So you’ve just bought that dream acoustic guitar and gotten it home. Aside from playing the heck out of it, how are you going to take care of that amazing new McPherson, Collings, Taylor, Breedlove, Gibson, or Martin?

Humidification (or usually lack thereof) is the biggest care and feeding need that new acoustic has, especially here in Texas where as Shane Frame puts it “We don’t get weather, we get samples”

Regardless of what brand you have, this video from our buddy Bob Taylor from @TaylorGuitars does a great job of explaining the symptoms of a dry guitar or wet guitar.

Maintaining proper humidification for your Acoustic Guitar is ESSENTIAL, and one of the easiest things you can do to keep your guitar playing and sounding its best. Most problems that acoustic guitars develop over time start life as a humidity problem, where the guitar either got too dry (more common) or too wet (less common). Things like rough fret edges, high action, cracks, bridges lifting, a dip at the end of the fingerboard, loose braces, etc. ALL start life as a humidity problem. While its easy to think that “well, its humid outside, my guitar should be fine”, the truth is that inside most modern houses with modern insulation, any time you are running heat or air conditioning, you are drying the air in your house, while the optimum humidity percentage for guitars is 45-50% relative humidity. The easiest way to keep your guitar properly humidified is to keep it in its case when you are not playing, and use an in-case humidifier.

The fine folks at D’Addario/Planet Waves make a great 2-Way Humidification system that will either humidify OR de-humidify your guitar as needed, the Humidipak System.