Is central heating playing havoc with anyone else’s guitars?

ToneControl

richh said:

Thanks  for the tips - @MagicPigDetective I'll look at balancing out the rads, and @ToneControl I'll investigate the humidity thing. I was thinking of getting somebody in to look at the central heating system anyway, but I'll read up on it first.

I have these things called hygrostats
They plug into a mains wall socket, and look like a digital timer
You plug a device into them, then set it to humidify mode, or dehumidify mode
In this case, the former. Then plug in a £30 or £40 (not ultrasonic) humidifier from Argos, and top it up every few days

ToneControl

thegummy said:

Surprised at all these issues, I've never noticed this.

Is it a very subtle problem or have I just been lucky? *touch wood*

on electrics, usually subtle: guitar always out of tune when weather changes, action sometimes high, sometimes low. Not unworkable, but little point having a pro quality guitar and then letting that happen

on acoustics, at can actually destroy a pro guitar, or cause permanent damage, many of the makers have pages about it on their websites, warranties will not cover this, etc.

ToneControl

darcym said:

I had the radiator removed from my guitar room, and thanks to the rest of the house having heating, the guitar room naturally absorbs a bit, which tends to make it pretty much the same temperature all year around so no issues yet.

it's not about temperature, it's about relative humidity. The other heating around the house can easily dry out the air in your guitar room

thegummy

Maybe that's an advantage of living in Scotland - the weather is consistently bad the year round so there's no sudden change lol

ToneControl

thegummy said:

Maybe that's an advantage of living in Scotland - the weather is consistently bad the year round so there's no sudden change lol

lol
the worst weather is when it's cold and dry outside
so In Ireland the East coast is worse than the west. same applies to Scotland I assume