Controlling the temperature and humidity around your guitar is vital to extending the instrument’s  longevity. While this may not affect solid-body electric guitars that much, acoustic guitars and hollow body electric guitars can be seriously damaged by fluctuations in their environment. 

Acoustic guitars are made from thin sheets of high-quality, natural wood. Just like other natural materials, wood responds to its environment by expanding and contracting. If you’ve ever noticed that the fit of a doorframe changes with the seasons, you’ll understand why this could be dangerous for your guitar. Exposure to too much humidity and heat might over time will cause the wood in a guitar to warp, ultimately changing the sound or producing undesirable hums and buzzes. Adversely, conditions that are too dry or too cold might cause the wood to contract and cause cracks.

The ideal conditions for most acoustic and hollow body electric guitars are between 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit and 40% – 50% humidity. If you look closely, you’ll notice that in virtually every guitar store, you’ll find a humidifier and electric heater which can be adjusted to keep the store’s environment stable. Sure you could create your own temperature controlled storage room to avoid long-term damage from improper exposure, but it probably isn’t realistic or necessary. If you don’t want to install your own storage room like the ones in major music stores, you can to purchase a humidity and temperature gage instead. This will give you the ability to monitor your guitar’s environment and, if you notice that the conditions are varying to a point that can damage the guitar, you’ll know to simply move them to a better spot.   

If you know that you will be bringing your guitar into undesirable and/or extreme conditions (like the cargo hull of an airplane), make sure to remove most of the tension from the strings and store your guitar in a hard case. Once you’ve returned the guitar to a proper environment, you can slowly tighten the strings back to full tension and play away.

While it’s probably not something you are going to think about constantly, keeping your guitar in a happy and safe place will keep it in great condition for much longer. While a little heat or humidity isn’t going to break your guitar right away, our biggest piece of advice is to make sure that the place you keep your guitar most often is one with as little fluctuation in condition as possible. 

Keep Rockin’!!!

Back View of Tanglewood Steel String Guitar Opened Up to Show Construction from Flicker by Domanic’s Pics. Taken on Aug 6, 2008