Guitar Collector Forum

The easiest way to take care of your guitar is to store it properly. The more expensive the guitar, the better your storage should be. It is generally accepted that the air humidity should be neither too high nor too low, thus somewhere in the 40-50% range, and the temperature of the area should be about 25 °C. These two factors are the biggest threat to an instrument, because changes in moisture and temperature can cause permanent warping of the neck and other critical parts. For guitars made out of solid wood, it is advised to use a humidifier to prevent cracks and damage from weather change.


A simple tip: If one is playing the guitar and wishes to put it briefly aside to look for songs or notes or the like, then the best repository is the couch, the bed, or the floor (with carpet or with the guitar bag as a cushion). The basic rule reads: What lies down, cannot fall down. A guitar gets most of its scrapes because one leans it against a wall, or against a table edge, and then it is knocked over from the slightest contact or draft of air. If one would have put it down, this would not have happened.

I have never heard of the wood of stringless guitars warping. I think whoever holds this view is not aware of the dynamics of wood. carved wood should not warp unless it has the help of something like the elements or tension. If anything the tension of the strings is what will warp it after time.








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Gibson Memphis ES-137 Classic
J-250 Monarch
41' Maestro
All are hiding out in my temperature and Aprilaire moisture
regulated den until it is time to rock!

Hi Cattchels, I think you may have missed the point here... guitars with truss rods are under tension from the truss rod, which is balanced by the tension in the strings. Take the strings off and you've just got the truss rod tension, not the string tension to balance it. This is why people are concerned (rightly or wrongly) about storing guitars without strings.