Today at Axecaster Towers we fired up the humidifiers for the first time since March. We keep them running in the body/neck storeroom over the autumn/winter to help mitigate the dreaded “fret sprout”.
If you’ve owned a guitar for over a year you’re probably familiar with the phenomenon – in the winter the fret ends grow longer and stick out from the neck.
Kidding! Running central heating can affect the ambient humidity, taking all the moisture out of the air as well as any moisture in any wood. As moisture leaves a neck the wood contracts slightly, leaving fret ends exposed. The permanent solution is to wait for this to happen then file the fret ends flush with the neck.
Fender have an article about it here.
Rosewood and maple cap fingerboards seem more susceptible than one piece maple necks.
Keeping your guitars at a constant humidity will help with not only fret sprout but tuning stability as well. Consumer humidifiers can tackle the problem easily enough in an average sized room, just do not buy a cold air/mist humidifier unless you like a fine layer of dust over everything you own! Warm air humidifiers don’t have this problem and can be found relatively cheaply. A potential bonus side effect is you may find you have less niggling coughs over the winter and your skin won’t get dry and flaky (assuming you don’t work outside).
To keep an eye on the relative humidity in a room, pick up a cheap hygrometer. Over 40% will be comfortable but 45 – 55% is better for your guitars. Good air circulation/ventilation is also required but as long as you’re not running a humidifier in a hermetically sealed room 24/7 mildew won’t be an issue!
Don’t forget – cool mist bad, warm mist good!
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