Hey folks,

As a follow up to my string hunt for OM-09 thread, I discovered an important confounding factor yesterday. 

I live in Pasadena, CA, where's it's generally very dry, around 20-30% ambient humidity.  My humidification method is simple.  I just use a Dampit and keep the guitar in its case.  As an experiment, I had let my Dampit dry out and I gotta say the OM-09 really seemed to come to life.  So I figured, OK let's see what happens if I fill up the Dampit and humidify today.  I picked up the OM-09 again last night and it had definitely lost some of its spirit.

Now, I'm not at all advocating drying out my OM-09 just to make it sound better.  But will this get better with time?  Is my OM just a big green sponge of new wood?

JD

Yes, I think you are on to something. They do sound better dry. And the fruit is best just as it is ready to drop from the tree.
But the fall usually damages the fruit, too.

I discovered long ago that most of my acoustics sound much better at 30-35% humidity, in fact my D-45V can sound down right muddy at 45%. The problem is letting your guitars live at 30% to 35% requires constant vigilance which is why we tend to recommend humidity levels above 40%.

Thanks guys.

Any ideas how to keep the humidity at a consistently lower 30-35%.  I'd take the risk if I can wake up the guitar. 

Is the Oasis better at this than the Dampit?

JD