Those of you who have instruments that need to be kept humid: how do you keep them humid? The guy who rented us Rob’s cello said we would need to keep the cello in a closed room with a humidifier, and keep maybe even more than one hygrometer in the room to make sure we were getting an accurate reading. He then told us some horror stories: The Family That Thought Two Humidifiers Were Enough, But THEY WERE WRONG! and The Family That Kept Their House at 50% Humidity, But IT WAS NOT ENOUGH!
In researching this a little bit I found there is such a thing as a “case humidifier,” which appears to be…a sponge? in a little plastic box with holes? selling for way, way, way more than I would think a sponge in a little plastic box would cost, but presumably it is a SPECIAL sponge and a SPECIAL box. Or there are other versions, but the gist is that it is something kept inside the case with the cello. It seems like a way better system than humidifying a whole room or whole house—but if it WERE better, it seems as if the cello guy would have mentioned it, so that makes me assume it ISN’T a better system.
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We watched Nanny McPhee with the kids, and I’d forgotten how much I love that movie.
(image from Amazon.com)
I was completely sure I’d already blogged about it so I was going to link back to that post, but apparently I HAVEN’T blogged about it except for a brief parenthetical in the Wallowing post (a post in which I apparently ran out of steam on the photos). Which is disappointing, because I know I want to rave about it, but I don’t know SPECIFICALLY, so I was hoping I’d already written it. I love Emma Thompson, I love Colin Firth, I love the actors who play the kids, I love the cook and Mrs. Quickly, and the whole thing is just silly and funny and makes me happy.
When I played the cello I used a DAMPIT. It is a sponge tube that you can rest inside the f-hole of the cello or just put inside the case.
I also use a Dampit (but for my violin). It looks like they are about $20 online, but I’ve had mine since 1999-ish and it is still in good shape, so it won’t be something you have to replace often (or ever). Aside from buying/using a Dampit, I never did anything special with the humidity levels in the house.
Yes, Dampit. I use mine for my violin. Just have to remember to re-wet it when it starts to dry out (but he’ll be practicing frequently, so it’s easy to check and see if it needs to be soaked again). Keep case closed, dampit inside, and it’ll be fine.
Guy at the store maybe enjoys scaring people a bit too much… I mean, sure, million-dollar instruments are one thing, but a rental cello can’t possibly be that temperamental. (And now I know I’ve been spelling temperamental wrong…)
I came to look at the comment to see about cello humidity. I don’t have a cello, I’m just curious. Ha!
Me too. We just have inquiring minds, which is good.
Me too! So glad I’m not alone!
another one! who knew?
Ha I just wanted to know too!
Me toooo. And I also have no opinion on Nanny McPhee.
Same!
My daughter and husband both use Dampit in their violins. I really don’t know any more about it than they have them and use them all fall/winter/spring. It is easy to use and was recommended by her violin instructor.
My son has a violin, a guitar, and some other string instruments, and I’ve never once considered the humidity. Oops. Off to look up the dampit thing.
I don’t have anything to say about cellos or humidity (I’m about as musically gifted as the plate of ravioli sitting in front of me…), so I just came to say that my girls and I also very much adore(d) Nanny McPhee, and even the sequel (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, I believe it’s called)…!
Why does the cello get off being so dang PERSNICKETY? Huh, cello? Explain yourself.
My daughter has a packet of gel blobs to which she adds water and then keeps them in her viola case. I purchased them for her years ago at her instructor’s direction but I can’t think of the name of them now. I will look around and let you know. I know it isn’t a Dampit.
It is Dampit. I’m off to the senility ward now…..
Uh oh. My son also plays the cello and we have done nothing about the humidity. Neither the guy at the store nor my son’s teachers have said anything. Perhaps it depends where you live? Like how you don’t need as much salt in your baking if you live near the ocean?
I’ll email his teacher. Although in his class last year, we were told a lot about how to take care of the cello (put a tshirt on it to protect it from the zipper of the case, etc) so it’s strange to think they would miss this.
Wait. Is that true that you don’t need as much salt in your baking if you live near the ocean? Beach cookies are absorbing salt through the air? I need to go bake some cookies at the beach. For science, of course.
you know, I don’t know. A friend of mine who bakes a lot mentioned it to me once. I don’t use much salt in baking anyway, so I have never really looked into it.
Hooboy, my inner nerd is coming out. I think the amount of leavening needed for baking varies by altitude (sea level being one condition). Normally this would refer to salt in the form of baking powder or baking soda. Occasionally the directions, even on cake mixes, will say something like “West of the Rockies, use only x amount of such and such.” I think Megan has a good idea; definitely needs to go conduct some science experiments and mail the results for us to judge. Megan, I would be particularly interested in the effect of sea level conditions on chocolate chip cookies.
We have two rented cellos and one rented violin at our house and neither the rental people nor the teachers have mentioned anything about humidity. Now I’m not sure I want to ask because that’s a lot of dampit I’m looking at having to buy.
