Ray Brohinsky wrote... In New England, the air tends to have a large amount of water in it, year round, but in the heating season (which wraps from early in Fall to late in Spring), cold moist air, drawn into a house and heated, drops in relative humidity. Relative humidity is important because that is what wood responds to. RB.
England is also renowned for being cold and damp. Back before the days of central-heating, I remember someone telling me they kept a light on inside the (upright) piano during the winter months. At that time, pianos were kept in the 'front-room' which was 'kept for best' and only used when they had visitors. So, most of the time, the room was rarely heated. Families then generally lived in the back-room. A low wattage (25w - 40w max) bulb would be placed inside, down near the pedals and the rising heat it generated would be sufficient to repel any damp. Most homes now are centrally-heated which bring in different criteria, where most of the rooms reach a warm dry temperature, often for two 3 - 4hour periods each day. The daytime temperature remains moderate, but overnight it falls. Maybe leaving a lamp on overnight near our lutes will keep the temperature fairly constant, thereby reducing the regular contraction and expansion of the woods involved? Just a thought Ron UK To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
