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We want to know what you’re thinking, and about your travel guitar needs. We especially want to know if you have any questions or problems with your Voyage Air. Let us hear from you and thank you for your input!
Product Registration
By registering your Voyage Air Guitar, you automatically activate the Limited Warranty for your fine instrument. It also makes it easy for us to contact you with important product update information and special offers only available to registered Voyage Air Guitar owners. Please note that the Limited Warranty only covers the original owner for new instruments that have been purchased from Voyage Air Guitar. It does not cover instruments purchased as used. Be sure to check your spam or junk folder for email from sales@voyageairguitar.com and add it to your contact list so that you will receive any future information from Voyage Air Guitar.
Guitars and Temperature Extremes
Temperature change should be gradual.
Optimally, you want to keep your guitar with you, and free from the hazards inherent in any temperature extremes. Of course, this isn’t always possible but temperature extremes are more likely when you’re traveling with a Voyage Air Guitar!
In regards to temperature extremes realize that a fine guitar is a collection of different kinds of wood all glued together to produce the complete instrument. When heated all woods expand slightly. This is normal and taken into account when the instrument is designed.
The important point is that different woods absorb heat and expand at different rates. If a guitar is subjected to a sudden temperature change some of the woods will expand or contract much more quickly than others. This results in unnecessary stress to the instrument.
The very worst case scenario is where a guitar is stored for some period in the ice-cold trunk of a car and then immediately brought to play in a warm room. Even worse would be to immediately play it while sitting near a wood stove or a fireplace. The thin wood top of a quality guitar can actually crack from such stress.
If your guitar is ice-cold to the touch, give it some time to warm up to the room. Open the case an inch and allow about 15-30 minutes for the instrument to gradually come to room temperature.
A guitar may be safely frozen and thawed without damage. However, over time continuous freezing and thawing cycles may result in “spider web” cracks in the finish of the guitar.
Guitars and Heat
Heat is the Enemy of your guitar.
In general, your guitar is safe and comfortable at the same temperatures that you are safe and comfortable. A guitar can withstand heat up to about 110-degrees (F). Above that temperature, the glue that holds the instrument together begins to soften. In fact, luthiers who repair guitars use “heat guns” to heat glue joints and remove wooden parts for repair. Few realize the pressure that the strings exert on a guitar. If your Voyage Air Guitar is folded open to the playing position, the strings will exert a combined pull of more than 100 pounds on the bridge of the guitar – exactly the same as hanging a 100-pound weight from the bridge! Now, imagine that 100-pound weight pulling on the bridge as its glue gets hot and begins to soften. The bridge can easily lift, or even pull from the top of the guitar. Heat is the enemy. Protect your guitar from heat.
Wood shrinks.
When subjected to heat, the wood of your guitar suffers. The natural moisture-content is baked out of the wood, and the wood begins to shrink. Usually, the first sign that a guitar has been subjected to heat is the ends of the frets begin to protrude from the fretboard. Other signs are bulges and warps in the top of the guitar, or binding that has become loose or actually popped away from the edges of the tops and sides.
If your guitar must travel with you where it’s warm (or downright hot), keep the guitar in its Voyage Air Guitar carry case. All Voyage Air Guitar cases have padded insulation that helps protect the instrument from heat.
Never keep your guitar locked in your car on a hot day.
The interior of a closed car can easily reach 170-degrees! On a hot day, never leave your guitar in the direct sun, even in its case.
Guitars and Humidity
Keep the guitar in an environment with normal humidity.
In the winter, with a furnace or radiators running much of the season, humidity is literally cooked out of the air.
Nature loves a balance. In an overly-dry environment, the woods of your guitar surrender their natural moisture content in a futile effort to humidify your room. This can be damaging to the guitar.
The guitar case offers a closed environment where you can easily control the humidity. You can also put a guitar humidifier inside the case. There are many humidifiers available and any of them will do the trick. It is typically a sponge-type material encased in something like a plastic holder. You keep the sponge part moist and stored in the case along with your guitar.
Cold Weather and Humidity
In the winter, there’s usually record-breaking cold weather in much of the USA and around the globe. As a result, many of us are building fires in the wood stove, fireplace, or running the furnace much of the time to keep our homes warm.
While this is great for our comfort, realize that all of these heat sources remove the normal humidity from the air in our homes. They make the air very dry. And for the woods of a guitar, sometimes, the humidity level can sink down to dangerously low levels.
As the air in your home becomes dry (less humid), this tends to dry out the natural moisture content in the woods of the guitar. In the worst case, this can cause fret buzzing, frets protruding from the sides of the neck (as the neck woods shrink), or even cracking of the carefully engineered woods of your Voyage Air Guitar.
To prevent this, try to store your guitar at room temperature as much as you can, keeping it away from heat sources. The Relative Humidity (RH) of your environment should be about 45-55% (normal). In fact, the Voyage Air Guitar Shipping and QC Facility maintains 50-55% RH at all times to ensure the moisture stability and quality of all guitars that we ship.
There are a variety of inexpensive gauges (Hydrometers) that will show the actual RH (i.e., RH value reading) for your home. All well-stocked hardware stores and electronic outlets have digital gauges like that, and will show you the current RH level of your home.
Here’s what you can do to protect your Voyage Air Guitar in a dry environment:
As much as possible, keep your guitar zipped-up and stored in the backpack case. This helps isolate the guitar when it must be stored in a dry environment.
There are ‘guitar humidifier’ products that you can get here on our website or at your local music store. There are a variety of designs and all are inexpensive. Put a humidifier in the case before you zip it up, and the natural moisture balance of the woods will be maintained. Check your guitar at least once a week. Never let water contact the woods of your guitar!
