Fret overhang and winter dryness

Gear
#1

Now that the winter is here, total fret overhang on the guitars, especially the one I keep at home with all the radiators. It’s an old house with basically zero insulation, and goes from cold to blazing heat, completely drying out all the air in the process. It’s brutal on the instruments. So two questions:

  1. Once the guitar has dried out and the frets have started to hang over the fretboard, is it recoverable if the guitar is properly humidified? Or is filing the ends the only solution?

  2. And two, has anyone bought and/or built humidor type cases, like with the Planet Waves Humidipak? I’ve kicked around the idea of building a reasonably sealed wood frame cabinet, maybe with a glass panel door on it, and throwing one of those packs in there. If that would actually work, I can put it on the DIY list.

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#2

Hi @Troy,

I can’t speak from personal experience, but Scott Grove has discussed this at length in several of his YouTube videos. His channel is called Groovy Music Lessons.

Scott lives in the desert (in Nevada, I believe) and has literally hundreds of guitars. He uses electric humidifiers to control the humidity in the rooms where he keeps his guitars, and uses case humidifiers like the ones you’ve mentioned also.

He has also said that he has often bought used guitars which were dried out, and suffered from the fret issues you’ve mentioned, as well as more severe issues caused by the dryness. He says that in many cases, the fret issues fix themselves when the guitars are properly humidified.

I can’t find the videos he’s made on the subject at the moment, but I’ve interacted with him a few times on YouTube and I have always found him to be friendly and helpful. It might be worth sending him a message through YouTube to ask his advice.

EDIT: Here’s one video where Scott discusses this

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#3

My buddy in Michigan says he has this problem in the winter. He said the maple fingerboards are the worst at it. I’m in Florida, it’s 70 and sunny, with a nice breeze outside. I don’t know how to help :grinning:

:sunny:

:palm_tree::palm_tree::palm_tree::beer::bear: :palm_tree::palm_tree::palm_tree:

#4

Awesome thanks Tom - I’ll sit down with that later. If the guitars can be rehabbed with humidity that would be swell. A humidity controlled case is probably something I’m going to have to do one way or another to prevent a relapse.

#5

Yes, humidity will cure fret sprout in a day or two if it is consistent. I play unfinished necks (all maple), which can be sensitive to humidity. I try keep my guitar room between 45% and 50% in the winter. It’s impossible to prevent any fluctuation in humidity, but fairly easy to keep it within a range. However, trying to maintain anything over 50% in the winter is a sysphean undertaking in regions where it is significantly colder or just downright cold in the winter–possible, but to do it you would probably end up with a lot of moisture on surfaces etc.

Grab one of these (or something similar) to keep an eye on humidity/temp levels and fluctuations:

Once you know the humidity level, you can decide how much management is required. If it’s dipping or staying at 35% or below, which might be the case with dry baseboard heat, then you really should try to get the humidity up.

Our HVAC also controls humidity (up to 50%, although usually 46-48 is where it lingers) and does a good job. Sounds like you might not have that option–assuming baseboard doesn’t. As Tom mentioned, a self-contained humidifier for a single room works just fine. I’ve used these in the past with no problems.

As long as I keep the humidity in the range mentioned above, I don’t have any problems with fret sprout or neck relief in the summer or winter. Hope this helps.

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