Guitars, stands and underfloor heating?

robgilmo

We might be moving soon, the new place fingers crossed has underfloor heating, my guitars are on stands, will this be an issue? 
Also, the room I will be using will be a conservatory so the heating wont be on all the time, only when the room is in use. 
I reckon it will be very cold in there in the dead of winter without the heating switched on, not ideal but will it be a problem to keep guitars in there?

Voxman

Keeping guitars on stands per se is OK but ideally, you want to try & keep a reasonably constant temperature in the room.  Aside from playing havoc with strings and tuning, large variations in temperature can affect the guitar set-up.  The expansion and contraction of the guitar neck in particular (inc metal truss rod) could mean that there is more neck movement and you may need to adjust truss-rods more often.  Expansion and contraction of hardware eg bridge, saddles etc may mean you have to intonate your guitars more regularly.  

If the room is too warm, it can dry out fingerboard woods so its important to keep these well maintained eg with specialist oils such as linseed oil.  The other factors to consider is humidity i.e. moistness in the air, and possible condensation if the room gets very cold.  

Personally I prefer to keep all my guitars in their cases (but there are many here who prefer to hang their guitars).  

olafgarten

I have underfloor heating and the only time it cause a problem for my LP was when a Valve went wrong and the heating was stuck fully on. I think the temperature got to 27 degrees when usually it's not hotter than 23.

WezV

Not many issues with underfloor heating as it tends to be a less direct heat source than a radiator.  As long as the guitar is not touching it you should be okay.

But a conservatory... that's a big no-no.  the temperature changes are too extreme. 

rsvmark

WezV said:

Not many issues with underfloor heating as it tends to be a less direct heat source than a radiator.  As long as the guitar is not touching it you should be okay.

But a conservatory... that's a big no-no.  the temperature changes are too extreme. 

Agreed. Underfloor is also generally a higher thermal mass so will take longer to warm up and cool down. 

Philly_Q

Just another thought, in a conservatory your guitars are presumably also going to be exposed to direct sunlight?  That could make them very hot at times, regardless of the actual temperature.  Might also fade the finishes, if that's an issue.

skunkwerx

I used to oggle at this beautiful purple burst les paul epiphone in PMT's store window a few years back.. 

went in to buy it after months of oggling, and months of not being able to find a purple epiphone les paul online anywhere that matched this mystery guitar in pmt's window...

turns out it was supposed to be trans blue... the sun had bleached the flamed maple top/veneer and paint, and left lovely black markings of all its stickers after the sales guy peeled a few off (pickup stickers, volume knob stickers, all the info stickers really). 

Needless to say I didnt buy it.. 
but when he got the same model in 'this is how its supposed to look blue' out, I liked it just as much so bought that instead.. 

so beware leaving them in sunlight! 

AvalonAndy

*

robgilmo

Thanks guys, the new place is a very old cottage so it will be quite cold when the heating is off and fairly warm with it on, I guess I'll have to get in there first and see how it goes.