Hamers and Humidity

[Never2Late]

So I spend most of my life in hotel rooms, and climate control at these facilities is mostly an after-thought. I travel with my Hamer guitar, and it spends 'most' of its life on the spare twin-bed, at the ready, to pick-up and pluck away in the evenings. When not in the hotel room circuit, the guitar hides-out in my car trunk with the vehicle safely tucked-away in a cool, shaded parking garage. The thing is, the guitar doesn't seem to take too 'kindly' to humid environments - the hotel rooms I stay at all have A/C, but moisture from the shower and the towels can make the humidity in the room a bit high. This works its magic at the neck - fret buzz is a problem. When the guitar is in a very DRY environment, the buzz is gone and it plays wonderfully. I am aware that the truss rod is used to 'tweak' the neck to get rid of this, but I'm very wary of monkeying with truss rods for fear of screwing-up the guitar - perhaps this fear is unfounded? Any thoughts on how I can counteract the humidity issue (anyone use dessicant in their guitar cases?), or if this is just 'odd' for my guitar, and other guitars commonly don't deal with this issue at all and play fine in all different climates.

[atquinn]

When I moved to my house a few months back, I had to adjust the truss rods on all my mahogany-necked Hamers because now my guitars are in a humid basement. At some point, I'll be getting a de-humidifier and probably adjusting them back, but that's just the way it goes. There are various things you can do to make guitar less susceptible to changes in humidity ("roasting" the neck wood, using carbon fiber or rods, using something other than wood), but Hamer doesn't do any of those things on their guitars.

-

Austin

[cynic]

In your situation it sounds like avoiding the humidity is impossible, so you should embrace it. Rather than desiccants in the case, use a humidifier to help bridge the gap between the dry environments and humid hotel rooms.

[tbonesullivan]

Keep the case closed. That will minimize the amount of moisture getting to the guitar. Also, TEMPERATURE changes things as well. Wood and steel have different rates of thermal expansion.

Messing with the truss rod is something that sometimes will have to be done to keep the guitar playable. There's no way to get around that. The best advice would be to keep the guitars in a less dry environment.

[Never2Late]

Are truss rods oriented the same for all guitars? Which way should they be turned to tweak the neck?

[mc2]

Become a bass player and just use dual-truss 5-, 8- and 12-string basses Or buy a graphie necked axe, like a Steinberger or early Vigier, that doesn't move in humidity changes...or an old aluminum becksed Kramer, etc.

Speaking of which.....has any builder ever made dual-truss 6-string guitars?

[veatch]

Or buy a graphie necked axe, like a Steinberger or early Vigier, that doesn't move in humidity changes...or an old aluminum becksed Kramer, etc.

The Steinberger is the ultimate travel guitar - even the GR4 style with the strat-ish body is very small and travels well. Fairly indestructible with no headstock and the graphite neck...

Of course, cheaper would be to remove the truss rod cover and keep a wrench in the guitar case. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. Tightening the rod will add force pulling the headstock back (lowering the strings, generally), loosening will allow the strings to pull the headstock forward raising the strings. Don't turn much, and keep track of how far you go. Usually, a 1/4 turn is more than enough. I generally loosen the strings before i mess with the rod, though i've been told that is not necessary. So add a speed winder to the case as well.

[tbonesullivan]

Are truss rods oriented the same for all guitars? Which way should they be turned to tweak the neck?

usually, when looking down at the top of the nut on the truss rod (if it has one), you turn clockwise to tighten, counter clockwise to loosten. standard "righty tighty lefty loosey.

the purpose of the truss rod is to counteract string tension, which wants to pull the neck forward, or BOW the neck. This makes the fretboard higher at the two ends (kinda), which raises the action., unless you compensate by tightening the truss rod, which straightens the neck. Usually you want a little forward bow on the neck to help prevent buzzing. if you tighten the truss rod too much you will end up in a condition known as "back bow" which means that the middle of the neck is higher than the two ends if you put a straight edge on it. This is very undesirable.

Some tips:

-remove string tension whenever you adjust the rod, especially tightening. this helps preserve the threads and prevents damage. Dan Erlewine always suggests bending the neck in the direction you want it to go so that the truss rod and nut aren't doing the work, just holding the work in place.

[Hamer Dave]

Keep a teeny truss wrench to tweak on the go, keep the cover off, and the wrench present.

You shouldn't be wary of adjusting these, as long as you don't do anything drastic. For example... If it doesn't want to turn, don't!

In humid basements, you would use a DE-humidifier, which will remove moisture.

[atquinn]

...In humid basements, you would use a DE-humidifier, which will remove moisture.

I actually knew that, I'm just an idiot when I'm typing on my phone. Now, what is the Hamer of basement de-humidifiers?

-

Austin

[crunchee]

Speaking of which.....has any builder ever made dual-truss 6-string guitars?

Yup. Rickenbacker does.

[Disturber]

Speaking of which.....has any builder ever made dual-truss 6-string guitars?

Old Hagström Swede´s & Super Swede's have dual truss rods as well. I think they are aluminium tross rods.

I think they colour the sound to some extent.

[geoff_hartwell]

Hamer uses what they call the "stressed neck" process. Every neck blank is cut in three pieces and the middle section is flipped so that the grain is reversed in the middle. Then it's glued and sits for two or three months to settle before being shaped and truss-rodded, and boarded and fretted etc.

The reasoning behind this is that the changes in temp and humidity that would normally twist or bend the neck are naturally counteracted by the wood itself, and is further assisted by truss rod adjustments. This was covered in the Hamer promo video from about 2006 (easy to find on YT). An interesting idea, and I've always had great experiences travelling with hamers, but get used to making small tweaks on the truss rod. I learned by making tweaks to lesser guitars first

[Never2Late]

Hamer uses what they call the "stressed neck" process. Every neck blank is cut in three pieces and the middle section is flipped so that the grain is reversed in the middle. Then it's glued and sits for two or three months to settle before being shaped and truss-rodded, and boarded and fretted etc.

The reasoning behind this is that the changes in temp and humidity that would normally twist or bend the neck are naturally counteracted by the wood itself, and is further assisted by truss rod adjustments. This was covered in the Hamer promo video from about 2006 (easy to find on YT). An interesting idea, and I've always had great experiences travelling with hamers, but get used to making small tweaks on the truss rod. I learned by making tweaks to lesser guitars first

This would explain why I have fret-buzz at 'odd' places on the neck, and only on certain strings....

[sixesandsevens]

...In humid basements, you would use a DE-humidifier, which will remove moisture.

I actually knew that, I'm just an idiot when I'm typing on my phone. Now, what is the Hamer of basement de-humidifiers?

-

Austin

Heh. It's NOT the Frigidaire 25 pint model roaring away next to me right now, that's for sure.

It works well enough to remove humidity, but it's basically always running in the summer and even at its low setting, it's loud if you're nearby (~66 dB on vs. ~59 dB off measured via the UE SPL iPod app).

One feature that's nice to have is a "snooze" button. You press it and it turns off for like an hour or two. It's perfect for "come down to jam, leave in a rush" type sessions. I have a Maytag that's got that, but it's even louder than the Frigidaire.

[Hfan]

I use to be very hesitant of truss rod adjustments when I was a kid, pre internet, it was a mystery to me. Now it is nothing at all, I do them all the time (usually seasonal or when a guitar has been stored away for a while). Really nothing to worry about if you're careful. That said, I would consider a different guitar for travel, maybe sonmething with a higher action not so sensitive to environmental changes.

[atquinn]

...In humid basements, you would use a DE-humidifier, which will remove moisture.

I actually knew that, I'm just an idiot when I'm typing on my phone. Now, what is the Hamer of basement de-humidifiers?

-

Austin

Heh. It's NOT the Frigidaire 25 pint model roaring away next to me right now, that's for sure.

It works well enough to remove humidity, but it's basically always running in the summer and even at its low setting, it's loud if you're nearby (~66 dB on vs. ~59 dB off measured via the UE SPL iPod app).

One feature that's nice to have is a "snooze" button. You press it and it turns off for like an hour or two. It's perfect for "come down to jam, leave in a rush" type sessions. I have a Maytag that's got that, but it's even louder than the Frigidaire.

Yeah, we had one in my house when I was a kid and it was loud as hell. Is there any such thing as a quiet dehumidifier?

-

Austin

[elduave]

Another vote for keep the truss rod cover off and a wrench handy. That's how it's been with most of my personal Hamers. I'm actually comforted by the give and take on the necks because every time I have to adjust it's a smooth and effective tweak, which is exactly what I want from a truss rod.

[bubs_42]

I'm going through my guitars this weekend. I'm with EL I have been impressed with my Hamers. So smooth and almost too easy to adjust.