Gosh Dampit!

You may not realize it as a new player, but there are a lot of important physics at work in your guitar-machine. It's not just an assemblage of wood and metal. There are precision relationships of tension and shape that keep your tone sounding the way you'd expect--and these require maintenance.

Dryness is one of the quickest ways to wreck a guitar because the wood warps and cracks, seams come unglued, and all of that beautiful alignment gets knocked out of whack. I'm currently getting an object-lesson in the care and feeding of guitars, which I shall now pass onto you.

During the winter, my radiator-heated apartment is like the Kalahari Desert. Plants get crispy, my skin crackles when I move, and my guitar audibly gasps for moisture. Knowing that this will be the case, I use a Dampit. It's a tubular sponge inside a perforated rubber sleeve which you slip into the sound hole of the guitar to release moisture in a controlled way to maintain the proper humidity inside your instrument. Using the handy humidity gauge that comes with it, I can determine how often I need to replenish the water inside the Dampit to keep my guitar happy and healthy.

Unfortunately for me, one Dampit has not been enough this interminable winter! I probably should've been using three of them and a sound hole cover overnight because, despite my best efforts, I discovered crack in the back of my guitar when I was restringing it on Tuesday. It doesn't help that my apartment is about 80 degrees most of the time (not exaggerating! my radiators are VERY robust!), and several times a week I sling my guitar on my back for a 1+ hour commute--including a pair of 20 minute walks--in the wintry outdoor temps two times per day! It can't be helped, but big temperature fluctuations are another guitar-killer.

At any rate, I'm lucky enough to work at a music school with an excellent store which does repairs! Before class tonight, I'll be dropping off my ax at The Different Strummer for some TLC--probably some aggressive re-humidifying and a bit of a glue job. You might also consider dropping in there and picking up a Dampit of your own! The staff is very friendly and helpful and can assist you with getting to know your own musical pet and the particularities of caring for it. They can also change your strings for you, which is like getting a makeover and will make you feel like a million bucks when you hear how terrific your fresh strings sound.