Guitar storage

[ibanezder]

G'day,

I'm probably opening a can of worms here, and maybe even revisiting old ground. So forgive me if this is the case.

Anyway, I have a number of guitars that I don't always get to. I'd like to.....but I just don't have the room to have them all out at once to give me easy access.

So, what is the best (preferred) method of storing my (or anybody's) guitars?

I have in the past, simply stored them in their hard cases, inside the cartons that the cases came in, strings on, and tuned. Without any problems thus far.

Is there any "official" stance on this?

Thanx guys.
 

[careycorson]

and where are you storing these cased and tuned guitars?  Climate controlled?

[p90talman]

You could store them at my place

[ibanezder]

They are basically stored in an unused room in the house (inside a cupboard), which has ducted gas heating for the cooler months of the year, and ducted evaporative cooling for the summer months (and energy bills to match!)

Temperature variations throughout the year would probably range from 12deg. C - 26deg. C (inside the house) with an average relative humidity range from 30 - 70 percent.

So, specifically climate controlled? No. When it gets hot, we turn the air on. When it gets cold, we turn the heater on.

I was just wondering if there was a general "rule of thumb" to follow.

[gemberbier]

The luthier in our village (ex-son-in-law of the deceased old maestro I visited as a kid), has a nice rack built of tubes. I bought the rest of his material, which would be enough to store about 24 guitars. I still need some couplings and a free wall. But where the heck do I leave all my books?
Yes, I have too much stuff. I think a digital camera will help selling some of it. I still have an "old-fashioned" Olympus Miu with a fantastic zoom lens a remote control for self-included group photos, but everything is still analog.
So rule 1 is: create concentrated free space. On the PC I would just defrag the harddisk. At my place it means: reorganize massively. 


Ginger

[ChuckE99]

Some will cringe at this story, so be warned. I bought my Musician MC400NT in 1979 with a flight case. That guitar went with me everywhere I went, until about 1987, when I switched to using my Fernandes Strat full time. At that point the MC was stuck anywhere I could fit it: under the bed, in the back of the closet, etc. In 1992 I moved from Connecticut to Washington State. To prepare it for the move I wrapped some packing tape around the unopened case a number of times, and into the moving van it went. Upon arrival in Washington, I am ashamed to say that the MC (along with the strat, both still wrapped in tape) ended up in the garage of my house, and stayed there, unwrapped and unopened. In the intervening years, we moved from WA to Massachusetts, and then back again. The guitars lived either in garages or in a finished basement in Mass. until I pulled them both out a little under two years ago, and finally cut the packing tape off them. Temperature and humidity variations both guitars endured must have been extreme, yet both came out of their cases in basically the same shape they were in when they were first entombed. The strat suffered some slight rusting of the hardware, because its case was a low-end Fender-style hard case, which I think was not able to keep moisture out as well as the flight case did. And the Musician did need a good cleaning, but cleaned up just fine.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take care where to store your gits, just that I wouldn't sweat the temperature/humidity details too much. Just put them somewhere safe.

[ibanezder]

Thanks,

I was more so wondering about the "strings on?" - "strings off?" - "tuned?" - "detuned?" side of things.

[KD]

I would think leave it tuned. What's the difference between playing a tuned guitar everyday or storing it tuned? If you loosen the strings for any period of time, then you probably want to also loosen the truss rod.

[Mongo]

I always store my guitars tuned. Any room/closet in the house will do since it's all air conditioned.
Definitely check on them periodically. I've had strings break while in storage (years) and the uneven tension across the neck could potentially cause a problem.

[zontar]

I'd leave the strings on--but play them every now & then.

[guitarwhisperer]

Either tuned to pitch with the neck adjusted properly, or completely detuned with the truss rod loosened all the way. I leave them tuned to pitch and adjusted properly.

[porkpie]

Excellent point. You definitely want to loosen the truss rod if you loosen or remove the strings so the neck doesn't set with an overbow that a single action truss rod can't correct.

[KD]

Dejavu on the strings and truss rod.