Official Luthiers Forum!

I know how critically important it is to build acoustic guitars in a carefully humidity controlled environment, especially when making glue joints. Most importantly, I know that glue joints must be made between two pieces of wood which have fully acclimated to the same humidity level.

Aside from having lumber that is either kiln dried or air dried, how important do you think it is to build an electric guitar in a humidity controlled environment? Do you put any thought into it?

The only glue joints on an electric are typically the body blank, fretboard, scarf joint, and neck joint. Acoustic guitars probably have ten times as many glue joints and the woods are much thinner and smaller that are being joined, so the instrument shifting with changes in daily humidity clearly have more of an effect on that thin wood and it's more fragile glue joints.

How much thought about humidity levels do you apply to electric guitar building? And then, after the guitars completion, how much thought, if any, do you put into storing the electric guitar in a humidity controlled environment?

I'm not crazy careful about it, but I will only build with wood that's acclimatized indoors, in relatively normal (35 to 65%) humidity and moderate temperatures. Most of the rough lumber lives in the shed, which is unheated and unconditioned, while all the heavily figured woods and fingerboards live indoors. Wood that's gonig to get converted to a guitar gets machined outdoors/in the shed, but all the gluing and clamping occurs indoors.

Simple precaution, really.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.
More important to me is that the wood has been laying around my shop
for at least a year,
and hasn't twisted and gone crazy.
I also build acoustics,
without humidity control.
I wait till the humidity is around 40%
for glueing braces,
joining the top and back,
and closing the box up.
Haven't had any problems either.

I've built electrics in a shed with no temperature or humidity control for several years before moving to my new shop. I've made guitars in 80% humidity in 90 degree summers and 35% or less in 50 degree and below winters. None of those guitars have ever had problems as I made them with well seasoned wood that was reliable after sitting in that environment for at least a year with no warps or cracks.

With solid body electrics, temperature and humidity just aren't that critical as long as the wood is at equilibrium before you build with it. If it's not dry when you build, you're going to have problems no matter what.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I had one problem going from humid to dry - the fretboard shrunk enough to expose the fret tangs along the edges of the board. No big deal.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

My wood is stored inside my shop-controlled environment.

I like to wait after making cuts like splitting a neck-though block. I like to wait
and see if there is a change. Not only changes from moisture but from the
energy of the woods.