Advice, please! Humidity and Mandolins.

[Em Tee]

I am in Miami, as many of you know we just got slammed with a hurricane. My electricity is out and will likely be for weeks yet. It's that time of year when humidity is high and the temp is regularly in the 90s. I am concerned for the health of my mandolin! What can I do to protect it given the conditions I find myself in?

Thank you in advance!
Em.

[allenhopkins]

High humidity generally is not as major a threat as low humidity, though months and months in a 90+ temp and humidity environment could cause wood to swell a bit, raising your action. I'd be a bit surprised if a couple weeks without air conditioning and dehumidification would cause much damage.

The Taylor Guitars "tech sheet" Symptoms of a Wet Guitar gives a check list of things to look for. There are desiccants such as silica gel that can be put inside your case (protected from finish contact) to reduce humidity. As always, a good idea is to get a dependable hygrometer to measure the humidity where the instrument's stored.

The combination of high humidity and high temperatures is worse than high humidity and moderate temps, since heat encourages the wood to absorb moisture. I'd keep an eye out for any changes in your mandolin's "geometry," but I wouldn't get overly worried unless it looks like you'll be without power for a month or so.

[pops1]

We have high humidity here in the midwest in the summer, while the action goes up and needs to be lowered to play well, I have not had any other problems. I humidify in winter as a really dry environment is worse for cracks IMHO.

[Em Tee]

My house is 91+ degrees with high humidity. It is like a sweat lodge. I don't have silica bags and am not sure how to acquire them at this point as there are few stores open. Post hurricane everything gets very... 1800s. Lol no electricity, cash only system. Hell after hurricane wilma i spent all my time fishing for my food and grillin.

I am new to the mandolin. Raising the action means pushing forward the bridge and tightening the strings?

[Tobin]

I am new to the mandolin. Raising the action means pushing forward the bridge and tightening the strings?

In your case, assuming you have an arch-top mandolin, the higher humidity would cause the wood to swell, which will push the arch higher than normal. This causes the strings to be higher above the fretboard than normal. So you would want to lower the action by adjusting the bridge saddle down (assuming you have an adjustable bridge) to compensate. You should not be pushing the bridge forward or backward.

If you're really worried about the high humidity causing structural damage or over-stressing your mandolin, de-tuning it until your A/C is up and running again would be the safest thing to do. But it would be a pretty rare case where that would be necessary.

What kind of mandolin are we talking about here?

[UsuallyPickin]

OK..... As stated above you probably have no problem short term. If you are still concerned a small bag of uncooked dried rice will act as a moisture sink. Example being putting you phone is a bag of rice when dropped in water. A plastic bag with some holes poked in it with a large needle will work fine. Just keep it in the case. R/

[BradKlein]

If you are still concerned a small bag of uncooked dried rice will act as a moisture sink. ...Just keep it in the case. R/

That's a creative solution to a tricky question! You might loosen the strings a bit too, since as a carved top instrument is exposed to high humidity, the top swells a bit and the strings go 'sharp', which adds tension. It also serves as its own barometer by changing pitch so you have some idea what's going on. Biggest problem would be mold or mildew in the case or in the instrument, but I don't see that you have a lot of options right now.

[Em Tee]

I have a kentucky 252.

Thanks for all the advice! I will be applying it all!

[JFDilmando]

one thing that happens in high humidity environment is finish "blush", or a clouding, white, change in the finish that can get quite ugly.
I have had this happen a couple of times with a Wiens and a Gilchrist.... not that these are prone to it, but just saying that even the best can be afflicted...
you can treat it by just a drop of alcohol rub over the area, and a soft polish afterwards... info compliments of Steve Gilchrist, and it works like a charm

[Mr5150]

We have high humidity here in the midwest in the summer, while the action goes up and needs to be lowered to play well, I have not had any other problems. I humidify in winter as a really dry environment is worse for cracks IMHO.

I keep reading about how low humidity can cause a mandolin to crack, yet in my area I know of no one with a wooden instrument developing cracks. I know a ton of guitar players fiddle players and a few mandolin players. Our summer humidity runs between 15 to 25% at 3pm. Winter runs much higher. No one uses any kind of humidity control measures. I've asked around out of concern and no one has mentioned cracking wooden instruments.

Is the problem a Midwest or South thing? Or just a Mandolin thing? I've decided not to worry about, since it is not a issue in CA.

