I confess I haven't read through this thread, and have little to offer in
details. But in 1959 I bought a classical guitar in Spain, a decent one
although not top of the line. I was there on the tab of my Uncle Sam on one
of his haze grey yachts, I was some months at sea in varying climates before
returning home. I left the guitar in NJ, similar latitude but a bit cooler
and damper. The next time I came home the guitar had "exploded".
I have scanned the thread and see the caveats - but it would be a rather
difficult world if we had to make and play our instruments in a limited
geography. As one who turns wood and carves it I'd suggest that the wood is
more adaptive than it would seem to be. It needs time to adjust. If the
piece, be it an instrument or an artifact, is of differing woods they will
adjust to changes in moisture (and that is really the point, the temperature
of the wood is really a matter of the nature of the moisture) differently.
You want to have your instrument playable when you travel, although I don't
think a gig in the Sahara should be immediately followed by one in Alaska.
Release the string tension, although that is annoying as the strings also
have a memory. If you are making a fix let the wood come back before
restringing. I'm having a problem with a harp fix at the moment as it is
"creeping" again with the soundboard pulling out - and I left it several
days without putting tension back on it. The side frames are cherry and the
soundboard a Sitka spruce, the changes in the wood are not only the changes
in the climate but also the speed of the reaction of the wood.
Best, Jon
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