So Cal & Humidity

Are you folks living So Cal finding humdity an issue whether it’s too much or too little in terms of properly humidifing your ukes in thier cases?

Digging around a bit, I’m learning that it may not be the case that you should use a humidifier. If it’s too humid, you gotta bring it down with dessicant to bring humidity down to the 50% +/-5% ideal zone.

I guess the best bet is to just get a hygrometer and measure what humidity is like at home.

I’ve never really owned an instrument I cared so much for and I’ve certainly never given much thought to humidity. So this is all new to me. For what it’s worth, I live in Orange County about 5 miles inland from Newport Beach.

I live a bit north of SF. Slightly damper than where you are, perhaps, but not by much. I've never done a thing to control humidity, and have never had any issues with any of my various ukes.

I'm in the San Fernando Valley part of SoCal... and it's almost always too dry here. I also have a small cigar collection so, I'm pretty familiar with having to deal with humidification.

I have little hygrometers in all my uke cases...and I don't keep any of my ukes out for very long... a guitarist buddy of mine who has a home studio near here and tons of guitars keeps a bucket of water in the studio and those individual humidifiers tubes that go into the sound hole of the instrument... and it's barely enough... it's probably around 30-35% RH (relative humidity) in the studio and the humidifiers in the instruments makes up the difference. I don't like to bother with all that so I like to use those humidity control packets for cigars made by a company called Boveda... they will keep a small enclosed space like a cigar humidor or, in our case, a uke case at a specified RH... it ups the RH when it's low and absorbs when it's high... Because they are for cigars the lowest RH rating they sell is 65% which is theoretically too high... but in my less than air tight uke cases, they are working out to be right about 55% if left closed for a while (I used a remote weather style hygrometer to test)... opening the case immediately lowers to room RH. I think it works out fine. the packets are designed to be disposable... just throw them out when they are all dried up and buy more (I guess they have to make money somhow)... but I cheat... they are not supposed to be refillable but I just put them in a tupperware filled with distilled water and elevated above the water on something (don't immerse the packets in water)... since the RH inside the tupperware with lots of water in it is much higher than 65% water passes into and is absorbed by the packet... a couple days later the packet is all full again... I just cycle thru with a few packets... and life is easy.



sheesh. Sorry for the long explaination.


short version: So.CAL is very dry. I manage my ukes' humidity levels

Whoa ... great info jinny!

Yeah the most I know about humidity here is that my arms get all dry and flaky if I don't put lotion on.

I live half a mile from the El Porto area of Manhattan Beach. Humidity is above 55% here. I think five miles from HB should keep your humidity at a safe level. RH in the coastal areas of SoCal are relatively stable in the 70-80% levels. Nothing really to worry about as far as I'm concerned. The main thing you'll have to worry about is if you run your heater or A/C a lot. Those items can change RH levels drastically. Thus, weather report RH is not much help. You'd need an interior hygrometer. Your new case will work out fine. If anything, you might have to remove moisture most of the time and add it in the winter when you're heating your house.

MGM has these cool tube humidifiers that you just through in your sound hole. You can play with it in there. I haven't tried them out yet since I haven't run the heater yet this year.

Thanks Ronnie ... yeah I live off of my a/c. I think it's from spending so much time in the water. But yeah I hear those things just suck the moisture out of the air.

the.ronin said:

Whoa ... great info jinny!

Yeah the most I know about humidity here is that my arms get all dry and flaky if I don't put lotion on.

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haha, yeah... I swim a lot and, ironically, my skin dries out a lot... so I use lotion too... a lot. But, as Ronnie Aloha mentions, being as close to the ocean as you are, you might be fine. I went to school in Irvine which is just over some of those Newport Beach hills... so it was more humid than where I am now... but, as mentioned, A/C can easily drops those levels.

I like the idea of getting a hygrometer to be sure. who knows what the micro-climate around your ukes are like? just pop that hygrometer in the general area of your ukes and make sure they are doing okay.

Besides obvious damage, like warping or splitting of wood, the humidity levels may do other/less obvious things to your uke... I'm not super well versed on all things uke (I just play to make me happy), so don't know if it's common, but I have a vintage uke circa 1940's that I neglected by displaying it in my super dry living room. A while back I noticed the fret wires were snagging my fingers a little... I didn't think much of it so I got them filed down by a friend... then I decided to take better care of it, so I got a case and watched the humidity. now I notice that the filed down fret wire is slightly inside the fret board... the only thing I can think is that the properly humidified wood has expanded more than when it was dried out. Just speculation on my part, but enough for me to keep me vigilant about it.

edit: I forgot to mention that the humidity levels in my house is waaaaayyy different from the levels outside (probably has a lot to do with the constantly running A/C)... so I don't like to assume that the published humidity figures for my area will apply to where my ukes are.

I live across the street from the beach. Most of my 12 ukes are hanging on the walls of my house. Never had had a problem with too much or not enough humidity. Granted, none of my ukes were over $300,(other than my banjolele) and I buy ukes to play not collect, but I really think most ukes are tougher than we think. Unless I lived in the desert, or were traveling on a plane, I wouldn't worry about it.

the.ronin said:

Yeah the most I know about humidity here is that my arms get all dry and flaky if I don't put lotion on.

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jinny said:

haha, yeah... I swim a lot and, ironically, my skin dries out a lot... so I use lotion too... a lot.

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Geez, you kids nowadays...Man Up!

Ronnie Aloha said:

Geez, you kids nowadays...Man Up!

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the wifey likes it when my skin is baby soft.

I live in the SFV, and inside my apartment it's been between 50% and 60%, according to my Petco hygrometer.

I took it outside a couple of times and the reading was more like 30%. Of course it's dry, we have all the brush fires, but I think that's due to lack of rainfall more than lack of humidity. The brush dries out but we feel fine. The ocean is not that far away. Right now it's 60% in my bedroom.

I don't use AC which might help the situation. I also made myself some humidifiers - I have these small jewel boxes and I drilled a hole in each one, then I cut out a square of sponge to fit inside. I even have a syringe which I can use to add water through the hole. Anyway, it raises the humidity in the case 10-20%.

Previously I have noticed my guitars and banjos seem to like this environment, they're rarely out of tune.

Now that I've got a couple hygrometers, turns out dryness is not my concern - it's actually TOO humid in our place haha. It's pushing 60%+ humidity - which I find kinda odd considering how much we have the a/c blasting at full tilt. So I'm loading my cases with desiccant hopefully bring that down to the 50+/- safe level.

Ronin, you're going to drive yourself nuts trying to get an exact humidity level!

Interesting info and posts. I have a weather gadget in my side bar on Vista that tells me my local humidity, and a plain humidity color strip that generally loosely verifies it, and I'm 2 1/2 miles from the beach. The only air we have in this circa 1940s rental is what comes through the windows! I worry about humidity and have the good ones cased with Hercos or with the inside the body versions. I'm thinking they don't really need it here unless we have a heat wave like last week when the humidity was 13% one day!

I have noticed that (I think) when the humidity was very high, like the 80s plus, the ukes didn't sound really great. I was thinking all my strings needed replacing. Then there was a sweet spot of a week or two where they all sounded fabulous! Cased or not.

Of course, I was thinking of selling a few off, and that usually does the same thing. Somehow, they know.

this board seems to be all about the humidity today.

Ronnie Aloha said:

Ronin, you're going to drive yourself nuts trying to get an exact humidity level!

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I know I know. These ukuleles are really important not to mention, at least to me, very expensive, so I want to make sure they last as long as possible. I'll get over it soon.