We have noticed that Taylor Guitars (Watch Taylor Guitar Video) stresses the need for humidity control of their instruments, but we noticed another article written by a serious and reputable violin maker, David Burgess of Burgess Violins. If you have a wooden musical instrument from piano to piccolo, you should read his article The Importance of Proper Humidity on Burgess Violins website.
David writes, “Wood is an organic material which exchanges moisture with the surrounding air. It swells and contracts depending on its moisture content, and its moisture level depends directly on the moisture in the surrounding air. This change in shape and size puts tremendous stress on the instrument.
“When it gets smaller, parts of the instrument like the top are under tension, the perfect condition for the formation of cracks and failure of the joints and seams. When it gets larger, joints and seams can also fail, and at high moisture levels, the resistance of wood to bending and to permanent deformation goes way down.
“Heat and moisture were used by the maker to bend the ribs on your instrument, so you can understand how excessive moisture can result in permanent distortion of the top and a permanent sagging of the neck height. So the dimensions and strength of the wood change with moisture content, but did you know that the weight of the wood also changes significantly?
“No wonder the sound of instruments changes with moisture content. These factors, weight, dimensions and strength are the very factors that instrument makers manipulate to control how their instruments sound in the first place!”
And then David sums it up, “The very best thing would be to keep humidity in the environment at one level all the time, like museums do. As a practical matter in the real world though, I recommend a range from 40% to 60%.” See our tests on how Music Sorb controls humidity levels in different environments.
We should mention that Music Sorb (under the name Art Sorb) is used in museums for it dependability, simplicity, and economy…and for exactly the same reasons you should use it for your piano or string instrument.
David’s writing goes on to explain how to measure humidity and the methods of maintaining the correct humidity. Obviously, our comment to this article is that you will easily understand the wondrous simplicity of Music Sorb.
Discover more about How Music Sorb products can provide an active protection balancing humidity in your wooden music instruments.