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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on June 9, 2011 at 3:57am

Hi JonBouye,

Well, I'm not afraid of showing off my ignorance. You live in Alabama and want to add humidity to you instruments? Maybe all you need to do is turn off the air conditioning.I also live in a very humid place (South China), and for most of the year we are more worried about dehumidifying rather than humidifying our instruments (and our homes). So, I guess I don't understand your question, but I can tell you about an experience I had with a CBG build this past spring relating to humidity.

 

Our short winters are followed by an even shorter spring. And just this past spring I built a 3-stringer stick dulcimer (strummer, strum stick, whatever ya wanna call it) with a diatonic fretboard when the weather was still pretty cool and dry. But in less than a month the weather became hot and humid. The stick dulcimer at first played like a champ, but then I noticed some buzzing problem with the highest pitch frets, and then that turned into a problem where I could not stop the 9th and 10th fret because the 11th fret had somehow raised itself up. Upon closer examination of the problem I saw that the fretboard was pushed up and over the lip of the soundboard. Apparently, the increase in humidity had cause the cherry wood of the fretboard to expand, but the sound board (which was made of 2mm thick plywood veneer) did not expand, causing the fretboard the be pushed up an over the edge of the soundboard. Well, I cut a 1/16" slice off the end of the fretboard, and since then I have had no problems with fretting or buzzing on the problem frets. So, now I know how humidity can cause instrument problems and that you have to allow for it when you build. Always leave a gap between the fretboard and the soundboard. A lesson learned.

-Rand.