Official Luthiers Forum!

YE GODS. I just don't get how guitarists can be so stupid with their guitars.

I was asked to look at a Taylor that had high action. I didn't note the model, but it wasn't a dread, and it featured a cutaway. The client pulled it out of the gigbag, and the belly was immediately noticeable - so yeah, I bet the action was high. Upon taking the guitar, I noticed a large gap under the ears of the bridge - it was going to need a reglue.

And then - I noticed the finish was coming off the spruce around the tailblock. Grasped the strap button to look at the bottom, and my hand came away feeling greasy and wet. The mahogany sides were darkened in splotches. What gives? Grabbed the gigbag - it was wet inside, and the outside showed spots. I rubbed them.... wet. Took up the guitar again, and that's when I saw it through the soundhole - a guitar humidifier in a bag. I loosened the strings and pulled it out... squeezed it.... sopping wet. You could see the stains inside on the back, and the moisture had run down the back to the tailblock.

I assume the greasiness was whatever polish the client used, but the guitar was saturated - as well as the gigbag. I went to wash my hands. When I came back, I told the client he could put the guitar back in the gigbag, and to take it home. Mouth opened wide, and eyes as round as saucers - I congratulated him on possibly ruining his Taylor. I instructed him to take the guitar, and throw away the gigbag and put the guitar somewhere warm and sunny to dry out for a couple weeks. And don't come back....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

That is the folly of sponge humidifiers in the hands of a home gamer. I always tell people to get the D'addario humidipacks, they're more like silica than a sponge and they don't splooge all over the inside of a guitar.

+1 on the Humidipack.