White spots on Peruvian Walnut (D-03WL)

[timsmall]

Hi everyone

I recently bought my first Larrivee guitar, a D03-WL with Peruvian walnut back/sides and Italian alpine spruce top.



I bought the guitar in Ohio, USA and have brought it back with me to Cape Town, South Africa. It was summer in Ohio when I bought it 3 weeks ago and it is winter here now. I live near the ocean, so I decided to take the guitar to work with me to store it away from the ocean air.

As I am new to owning a high-end acoustic guitar, I am trying to learn about how to take care of the wood. I was concerned about the effect of the ocean air on my guitar, so my friend said I should put some silica gel packs in the guitar case. So I did this at work where I store the guitar, but the next day I noticed some white spots/dots on the Peruvian walnut back and sides.

Does anyone know if this is related to the silica gel packs? Has the silica gel packs drawn too much moisture out of the walnut? Should I have not put these in my case? Is there anything I can do to remove the spots?

Any help on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Tim

[carruth]

I live near a beach, and have never had a problem with any of my guitars. What are you worried about?

[Danny]

Take a few good pictures of the spots so we can see what you are refering to. I highly doubt it has anything to do with the silica packs.

[flatlander]

Silca packs don't sound like a good idea to me.

[bgfish]

I believe it is very important to get a hydrometer set up so you see what the humidity is before you start to treat the humidity issue. I have used packs sold by a big name Co. Not going to bash them here. I got spots inside my guitar. I will never use them again. I keep an eye on my hydrometer. Treat the guitar if I need to. Wet sponge in a plastic soap container when dry, let it breath when humid. 

[datdaddy]

Please use a hygrometer - not a hydrometer!  :-)

[timsmall]

Hey everyone, thanks for responding to my question. As requested, here are some photos of the white spots:






If you want to view more photos of the guitar please follow this link: Picasa Web Album

[Strings4Him]

That does not look right.  Contact Wildwood Music.

[Danny]

Beautiful guitar, but those spots are strange indeed. I don't have a clue what the problem is.
I would try a damp rag or maybe a little cleaner diluted, like Murphys Soap and see if they wipe off.
     I sure will stay tuned in to this thread to see how it turns out.

[L07 Shooting Star]

Have you tried wiping them off and do they come off easily?  I don't suppose there is something or some kind of contamination in the case that is making the spots appear?  If the spots appeared within one day, that's pretty unusual.  Is there another guitar you could put in the case for a day or two and see if the same thing happens?  Just throwing out ideas.

[bgfish]

Please use a hygrometer - not a hydrometer!  :-)

Yes , hygrometer is correct. My bad on the meter language.  Sure hope you find a simple solution to this spotting.

[carruth]

Could be the guitar has been cleaned with some furniture polish.

[Mr_LV19E]

Contact Larrivee and send them a link to the photos, they will be able to tell you what it is. Might be pore filler.

[broKen]

Is it possible the case has gotten wet?

[Matthew Larrivee]

Its very difficult to tell from the pictures what is happening. The Peruvian walnut tends to have more natural silica /mineral content then other woods, this tends to show itself as little tiny white specs in the grain (i.e. 0.1mm x 1mm) in length. However, if I understand you right, the spots shown were not on the guitar upon arrival? If that is the case then what you are seeing is the climatic in nature, more specifically too humid. Sometimes when a guitar gets overly moist some of the grain filler will push itself out of the pores and show as tiny bubbles under the finish. The first step would be to check for excessive bellying of the soundboard, and get an accurate humidity reading with a hygrometer. My guess is that you'll need to see a repairman to get more info though

ML.