Dangers of desiccants

[MattPete]

So, I'm spending a few months this fall working in Illinois. I decided to take a few guitars with me. Since I had more guitars than cases, I went down to Guitar Center and bought some cases. I packed up my guitars and spent two days driving cross country. When I got to my destination and unpacked my guitars, I was horrified at the condition of one my guitars.

What was different between that guitar (amber strat at left) and my other guitars? The case I bought for that guitar came with two desiccant packets. I didn't think much about them, and left them in there. Big mistake.

The results:
- Strings rusted beyond recognition. I've never seen strings this bad.
- All black hardware on my Floyd (locking bolts at bridge and nut) rusted.
- Neck now had a backbow and the strings were fretting out. The guitar was unplayable.

As for the neck, I waited several days, hoping that it would absorb humidity from the air and straighten out. That never happened, so I changed the strings and adjusted the truss rod last night (there is now .5 -1 mm of relief at the 9th fret when fretting the 3rd and 17th fret). Now it plays like a dream, but the effect the desiccants had on the guitar scares me. I'm peaved at what it did to the black hardware of my Floyd.

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

Holy crap dude...is there a way you can go back to that GC and let em know? I'd think a salesperson would have known about this, and told a customer...

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

MP, as much as you may wish it were, the dessicant is the LAST thing that (normally)would cause this type of situation.

The rusting HW and back-bow are telltal signs of excess moisture, exactly what dessicant packets are supposed to counteract.

And 2 days is unbelievably fast for any rusted strings or such. I don´t want to patronize xou, but are you sure the axe was tip-top before you "cased" it?

I´m not saying it wasn´t so, but for me as a luthier it´s pretty hard to believe...

 

[aleclee]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

MP, as much as you may wish it were, the dessicant is the LAST thing that (normally)would cause this type of situation.

+1

Is it possible that something in the case was damp?

 

[tone4days]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

yeah, from a purely 'chemistry' point of view: if the dessicants had ANY effect at all, it would be that they kept it from being even worse

i have a couple of thoughts on how this might've happened - but these are a stretch ... if the guitars were left in a car trunk overnight (or through a wide temperature swing - or both) you couldve had condensation gather out of the air (like dew) then sit on the strings as the daytime temperature rose, accelerating the oxidation process ...

i'm glad you were able to get it back to playable shape .. i hope you find some appropriate cleaner solution to fix up the hardware - i know dan erlewine describes a good solution in his 'how to make your electric guitar play great' book, but i DONT know if it is appropriate for black h/w

better days,
t4d

 

[theodie]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

+1

Is it possible that something in the case was damp?

No doubt!!! +2

 

[MattPete]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

MP, as much as you may wish it were, the dessicant is the LAST thing that (normally)would cause this type of situation.

The rusting HW and back-bow are telltal signs of excess moisture, exactly what dessicant packets are supposed to counteract.

And 2 days is unbelievably fast for any rusted strings or such. I don´t want to patronize xou, but are you sure the axe was tip-top before you "cased" it?

I´m not saying it wasn´t so, but for me as a luthier it´s pretty hard to believe...

I'll admit the strings weren't new, but they were nowhere near as bad as when I pulled it out of the case. The strings were coated with rust -- like an old guitar you'd find a garage sale.

The neck was fine, too. In fact, I played that same guitar the night before, and there were no problems with the action.

My thinking is that the guitar went from the humid climate of DC/Northern Virginia, to a guitar case with two large dessicant packs. My logic may be off, but wouldn't humidity cause the neck to swell and curve forward, so when that humidity was removed, it was unable to fight the trussrod, giving the guitar a backbow? Or maybe another way to think about it is when the humidity was removed, the neck shrank, causing it to backbow? I went on vacation one Decemember, and when I came back, the air was so dry that a wooden cutting board had curled up. I had to soak the top with water to bring it to flat.

That guitar has gone from summer days with 60% indoor humidity to winter days with 25% indoor humidity (the humidifier I bought last winter came with a free hygrometer). As far as I could tell, the neck hadn't budged one bit over the 18 months of it's life.

 

[MattPete]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

yeah, from a purely 'chemistry' point of view: if the dessicants had ANY effect at all, it would be that they kept it from being even worse

That's what I would have thunk.

i have a couple of thoughts on how this might've happened - but these are a stretch ... if the guitars were left in a car trunk overnight (or through a wide temperature swing - or both) you couldve had condensation gather out of the air (like dew) then sit on the strings as the daytime temperature rose, accelerating the oxidation process ...

I kept the guitars in the backseat, so they were airconditioned along the way. The one time they were left in the car overnight was in Ohio. There was some dew on the back window the next morning, but the interior didn't feel damp, and the guitar was locked in it's case. The thing that makes me think it was the dessicants was that my other guitars came through just fine and no worse for wear. Neither of those cases had dessicant packets in them. Unless that one case, which was new, gave off wacky corrosive fumes -- but how would that affect the neck?

i'm glad you were able to get it back to playable shape .. i hope you find some appropriate cleaner solution to fix up the hardware - i know dan erlewine describes a good solution in his 'how to make your electric guitar play great' book, but i DONT know if it is appropriate for black h/w

I'm bummed about the hardware. Even the screws that go through the back of the headstock to hold down the locking nut are showing signs of rust. From my experience with my 1980's Kramer, black hardware is screwed once it starts to rust.

 

[matt99camero]

Re: Dangers of desiccants

I always keep some in my case with my guitar and my roomate keeps them inside his acoustic. Been there for years and no problems with it.