Maintaining the correct humidity is critically important for both. I have all sorts of stringed musical instruments as well as congas with natural hyde heads. It looks beautiful but its tone is gone forever. Two years in my properly humidified environment (provided by my pair of Ventas) couldn't restore it. Its current value should be around $3,500. This irreplaceable instrument was ruined by an idiot who didn't care about maintaining the correct humidity for a fine instrument. It sounded like a $30 Indonesian import: reedy, thin, and whiny. A couple of frets had lifted up because of wood shrinkage and the deep, resonant and harmonically rich bass and mid tones were gone, as were the jangling highs. After three decades of northern winters with non-humidified central air, the guitar had become thoroughly desiccated. The idiot owner of this extremely fine quality instrument - a guitar with a tone so rich it sounded like a grand piano - had never managed the humidity. The Yairi was destroyed in a move and, after a couple of years of looking I found an identical one from the same limited edition. I also own a $3,000 Martin, but the Martin never had anything close to the rich tone of this guitar. I had a perfect acoustic guitar - a limited edition 1979 Yairi (only 900 made) that I'd bought brand new and owned for nearly thirty years. I have two of these units, which is great for maintaining humidity for all my music gear in a 800 ft2 apartment. The Ventas are expensive but after three years without a hitch the price amortizes down plus you don't lose the tone - or the investment - in your instruments. I don't have any advice for non-musicians, but for those who are, this is way better than having to mess with the huge hassle of humidifiers inside cases. (I haven't had to change the batteries in several years.) I have a small, battery powered one that lives on a bookshelf. Note that you will need to have a humidity reader. Put in some warm water, add the cleaning solution and let it run for a couple of hours. Venta sells water cleaner for this purpose. The units need to be cleaned occasionally to get rid of mineral deposits. In DFW I only need to run the units from November through April, after which I clean them and store them. When I was in west Texas I would have to do it every day during the winter and every day and a half in the summer. During the winters where I am at present (DFW area) I need to add water once every two days. My apartment is 800 square feet, so I use two of these units. Forced air heat can dry a guitar out and in time can turn a rich, full-sounding instrument and make it sound thin and reedy - a situation that cant' be reversed. As a musician I need to control the humidity. It does a better overall job than steam - keeps the humidity level even throughout the apartment. On the lowest setting it is extremely quiet, but louder on the other two settings.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |