question about high humidity

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi all,

How long does it take for excess humidity to leave wood? We’ve had 75% humidity here in Vermont along with rain storms every day for several weeks and the dampness has gotten into everything. I finally got the air conditioner going and brought the humidity down in the room, but my Triplett Luna (bubinga wood and maple) had a tough time holding tuning for a while and even broke a wire. Now the humidity is at 60%. Today it seems to be holding tune better.

I used the new search feature (thanks, Hugh!) and see there’s lots of info about dryness but didn’t see too much about the other extreme. Would this cause compression of wood fibers inside the pin holes and make it more difficult to hold tune?

[Sherj DeSantis]

Sherri,
With a weather report like that, you could be living in New York. It seems like the rain hasn’t stopped all summer. I also use an air conditioner to keep the humidity down, but this year it hasn’t been enough. I’ve been running a dehumidifier all season to keep mine between 55 and 60%. Maybe adding one would help you control your humidity? They can be set to cut off automatically when the proper level is reached in a room. I can’t help on the other questions, so best of luck. You are not alone!!!!

[Sid Humphreys]

To answer your question Sherri, yes. As the humidity comes down, your harps wood contracts causing more tension on the strings thus breaking (just as the humidity goes up the wood expands causing the harp to go flat). Do you have a hygrometer in the house? Just because it’s 75% outside doesn’t mean it ‘s that high indoors. Get one if you don’t already have one, they are inexpensive! Keep it near the harp if you can. Home Depot sells de-humidifiers. If your local store doesn’t have them you may get them on line. If you do purchase a de-humidifier, please don’t just plug it in and ignore it. Keep an eye on the hygrometer, it will take some fine tuning to get to the ideal level of humidity. I hope this helps!

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi there Sid and Sherj,

Yes I do have a hygrometer! 🙂 Keep it right on my music rack too, esp. when I’m tuning so I know what I’m getting into. Actually, I was a bit remiss with my numbers. It was 75% indoors and the weather service gave the outside humidity as 90 to 100% on some days. Finally got the dehumidifier going in the basement after some minor flooding (no major damage, thankfully) and we’ve been taking out literally gallons. We have to dump one of them every night.

I guess this means I’ll have to wait for my harp’s wood to dry out a bit before the tuning stabilizes. I think we’re in for some more wet weather later on this week too. 🙁 Will have to close the windows again and start up the air conditioner then.

They should have a special weather forecast just for harpists on the Weather Channel. 🙂

[barbara-brundage]

You know, I live in the steamy subtropics and don’t use my AC much and the humidity is over 90% most of the time in the summer here. Gut strings break easily, but the harps are just fine. Don’t sweat it. It’s the huge swings from desert dryness to rainforest conditions and back again that get to the instruments. Humidity will not hurt a well-built harp, although your string bill will be higher.

EDIT Oh, if you have a gold harp, things are tougher, but that’s the gold, not the instrument itself.

[robert-hanson]

Barbara Brundage has the right answer.. Humidity won’t bother your harp. As she said it .”Don’t sweat it . It’s the huge swings from desert dryness to rainforest conditions and back again that (cause damage) to the instrument”. In the Midwest this sort of swing is at it’s worse due to the humidity of the climate and the extreme drying effect of heaters in the winter and air conditioners in the summer. Buy an electronic hydrometer at Radio Shack, Walmart etc. to keep a watch at what the humidity is and keep it fairly constant. In the Midwest it is best not to let it go below 35-30 persent. Some Midwest musicians like to keep their instruments at a higher humidity so when they do outside gigs the humidity won’t effect their tuning as much.

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Robert and Barbara,

Thanks for the info, I guess I’m not looking at wood damage. (we’ll save that one for the winter!) More likely seasonal changes are what brings out the tuning and breakage issues.

I wasn’t aware of the electronic hygrometers, have to check them out. I have a small plastic one with a movement in it that came for free with a humidifier I bought a couple of years ago. My instrument is a wire-strung Irish harp, at very high tension and I’ve had to retune to A415 and even set the two middle strings to C (traditional Irish na comhluighe), thus losing my topmost A to deal with string breakage. Bringing a replacement wire back up to full tension can take up to two days on this harp (depending on the octave), so I try to keep it from happening in the first place. If it does a string cascade, replacing and bringing all the wires to full tension can take a week.

I’ve noticed sudden shifts in humidity can cause breakage, so when I turn on the AC, I turn up the cool gradually. Metal fatigue is another one that I try to keep on top of, if I’ve been tuning a lot and it’s drifting about from one day to the next. I’ve found it’s a good idea to keep my harp bag well-stocked with a back-up supply of replacement strings in all gauges, esp. the range that’s most prone to breakage.

I have no experience with pedal harps. Does this sort of thing occur with them as well, or are they more stable?

[Carlin]

It happens with my pedal harp as well. The weather has been horrible the past few weeks, with humidity swinging to and fro between 50-70% and my harp isn’t very happy at the moment.

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Carlin,
Are there particular octaves where you have the most frequent string breakages? Mine seem to occur in the range above middle C, probably starting with the G and going up from there. They are bronze, .020 to .018 gauge where they break most often. The topmost ones almost never break. Likewise the copper wrap/bronze core ones in the bass are very stable. I only had one break once. Always wondered why that was… the emphasis on the middle.

[Carlin]

Yes, actually…it’s the 2nd octave that is breaking like crazy. That’s about the same range as yours…from the F above middle C and up. The other octaves are quite fine.

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