolutely.
I've been Ross Chevalier.
This is theguitarguy.ca.
Thanks very much for watching.
Thank you. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

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