JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Guitars and Guitarist Forum Extreme Cold weather and accoustic guitars

I've got an electric acoustic that I bought new for about $189 last winter. It 's definitely not a high end guitar but has surprisingly great sound for the price. It is my utility guitar while I am moving around this year and I am not too bothered if it gains personality through a few nicks here and there.

I have in all my years of playing never exposed my guitars to extreme temperatures. Until now. When I traveled upstate to Fairbanks from Anchorage this winter, the guitar rode in the back of my truck in 0 F temps and when I brought it in the house and let it get to room temperature everything has been fine.

A friend asked me about bringing my guitar along on a dog-mushing trip into the mountains to a cabin in a couple of weeks and I expect that the temperatures could be -20 to -30 below during the day-long trip.

I am not the finish carpentry expert I wish I was and wonder if anyone can tell me if this is going to destroy my guitar. I honestly do not have a clue. I don't mind the guitar attaining "beater" status, as long as it stays in tune, because it has a pretty good sound. I'd love to take it and play, however, I don't want to kill it if exposing it to that type of cold will really hurt it. The cabin will be warm and toasty and I can let the guitar warm up.

Any experts in the house?

Thanks and cheers,

Rodney

The key to keeping wood happy is to allow changes to occur slowly. DON'T bring the guitar in from the cold, take it out of the case immediately, and set it by the fire to warm up. It's not alive anymore, and even when it was a tree, it didn't have to suffer such sudden drastic temperature swings.

Bring it in, leave it in the case, set it in a cool spot. After a few hours move it, still in the case to a warm spot. After a few more hours, you can take it out of the case.

It wouldn't hurt to leave it in a cool spot (still in the case) before you take it outside in the first place.

Later,
Emmit Sycamore

The fact that the wood is thoroughly seasoned and with practally no moisture in the wood cold weather will make practally no difference. If you were to get the guitar soaked in water and then expose it to exterme cold it could suffer some damage. Board siding on barns in extreme weather last for years if not centurys. I wouldn't worry about it.

Emmit Sycamore's advice is dead on. If you have an extra sleeping bag, slide the guitar into it for the trip.

Ray, if there were no moisture problems you could just forget about it. That's not the case. The guitar wood will have some moisture in it from being inside the house. Some of that will freeze and some will evaporate during the trip and there will again be moisture in the house when the guitar arrives there. A guitar will handle those temperature and moisture changes ok if it has plenty of time.
If you look at that board siding on those old barns you'll see plenty of cracks. That's fine for barn siding but not a guitar.

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DakLander

By the way, I've done the guitar from warm to cold environment changes many times. I was raised in North Dakota and also take an acoustic with me when I go on trips. I've had
one with me in all kinds of temperature changes and even on camping trips when the temperature was well below freezing. Because I allowed the guitar to slowly stablize to the new envrionment I've never had a problem.


[This message has been edited by daklander (edited 01-22-2005).]

Thanks fellas. My uneducated thinking told me not to take it right out of the case and start strumming but let it warm up and then retune it. So I guess I was in the ballpark. The advice to let it cool first is great help. I'll make sure to do that from now on.

You guys rock. Thanks so much!

Cheers,

Rod Hughey

I leave my guitars out in the back yard during all weather. It toughens them up so thay can survive the relentless beatings I give them.

If you pamper them, they turn into wimps.

Yeah, 'n I put mine out in the rain so I don't have to dust them.

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DakLander

It's a little difficult for me to see how temperatures below 32 where any moisture will freeze will have any more effect on a guitar than it where by the way water expands most. I personally have had my guitars much below 0 degrees with no problem. I do think that allowing it to warm up slowly is prudent.

See, there you go. It's not the temperature, it's the aclimation time.

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DakLander

Well,
You do have to play those guitars on a regular basis or those litle suckers in the grain won't set in right and in about 30 years your "axe" will sound like dragging your nails across a chalk board. Remember, you heard it here first. So give 'em regular workouts but don't hang 'em on the side of a barn.

Actually, Softkrome, you are only partially correct. Water, in it's absolute liquid form (puddles) will freeze at or below 32 degrees, but it is a misconception that all moisture freezes at this temperature.

If saying that were true, then you would never see a humidity index on the weather reports for days that are below 32. The weatherman would always report that the humidity was zero percent.

Air at different temperatures has the ability to hold different amounts of water vapor. The colder it is, the less water vapor it can hold. at around 40 degrees below zero, which it has been several times here near Fairbanks over the past several weeks, you can take a pot of boiling water outside, toss it into the air and watch it instantly turn into ice fog - no water falls to the ground. At this temperature, the air can hold no water, but at lets say 30 degrees, the air is capable of holding "X" amount of water vapor. When this point is reached (100% humidity), any additional moisture can not be supported by the air, and it has reached saturation. That is called your dewpoint. This is where frost comes from at temps below 32 and that is where the dew on the grass comes from in warmer temps. The colder it gets, the less moisture (water vapor) the air can hold. If the humidity is 50%, that means that the air is holding exactly half of what it is capable of holding at a given temperature. If the temperature drops and the ambient moisture stays the same, the humidity index goes up because the amount of moisture in say 30 degrees to make up 50% humidity is 65% of the amount of water vapor that say 20 degrees can hold.

My percentages are not absolutely correct to the given temperatures, I couldn't find the web site I learned about this on a few weeks ago this time. But that is the jist of it. Meteorology 101.

So, I suppose that is why you let it cool slowly and then warm slowly, so that the moisture that would normally build up in it during sudden temp changes doesn't cause damage from the moisture or from the freezing.

Cheers,

Rodney

[This message has been edited by rodhughey (edited 01-25-2005).]