Humidity: The Solution Pt. 1

we're going to start the process of restoring this guitar by using just a damp it just a just a sound hole humidifier this guitar has already had the frets filed the frets aren't poking out so much this is a guitar that's really really dry if you ever if you own a guitar any solid wood guitar that you own could be going through this trauma you may want to actually use the sound hole cover on the damp it so we'll get another damp it here and the reason is because we just sort of want to jump start getting some moisture into this guitar body I'm going to put this thing in in fact if you were a repairman out there working on guitars trying to use this you could it's totally allowable for you to put two or three damp it's in at one time just be sure to ring all two or three of them off it is you're not going to do yourself any favor by saying well I need a lot of moisture so I'm not going to wring it out as much always wring it out always dry it off if you want one if you want more moisture use more damp it's okay never leave the damp it more wet because I guarantee you if you do water is going to run out of the bottom corner of this thing spill onto your guitar and that's going to ruin the guitar it'll cause braces to come unglued backs to come unglued so here we are simple thing we're going to put this thing in just like that close it up I'm going to stick it in its case let me get it real quick we're going to put it inside the case we're going to close the environment it's been riding along with us for this whole time this is a worst case scenario and let's check it out remember this one we put in a cover because we're trying to pump more water to this top okay cracks still there I think you're going to be able to see that and if I turn this around we can see that it still got the crack in the back so this guitar was severely dried we're going to bring in the big guns now remember yesterday let's see here's a damp it with no water left in it totally dry nothing's going to wring out of it completely dry if you remember yesterday I said if you want more moisture in the equation you do it by adding damp it's never do it by leaving the damp it more wet there we go enough nothing here that's going to bring out on us and you may be thinking this guitars beyond hope but all you have to do is keep watching the video and you'll see this guitar come back to life become a viable instrument again just from adding a little bit of humidity to it okay here's our guitar that we put three damp it's in yesterday and we're going to look at this we still see a crack here and I'm going to spin it around backwards we still have a crack here so some of you might be losing hope that this experiment is going to work but I haven't lost hope at all okay this will continue to absorb moisture this is how you're starting to get the feel now of how wet to leave one of these when you put it in just give you an idea we're going to show you how much water is in here this is the amount of water that we want in it when we put it in here if I wring tightly you can see water will come out okay that's how much water was in this damp at yesterday we wring it out again so we're going to have to actually use the stampin that's how much water that last little bit of ringing was the amount of water that was in the damn pit when we put it in the guitar yesterday now let me show you how much water is in the damp it now after sitting there for a day see I can't get one drip one drop to drip out of here okay where did that water go I mean you know that yesterday I could have rang 10 12 drops of water out of this thing just like I could with this one if I if I rung it now where'd the water go went into the wood of the guitar it's that simple so now we've emptied four damp 'its into this guitar that a customer sent back and the guitar is just drinking up that water you're starting to get a kind of a mental idea of how much water you can actually put in a guitar more than that you should be getting out a mental idea of how much water you can actually take out of a guitar by over drying it I think I'm going to use the sound hole cover one more time one more day on this thing we've got remember these things are going into the guitar with some there's still water left in these I'd be able to wring it out see that okay there's there's quite a bit of water all of that is going to get absorbed into the guitar I'm going to open this customer's guitar here that's the one that we've had three damp it's in it you guys are getting pretty familiar with the guitars now and it's time to check the condition of everything first thing that I notice is that yes the crack is now starting to close up I'm going to hold this up to where the close-up camera can see it still there but boy is it getting smaller now let me check the back and Wow the back crack has gone from really really wide to almost completely closed right now okay now I'm looking across this and we still got our damp it's banging around in there we still have we're starting to get some arch here but I still notice that there's a little bit of concave nasaan either side not much it's just the tiniest bit now so you can see that our guitar is really starting to become restored I'm going to pull this thing out now we've got our three damp it's and remember what we're trying to do is restore the humidity and the guitar not and think of it as humidity not water we're trying to get vapor into the guitar that's the only way the wood is going to take on the moisture is through vapor we're not trying to hose this thing down with water we're looking at the arches in the guitar I can see that my top we still have a little bit of concave Ness in the top and the side and hopefully we'll be able to restore this guitar over a period of time to where the whole thing is kind of puffed there so it's right in here that we're looking at how the guitars a little concave and when I sight this guitar and you're going to be able to do this too you can see that that it's a little bit concave and there's a pull on the bridge much much better than it looked several days ago the backs looking good the crack is closed we're going to discard the soundhole cover now no more sound hole cover okay remember I told you that when we once we got this body to begin moving we're going to now open the whole project up and start letting the case and the neck fretboard everything else get a little bit of water I'm about ready to go down to just to damp its or maybe even one but I think we're coming back tomorrow's Friday we can come back tomorrow and open this up one more time and I can tell you that on this guitar three damp it's is still okay we're not going to hurt this guitar I'm a little bit more aggressive about drawing them off right now because I know that the guitar isn't going to transfer the moisture from the damp it to the wood nearly as as easily this time we come back tomorrow these things are going to be more wet than they were today I guarantee you maybe they won't be soaking wet but when I wring them out I might be able to get two or three drops out of them instead of just barely getting one drop remember yesterday I couldn't even get a drop you see a little bit of guitar on a little bit of water on this guitar that's on the finish it's not hurting anything it's finished can protect the guitar from water you

Channel: Taylor Guitars

Views: 288,689

Keywords: bob, taylor, acoustic, guitar, humidity, service, and, support, technology, repair

Id: tB8tELj43RE

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 06 2008