How much can cold affect guitar?
How much can cold affect guitar?
Hello,
I keep my guitar inside an esp hard case in constant temperature of ~21 Celcius. Soon I will have to take it outside to a -4 to 0 temperature.
Will this affect my instrument and perhaps ruin it? Is there a way to "condition" the guitar by gradually dropping the temperature so that the damage will be less?
Thanks
A trick I use when receiving guitars shipped from cold climates (and these are guitars that have been cold for a while, not just 10 mins)...if the case is cold to the touch when you get to your destination, just quickly crack the lid open a little and let it close immediately. Do this a couple of times over the next 1-2 hours and it helps the guitar acclimate slowly. As Pus said, unless you have a nitro finish, I really wouldn't expect too much to change except maybe the tuning.
What are your thoughts on storing the guitar in 'heat'?
My guitar collection lives under my bed. Some days when we are not home, it must get to 35c in there all day.
With the a/c one, the temp is set to 20c.
Any thoughts on leaving those guitars in that heat? I haven't looked at them for a while now, the last guitar I removed and played with the Greenburst to check a problem out for Big Daddy.
It was still in tune and everything looked and felt great on the guitar. I am just worried about long term storage of them. They have been there for around 4 years now.
Should I leave the a/c on set to 20c all the time perhaps? Will cost a shit load in electricity, but I have $50,000+ of guitars that I need to look after.
It's the changes in temperature that are the biggest problems. I keep my house around 60F in the winter and don't do much in the way of AC in the summer, so in the 80s indoors isn't uncommon. I notice some changes in the relief as the year moves on, but small and simple adjustments bring them all back-in line.
As I mentioned before, I wouldn't worry about it.
How long will the guitar be in the cold? Is it just for transport? For a single gig? Are you moving into an igloo?
There will be some affect, but it varies with many factors. For a short time, (like a gig), it [u]may[/u] affect the relief of your neck, and your intonation. If it's a nitro finished guitar (not most ESP guitars) you could experience some checking (cracking) of the finish.