Twisted Neck Storage

[ginsambo]

Anybody know the best way to store guitar necks over a cold, humid winter? I've got five sitting here, two of them are starting to twist like crazy, A Birdseye Maple/Rosewood Warmoth and a Maple/Rosewood Jackson.

I've slackened off the truss rods loads as I don't won't them to permanently back bow. Pretty sure it not truss rod snagging twist as they were fine for months before. Would tightening the truss rod so that they are dead straight help stop them twisting?

[TKEblue]

cold air is much less humid then warm air. High humidity in the wintertime is relative, not actual. The main cause of humidity in your home would be cranking your heat. So don't do that. Also keep the temperature consistent.

[ginsambo]

I see what you are saying. Keeping temperature consistent isn't an option really as its a south facing 1st floor apartment with a pitched roof and I rarely put heating on to be honest as I'm too tight, so it varied naturally. Had the heating off when it started twisting badly - I figure its got worse with the extra condensation with the frosty nights. Sometimes I'II put the central heating on for a half hour to try and dry the place out and it'll get to 18C for a few hours, usually from a damp 12C and it'll get very dry real quick, you'l hear the furniture crack as it shrinks. Most days/nights its at 7-14C indoors. Maybe I'II just put them in a case on the floor and try and forget about them until I need them.

Is an anti clockwise (headstock relative to heel, looking down from the headstock) twist severe in terms of playability? I've heard it is the better of the two.

[TKEblue]

the cold dry air makes things shrink. Warm most air makes them expand. Also, its bad for your ac unit to turn it off and on. Leave it on but set it at a comfortable tempeture, it will cycle on and off as it needs to. Conditioning the air is more then heating and the removal of heat, removing the heat also removes moisture in the air and adding heat adds moisture as warm air has a higher saturation.

[decadentdave]

Keep your guitars in the the cases.

[ginsambo]

This is the UK by the way. We don't have aircon generally. Ummm, no need apart from controlling the humidity. We have gas heated water double convection radiators which get searingly hot, hot enough to burn stuff around them, kind of like a log burner going full blast in a small room effect and they dry out the humidity real low. I've noticed that the furniture contracts and creaks and cracks when the heating is on, I've watched it. Without the radiators on, its really cold, damp inside. It rains or is foggy most days and nights, 365 days of the year, averaging around 2-10 Celcius in the winter and around 7-18 Celsius in the summer. Its a maritime climate too so we get all sorts from Arctic to Mediterranean air masses, but it never gets hot and dry or cold and dry.....ever, unfortunately..but it is a very green and pleasant land. Anyway all the wood (Windows and door sills etc. internal and external have swelled and are hard to close. Yeah winter is here alright.

Typically its 6 to 14 celsius inside without the heating on and really damp. I put the radiators on for about an hour and it gets up to 18 C and tapers down to around a few degrees above whatever the outside temperature is come morning. Go to work and the place is often colder than the external tempertures when I get in. What I has noticed is condensation on the OUTSIDE of the windows when I get home....True sign of a miser! What I have noticed is the insides of the cupboards stay bloody cold, so yeah, keeping them in the cases is the only option I guess.

But seriously, unless you live in a new build in the UK, all the old houses are damp, especially in autumn/winter which is the extra bonus rainy season as they are made of brick and have little in the way of a damp proof course. I think its just guitar hell and survival of the fittest. Think I might move.

[ginsambo]

Its the birdseye neck which is particularly bad. Are birdseye grains more prone to twisting? I would guess its not quarter sawn, but plain sawn, as the grain is in a shallow 'U' that's starts from below the truss rod end on the heel and pitches up, equally, to either side of the fretboard. I can see the growth rings are not equal, like the tree has not grown equally on all sides, they are a lot wider on one side of the neck heel than the other however, maybe this is the problem. The twist is where the wider rings are.

Other necks lying about: a good Indian Jackson neck is plain sawn with equal grain, the other which is very slightly off is nearly quartersawn and the Warmoth good one is perfectly quartersawn.

I think its a combination of neck wood and climate. I wonder if Warmoth will swap it out, even though I have no receipt.

I do worry because I also want a USA pro mod and those necks are unsealed...

[TKEblue]

Get a dehumidifier? Keep them in a room with it on

[Newc]

A bucket of damp rid?

[RobRR]

Move somewhere else?