I’m so glad you posted this! We just rented my 12yo a viola, but other than some notes on the music company’s website, I haven’t heard much about keeping the humidity right. Yay!, so, Dampit. Off to buy Dampit. To avoid future Dammits.
I love Nanny McPhee! It’s one of those really special movies that you wish there were more of but then you are glad are so rare, because you don’t want the specialness diluted. :) If that makes sense.
Yep, another Dampit user here. My husband has a twelve string acoustic guitar (has had it about 13 years now), and has had the same Dampit, the same guitar, no humidity problems. And he’s lucky I let him keep one guitar under the bed and his electric on a stand behind the filing cabinet (so that the kids can’t reach it), no special humidified rooms here. This reminds me of the advice from the vet following our cats’ spaying surgeries. Find a small room where they can’t jump up on anything, and keep them in the room, all by themselves, for several days. Dude, I love my cats, but even I don’t get that kind of vacation :) Double spoiler. We didn’t do this. All cats totally fine.
I was about to come on here and babble about growing up in a family of musicians with a few very nice violins and never doing anything to control for humidity. But after thinking about it – I come from the tropics essentially – land of bad hair. 50% humidity sounds really low to me. Now that I live up north I can see how you might need something to counteract all the winter heat.
If there’s a cigar/tobacco store nearby, they often have very similar products for lower prices than the special instrument humidifiers. I bought one that’s a tube of re-hydrating crystals for not very much. Just don’t let them sell you the solution to use in it- just use water! The only downside to this is you have to venture into a tobacco store, which I find to be an unpleasant and often smokey experience.
Some clarinet players put orange peels in their case, and replace them when they become dried out- I don’t like that it makes the instrument smell like oranges, and it’s probably not enough humidity for a string instrument. But there it is.
Also, if you’re feeling super cheap and there’s a good spot for it in the case, you can use a cut-up (maybe half? A quarter? depends on space) kitchen sponge in a ziplock baggie with holes punched in it. Get the sponge wet, WRING IT OUT WELL, put it in the bag, put it in the case!
The wood will swell and shrink as humidity changes, and drastic changes will cause warping, as well as potentially layers to come unglued (on string instruments). Wintertime indoor heating is the worst- the way it makes your hands, lips, sinuses, etc feel all dried out? It does that to the instrument too. I’ve had clarinets (which come apart into multiple pieces) actually get stuck together because the outer part shrinks around the inner part of the joint (imagine the cap on your marker shrinks while on the pen, and is now too tight to get off!). We solve this problem by sealing the instrument in a freezer bag or trash bag with a wet sponge or paper towel inside until the wood re-humidifies. It’s a pain.
I played violin for years and never did anything regarding the humidity. The violin survived just fine.
Breaking from my usual no-commenting-from-my-phone stance (too pesky, often fails) to say that I played the viola, my sister played the acoustic guitar and my brother played the string bass growing up in Fargo, ND. Humidity is around negative bazillion there for 9 months of every year. No humidifiers were run nor dampits or anything else. The viola and guitar still in great condition and the bass returned without a problem to the rental store. There is something suspect about Old Man Cello and his tales of dried cellos of yore.
The cello experience sounds like the damn pits (ha!).
I LOVE Nanny McPhee! I also love the second one – even as much as the first – which is so rare. Such sweet, funny stories AND Emma Thompson. Love her!
I like the Nanny McPhee movies too; Emma Thompson is so wonderful in so many ways. But I loved the books that the movie was inspired by even more: as a child, I read the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand over and over again, delighting in the naughtiness of the children and the stern magic of the nanny.
We live in Northern Virginia and rented a cello last year. The folks at the rental place didn’t say boo about keeping the cello humid, but that’s probably because hello, we live in a swamp.
so we just spent 59 bucks to repair our son’s violin that wasn’t kept humid enough and the bridge fell out and broke–clearly the 10 year old was completely innocent here! but BUT the music shop said to take it in the bathroom once a week during someone’s shower and open the case the humidity would be perfect–I think the sponge in the ziploc sounds like a lot less work and possibility for breakage AGAIN
cheers!
I played Cello for 4 years, and never heard about having to keep a humidifier. But maybe that’s because I lived in an extremely humid area?
We live in a very dry climate (Northern Canada) and my husband uses the little sponge thingee humidifier for his guitars. He had one crack (didn’t know he was supposed to be using one). Has used this thing ever since and no problems.
Came to the comments about the cello humidity thing. Went ahead and read them all because it ended up being very interesting! I played viola for 7 years, my older sister played cello for 6 yrs, my son plays acoustic guitar and I’ve never, ever heard of Dampit or was warned about humidity in relation to stringed instruments. None of us ever had any problems, which seems weird, if it’s so important, because we live in northern Ohio. In the summer, humidity is crazy high, but the rest of the year – not so much. So I would think that if it caused problems that easily, at least one of us would have had a problem.
Maybe just buy a Dampit for peace of mind, and try not to worry about it. Sounds like the guy was one of those “worst case scenario” types.