Silica Gell in your guitar case?

[mica]

There is no way anyone could convince me to leave a bass in a car. If I have to stop off on the way home, in goes the bass with me. I don't mind if I look silly with a big case in my shopping cart at the grocery store.  
 
Certainly never leave your bass in the car when there's any heat. Now I ask visitors right away if they have any instruments in their car when they come to our shop. Too many times after an hour tour I hear something like, I'll go out to my car and get it, referring to their Alembic. Sheesh! Even in April it's usually over 80 degrees here.  
 
The cases are shipped to us from Los Angeles with a silica gel dessicant inside. Our practice is to remove the gel packs before shipping. That said, I've not seen the crack in a fingerboard I could  attribute to a silica gel pack. Usually cracks are in boards that haven't been oiled in years. My feeling is that the silica is not very harmful or very helpful.

[basso]

Iv'e been drying out my case for my SC signature just incase there is any trapped moisture in it,it seems that the neck support and other trim are made from polystyrene covered in the black fur material,the case label says it is made in canada,and i was told this is the original case supplied when the bass was new,as to how much moisture polysteyrene would hold i'm not sure,i'm sure other cases are probably of simular construction,anyway,i have put my bass into my tribal-planet gigbag and feel happier with this,has anybody else noticed moisture in their case?.

[thebass]

I am working in the automotive industry and had to do temperature measurements in the testing vehicles about 3 years ago. The max temp can easily rise above 90 degrees Celsius (I am not familiar with Farenheit, may be an american brother can do the math) in the passenger compartement on a sunny day. It only takes 30 min to reach this peak level. In the trunk it's only 5-10 degrees less due to missing direct sunlight radiation (depending on the surface colour, dark tinted blue was the worst). Opening the passenger compartement reduced the temp to approx 60 degrees Celsius. The outside temp was 35 degrees Celsius, whe we did the measures in Spain. Would you leave anything valueable in such an environment ?  
 
(Message edited by thebass on April 27, 2004)

[basso]

No i wouldn't,but my bass wasn't left in the boot(trunk!)it was in the car with the sunroof open,and i could see the car,i have done this may,many, times without any problems!but i guess if you want to carry your bass into a crowded place then that's up to you?if i knew i was going to do this i would leave it at home,but as i said before,when you are gigging,it depends on the situation!we all do it our own way.

[David Houck]

Conversions of above:
 
90 degrees Celsius is 194 Fahrenheit.
 
60 degrees Celsius is 140 Fahrenheit.
 
35 degrees Celsius is 95 Fahrenheit.
 
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pub/metcon.shtml

[mica]

Julian, I'm quite sure your case is not original, our cases are made in Los Angeles, CA. For a while we offered a Korean-made Protech gig-bag for folks who didnt want to spring the bucks for a hardshell.

[basso]

Thanks for the reply Mica,yes i thought it might not be original,i'm happy with the gigbag i have now,but will look into a better hardcase soon as possible,trying to find one for a s/scale might be a problem,although i could use a 34 case and pack it to stop movement.

[flaxattack]

i just bought a gel cartdige for my new orion5
go to ebay and search silica gel

[allgood]

Folks, I found this old topic, it looks like it has been about 14 years since it was discussed, so I thought I would see if anyone has any updates to add.  The starting thread talks about leaving Instruments in hot cars.  I am not asking about that issue.  We recently moved into a house that apparently has a ton of moisture in the air.  We found mildew on leather boots in closets.  We are running a dehumidifier to help, but there is still a lot of moisture in the air.  Enough to fill up “damp rid” containers in closets.  The house doesn’t smell, so I think it is only a problem where there is no airflow.   I thought a few silica gels packs in bass cases might help.  But I didn’t think about them pulling needed moisture out of the wood of the bass.  I just don’t want to allow pitting or rust on metal parts.  So does anyone have anything new to add?  If not, I’ll go with Mica’s suggestion that they don’t help or hurt much.  In my case, with a lot of moisture in the air, and the case not allowing any airflow, I figured I should err on the side of removing moisture from the cases.  Thanks, Allen

[edwardofhuncote]

I'd just let the de-humidifier and dessicants work a while... you should be fine, even down there in steamy Jaw-jah.

Up here in these latitudes, especially this time of year, it's a struggle keeping enough humidity in the house. I run two humidifiers 24/7 and boil a pot or two of water every day trying to maintain 45% relative humidity. That's about what it takes to keep my basses and guitars happy. If it gets too dry to manage, I just put them in their cases with humidifier boxes.

You should be able to source a digital hygrometer from a local hardware or drugstore for less than outrageous. It's good to keep an eye on this anyway.

[growlypants]

"Steamy Jaw-juh", huh!!??  (Well, I resemble that!)  In Hotlanta here, I still have to adjust the truss rods twice a year - every year!  It's really no biggie.  Once the wood gets used to where it's at, of course!

[lbpesq]

Ha!  Out here in California's Bay Area "seasons" are salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, etc.!

hehehehe


Bill, tgo

[StefanieJones]

An interesting discussion...
 

Generally, with wood instruments, the problem with damage from humidity is not excessive humidity, but excessive dryness.  You may experience action changes with too much or too little humidity, but the risk of cracking comes form low humidity rather than high.  In this respect, silica gel is the last thing you'd want to put in your case as it is a dessicant
Most instrument humidifiers work the opposite way.  They are a sponge or polymeric goo that will release moisture into the case if it's too dry.  They will have much more effect on an acoustic guitar or violin which is hollow, made from thin pieces of wood and which is unfinished on the inside.   
 
The best humidity care for your bass is probably to keep it in the case when you're not using it.
 
DF

That's the problem here in the winter. Everything dries out terribly. Even the humidifier on the heating system doesn't do enough. So it's necessary to humidify instruments specially. The summers are humid but not enough that there's ever been an issue.

[jazzyvee]

I used to put a load of those sachet's in my guitar case when I was touring and the guitar was going in the hold. I got them from a local shoe shop and dried them out on my radiators at home before using. I'm sure it kept some of the condensation off my guitars and maybe one of the reasons my cases got searched. ha