[pops1]

The winter in the midwest can get cold and the humidity in your home is not just at 3pm, but 24 hours a day. Humidity that drops low for a few hours each day should not be a problem. Humidity that is low 24 hours a day for months, from the furnace running or wood heat, is where the problem lies.

[Mr5150]

The winter in the midwest can get cold and the humidity in your home is not just at 3pm, but 24 hours a day. Humidity that drops low for a few hours each day should not be a problem. Humidity that is low 24 hours a day for months, from the furnace running or wood heat, is where the problem lies.

Ah! In my part of CA winter is a high humidity, low temp time of year. Heat one's house, humidity drops to summer levels inside.

[pops1]

As they say different strokes for different folks. I humidify in the winter to keep cracks at bay, but I have seen many in too many instruments.

[Tobin]

Ah! In my part of CA winter is a high humidity, low temp time of year. Heat one's house, humidity drops to summer levels inside.

Yeah, you can't just look at the humidity outside from weather reports. It's the indoor humidity that matters, obviously. If your RH in summer is 25% (desert air), and winter RH is higher - but you're heating your home which drops the RH - then it's likely pretty much the same year-round. Or close enough to not matter. Low humidity in and of itself is not necessarily a problem, as long as it's fairly stable year-round. It's the wild swings in humidity for long periods (like the length of seasons) that can cause cracking or opening of seams.

For most of us, we have summers that are high humidity in the 60% to 90% range (can vary indoors, depending on the level of air conditioning). Obviously, when winter comes along and we turn on our furnaces which drops the RH to 15%, that's a huge swing. The wood just expands and contracts too much between these ranges to make it "safe" against problems. But even then, some instruments will come through it OK. Others will crack or separate. There are a lot of variables involved, and there's never a guarantee that your instrument will or won't crack.

[mandroid]

Peter Mix Carbon fiber mandolins would excel there...


I thought snow locked up so much moisture it was part of the reason for low humidity in the winter..

[Camp]

I find it really endearing that despite being struck by that catastrophic hurricane, what you care about most is the health of your mandolin.

As other people already mentioned, it shouldn't be a huge issue. If you're really concerned then try to aquire some silica gel packets and put them in your case (maybe inside the instrument if you're confident you can retrieve it; but this seems excessive).

Look around in shoe boxes if you have access to any; that's pretty much the primary place where you'll find silica gel packets.

[Ray(T)]

I thought snow locked up so much moisture it was part of the reason for low humidity in the winter..

Ice and snow hanging around for some weeks is the only time we suffer from low humidity problems in the UK - I assume the low temperatures freeze out the moisture in the air. It sometimes gets down to the low 40% region and the only problem I've had in 40+ years is protruding fret ends. Just bought a fret beveling tool so I can deal with them this year!

[allenhopkins]

OK -- remember that it's called relative humidity, which means it's the amount of water vapor present in the atmosphere relative to the atmosphere's capacity to hold moisture. Which is why it's expressed as a percentage. Air at a certain temperature can hold a certain volume of water vapor; if the air currently contains as much water vapor as it can hold -- couldn't take another drop -- that's "100% relative humidity."

Now they tend to express humidity on weather forecasts in terms of the "dew point," which is the temperature where the water vapor will start to condense into drops of water. You get dew when the air temperature lowers at night, reaching the dew point, and water droplets condense on surfaces -- grass, car windshields, your mandolin that you left out in the back yard, whatever.

In the winter, the atmosphere around your house is colder; ergo, it can't hold as much water vapor. You suck that relatively low-moisture air into your house, and heat it up with your stove or furnace. That increases its ability to hold moisture, but it hasn't got much moisture in it (because it was cold), so the relative humidity decreases, gets down around 25% or below, and this dry air, with its capacity to hold much more moisture that it has, absorbs some of the moisture from objects in your house -- your furniture, the lining of your mouth and throat, your mandolin that you left out on its stand without benefit of a humidifier.

I usually tell people not to obsess over humidity; just be reasonably careful, measure the relative humidity with a hygrometer, and take normal precautions. Same with temperature; extremes and rapid radical changes should be avoided, but a normally comfortable environment is hardly ever going to damage your instruments.

[Miltown]

That's the best explanation of humidity I've ever read, Allen. You ought to add "mandolin meteorology" to your signature.