Preparing Your Guitars for the Summer

I have this innate fear that, even though it has such a small chance of happening in the real world, I will walk into my studio and find my guitars in pieces all over the floor. Not because someone damaged them, or because an earthquake knocked them from their stands, but because the outrageously brutal Japanese summer has rendered them suitable for kindling only. I even worried about this in the United Kingdom, where the weather is decidedly more sedate. 

After doing some thorough research, and realising that most guitars are a great deal hardier than we give them credit for, I find the approach to summer this year less stressful than previously. In this blog post I want to share some of my thoughts, what has worked for me and possibly some products you can buy to help you out.

The Most Important Part

I figured it would be best to get the main advice of this blog post done as soon as possible. What I have learned from personal experience and research, first hand accounts from luthiers and respected repairmen, is that guitars do not hate change… unless it happens very quickly. The peak of summer builds over a number of weeks, not minutes. If that was the case then there would be some potentially catastrophic issues!

When having a guitar shipped to you, either nationally or from overseas, it is often recommended to let the package settle for a period of time before you take the guitar out and start shredding away on it. This is because the outside temperature can differ wildly from that in your home – if it is winter then you probably have some kind of heating, and if it is hot outside then some kind of air conditioning will be in use (unless you live in the United Kingdom where apparently air conditioning does not exist!). 

The key thing to take away here is consistency – try and maintain an average ambient temperature, and maybe think about controlling the humidity if you need to.

The Other Stuff

Humidity

Some manufacturers make some pretty cool gadgets that give you all the necessary information for the room that you are in. This can come in handy if you are really worried, but I like to maintain a constant level by using some de-humidifier boxes that you can find in stores like CanDo very cheaply (Amazon and other stores are good for this too). 

Adjustments

It is always a good idea to know as much as possible about how your guitar works, how you can fix it (within reason) and how to make little adjustments to keep everything in the black. You will almost definitely find yourself needing to make some small changes to the set-up on your guitars depending on the season. I have spoken about the kit required for this before, and you can find a multitude of resources online for this. 

Strings

One of my biggest complaints in the warmer months is that, in Japan and other similar countries, the humidity is often very high. This is a detriment to the strings on our guitars because the moisture can oxidise and wear them down prematurely. Solutions to this would be to use coated strings, which can be expensive, or clean the strings thoroughly after every use – something you should do to extend their life anyway. You can also find products from established guitar care brands like Music Nomad that are designed to prolong string life – if you are really desperate and pressed for cash, even a hyper-thin layer of a neutral mineral oil will do just fine. 

I was told once that you should keep your guitars in the case at all items, because it prevents them from getting dirty in general, but also protects the strings to some degree. I am not sure how accurate this information is, though it is certainly plausible. Regardless, I like to see all of my guitars in all of their glory so they only go in the cases on the way to a gig. 

The Reverse

Whilst I have experienced much colder temperatures than that of the winter in Japan, specifically in Tokyo, my apartment is not particularly well insulated and my studio especially gets very cold as a result. This cannot be helped, but thankfully there are milder months beforehand to allow the guitar time to adjust, and settle naturally. This is when I personally would put guitars in their cases, as colder temperatures especially can have adverse effects on certain guitar finishes (that is often why some have a checked or cracked finish). Storing guitars in the room where you sleep can also help, as the ambient temperature will be higher due to your body heat. 

The Difficult Truth

As I have discussed in blog posts before, and as you can learn from countless publications and online material, you can get a fantastic guitar for not a lot of money. Though if you want something to last in the long run, and be consistent through atmospheric differences and temperature changes, you might benefit from investing in some specific features that, unfortunately, happen to be rather expensive. To reiterate, this is not an exclusive point – let us explore it further.

Please be aware that this is not a recommended step to take unless you have disposable income or are facing extreme changes on a regular basis. 

A Gibson guitar can set you back a large sum of money and even then, the best of them are not particularly known for their stability. My Suhr guitar, by contrast, has expertly seasoned wood and precise fitments so that I have never had any playability issues irrespective of the climate. If you want to be more modern and embrace the cutting edge of guitar technology, a composite guitar like something from Aristides or Ruf guitars will simply not move. If they do, then you have broken it. These companies start their models at several thousand dollars so it would be a serious investment.  Other brands have carbon fibre truss rods, or a dual-truss system meaning stability is second to none!

It might also be obvious to some, but just do not buy a guitar that is likely to cause you problems. Many well-known musicians, or busy players in general, would very much like to use a series of vintage instruments when playing live and travelling the world doing so – but they do not because they cannot be trusted.

Final Thoughts

Whilst my first and most important point still stands, which is to keep things consistent for your instrument, there are still extra steps you can take. I have learned over countless hours of fretting over my own guitars that your beloved instrument is probably better and dealing with issues than you think, but they are not invulnerable. 

If you find yourself having issues relating to the heat, or lack of it, then make sure you start by taking some easy steps and then make bigger changes as you move forward. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer here!

Try to take some comfort in that we, as humans, will probably suffer more in the summer than our guitars will. Good luck!