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Hi folks,

As a hobbyist builder, I have a friend / colleague who has been asking me for two years to build her a guitar. I’ve declined, telling her I’m not yet enough satisfied with my builds to let one out of the house. That said, that’s starting to change, and she’s persistent, so I’ve suggested (after full disclosure of what she’ll get) that I will build her one for the cost of materials.

The complication is that she lives in Malaysia. I have some questions about building for overseas, in such a humid climate. I’m building in northern California.

1) I’ve told her no rosewood. Will use other materials; any other woods I should avoid due to CITES, or other constraints?
2) Building for humidity – what can I do here? My current thoughts:
a. Skip the side braces – higher risk of cross-grain expansion actually causing side splits
b. Seal the inside
c. Seems like using Macassar ebony is a better choice than African for dimensional stability in humidity
d. These are my initial thoughts, I’d appreciate experienced inputs
3) Also – I’ve been using khaya and sapele in place of Honduran mahogany on recent builds. Does it make a difference – should I go back to the standard for this application, for best dimensional stability?

Other insights or inputs? Thank you very much, all.
- Bill

Lotsa looks with no answers, and I've got none either. Perhaps a few suggestions...

Maybe build with torrefied wood?

I wonder how rocklite handles humidity?

I have shipped two guitars overseas - one to the EU, one to New Zealand. First, do your homework on CITES - there are a number of woods as well as shell and other materials that might be an issue. Establish your paperwork trail early (your suppliers should be able to furnish). Be prepared to do an accurate invoice both for Customs and for duties (and decide who will pay). Obviously be thinking about how you will ship it. I can share my experiences if that would be helpful.

There is apparently a number of hand built guitars coming from Viet Nam to the US that have issues when they get here because they are built under such high humidity - you may want to research this and kind of reverse engineer things.

How about walnut back and sides? Gives a defined note separation and is looking great when flamed...

I would contact Jeffrey Yong and ask him. World class guitar maker, building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

http://asiaguitar.wixsite.com/jeffrey-yong-guitars bottom of the page is an email address.

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Hi guys -

Thanks for the responses, all good ideas!
I've built a walnut guitar previously and thought it was a good choice for this, good to have an independent opinion.

I honestly think she's planning to take it on the plane (or for that matter, I could do it too - we both travel to the other site fairly regularly). So yes, good to understand how the customs would work in this case. I've seen the stories of how folks have ivory stripped and confiscated from antique pianos when crossing international boarders; she's actually skeptical it would be an issue at all (like, will the folks in the little airport in Penang know rosewood if they see it..) So, you're right; do the research, understand the constraints and the process, and take steps to avoid the issue.

Good suggestions on materials, examples, and expert sources, guys, thank you! I will explore.
Bill

I wish you all the best with this.

At the risk of being too blunt and providing an opinion that wasn't requested: This sounds like a recipe for problems.

The humidity level in Malaysia right now is 100%. The average humidity level in a place like Kuala Lumpur is 80%. Those kinds of humidity levels are very problematic for any guitar. If you are building the guitar in a region with a 45-50% average humidity level (which I assume is what you have in Northern Cal, although I don't know what part of Northern Cal you're in), you add to the problems by building in an environment that is 40% lower humidity than the place the guitar is going to live, and that adds a whole new level of problems.

Hopefully people smarter than me will chime in with advice, but taking on a commission like this as your first guitar for sale sounds to me like a tough road to success. I hope I'm wrong.

With moisture levels, I have always been under the impression that it’s kind of like a sliding scale.

For example:

If I were going to build a guitar for someone who lives in a very humid area, I would build the guitar in a slightly wetter environment. Like say...55-58% humidity.

Likewise, if it were going to someplace like Arizona...I would build it around 42-44%.

This way, the guitar won’t swell/shrink more than it can stand to?

Make sense?

I don’t know for certain...just makes sense to me.


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I have extensive guitar experience in this region. Humidity is high, yes, but here's the rub: most everyone there uses air conditioning, so guitars can see humidity swings from 20% to 80% daily. Not pretty. I think it would be easier to build a guitar in higher humidity and make sure they keep it humidified rather than building lower and trying to keep it dehumidified. Not just for cracks, swelling and such, but string action swings.

At this point, I wouldn't worry too much about a personal guitar being transported unless it had Brazilian, but better safe than sorry!

New username, same Pat Mac

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Pat

If you google the climate data for Kuala Lumpur you will see the average temperature and humidity through out the year is hot and humid (80%) and even with air conditioning I doubt the indoor humidity would ever go below 50%. Building in the 50-65% R.H. would probably be O.k.

Thanks for the responses, guys -

Kelby, I don't disagree. I wrote her a long email about all the reasons this might be a horrible idea, but she's game, so going into it eyes wide open. Perhaps I should categorize this more as "building for friends". I don't think I'd be open to it if it wasn't. (BTW, nah wasn't blunt, and I'm asking for inputs, all good). BTW, you're spot on, we're generally 45%-50%. I'm in an ideal spot (east of Sacramento) and for the most part don't have to worry about climate control very much for much of the time.

geetarman77, Clay, Pat - nice, pumping up the humidifier for the build may be the way to go for this.

Pat - yep, I've seen that - when I visit our Malaysia site, it's brutally hot outside, and you sweat though your shirt within a minute. Then you go indoors and everyone keeps a sweater or pullover in their office because is so cold with the AC. Good to know about transporting.

I appreciate the thoughts, guys, thank you!