electric guitars and the cold.....

wordy

Morning all,

How sensitive do you think a solidbody electric is to the cold?

The reason I ask is that I'm thinking about posting one.  I've done this plenty of times before and found that with a hard case and an external box and some liberal wrapping, its really not a problem unless you're really unlucky.

But now I'm wondering about the dropping temperatures and whether its better to wait until the spring, when things start to warm up a bit.

Its a guitar I have at my parents place that I'd like to play over the winter, but its tricky to transport it myself, so ideally I'd like to post.

I could wait - its not a massive hardship.....  what would you do?

skay

I'd be more concerned about the way couriers handle your guitar than whatever the cold may do to it!

I guess if it's got nitro on it then the different speeds of contracting/expanding woods and paint job due to rapidly changing temperatures could cause the finish to crack a little, but people pay good money to have that done to their guitars nowadays anyway, so leave it in its case to let it warm up before opening it if you're that worried.

It doesn't really get cold enough in this country to do proper damage to guitars imho, I keep my spare guitars in my loft even during winter and get them down without anything bad happening to them structurally, they all play perfectly still and apart from a bit of tarnishing on the metal bits they look just fine.

It's a bit of wood, made from a tree that lived for many years in the cold as well, so I don't think a day or two spent in a cold warehouse or van is going to trouble it too much.

WezV

shouldn't be too much off an issue but be prepared to wipe it down as soon as you open it up and always keep the pack of silca  in the case if you can.   Quite often guitars turn up from cold warehouses, depots and vans and as soon as they are unpacked condensation starts to form on them.    Probably best practice to let it all get up to ambient temperature before unpacking to prevent this but who has that kind of will power?

 

 

grungebob

Well my boiler broke a week ago so all mine are pretty cold at the moment. All seem fine and play great still, have to wipe down the chrome but it all looks good. Roll on the weekend when it gets fixed though!

GuitarMonkey

It's really rapid changes in temperature that do the damage and the box and case will protect from that.

If it's delivered on a cold day, allow it a few hours in the case to come up to room temperature slowly before opening.

ToneControl

humidity drops are the big killers. Try not to post on Thursday/Friday. Airtight seal if poss. Worry more if it's cold and dry or snowing

Don't open box for 2-3 hours after getting indoors

Very dodgy for hollowbodies and acoustics.

I kept 2 guitars in a cold hidey hole when I lived somewhere scary in my youth. My ESP vintage copy strat (still my #1) was fine. The neck of my Casio 510 was destroyed though, and they were Japanese-made

wordy

all good advice - thanks very much.

gilby

Agree with all the other comments really regarding temperature. It's the couriers that'll cause more damage. Ship it out early in the week to avoid it being stuck at a depot over the weekend.