How bad is it to keep a guitar in your car in the summertime?

[leroy jenkins]

I'm thinking I might be a nomad for part of this spring/early summer, put most of what I own in storage, live out of my car wandering around colorado southern utah and wherever else I fancy. I can get some occasional work outside of blanding and near aspen. This is though, I want to take a guitar with me, the only acoustic I have is a pretty nice taylor. Its one of their lower end ones, but still it cost me $1500, which is a lot of coin. I'm thinking maybe it might be all right to leave it in my car? I'm goign to have a bigass cooler full of cold/frozen stuff, and probably 10 gallons of water with me most of the time. I figure put the guitar next to the cooler, put the water on top of the guitar (its in a hard case) and the radiant cooling off the cooler and evaporative cooling from the water should keep it from getting that hot? Throw a blanket over cooler water and guitar and maybe it'll be all right? Its still probably going to get over 100 degrees in that car easily. I've done this with a cheap guitar before and it was cool to the touch with all that even when the car was pretty warm, but that thing was beat to hell already so theres no way to tell if it was adversely affected at all.

Other option is to have a friend hold on to the taylor and buy the teton classical that I've had my eye on for about $400, however I'd really like to have the taylor with me, I just love that guitar, and I'd rather not spend $400 on the teton quite yet.

Am I just an idiot? I mean I know I am but, specifically about this?

[hutash]

Any wood does not like changes in temp or humidity, so a car is a pretty poor environment for a nice guitar.

If this is an important instrument to you, considering buying a cheap guitar for the interim.

[systemoverblow'd]

Leaving 1500 worth of anything in your car for extended periods of time unattended isn't wise.

[Poop~Ghost]

Terrible idea, spend $50 on a c-list special that you don't care about and save your Taylor in a nice place.

[Hugh Conway]

Adding cool water = changing humidity = bad for guitar
Hot temperatures = bad for glue (you use heat to disassemble guitars)

[digitaldeath]

bad idea to own a guitar in the first place. check your head son

[leroy jenkins]

Leaving 1500 worth of anything in your car for extended periods of time unattended isn't wise.

Theres going to be a lot more than that in there to be honest. Not that I should probably be advertising but theres going to be several grand worth of guns, camping gear, bc ski gear, and a (albeit 12 year old) mnt bike. I wouldnt leave my car loaded up like that in a city but I've never had my car broken into when actually out away from things. Not really worried about that aspect of things, I'm pretty good at pulling off the 'that cars full of crap but none of it looks like its worth much' vibe.



I didn't think of the changes in humidity. I was thinking a hardcase might be somewhat sealed against that? Probably not though.



Ok, so I could spend couple hundo to get a cheap beater guitar to play (I'm not much of a snob but a $50 CL special is just going to make me never play it) but how bout this, does anyone know of some super amazing high tech humidity controlled acoustic guitar case? I would much rather spend $3-500 on a case that will give me the freedom to take my taylor with me than $200 on a guitar I'll only play when I'm camping. Someone has to make something like that right?

[DeathVan]

Guitars are like babies, it'll be fine.

[iscariot]

It's a great storage place, if you're going to use your guitar as firewood.

[leroy jenkins]

So youre saying I can eat it if I get hungry?Never thought of that.

[guroo270]

http://www.ameritagecases.com/detail...Les_Paul_Style

[bad dancer]

Second on the CL special !

[DeepHelmet]

I wouldn't do that to my drums, and you shouldn't try it with a guitar you care about. Buy the shitty one for the trip. It's gonna get way hotter that 100* in your car on southern Utah in the summer. More like 160* if it sits in the sun long enough.

[rideit]

You should buy my Seagull S6 for $350. I'll deliver it to Denver in a few weeks!

[TomCrac]

Buy a "cheap" Martin.

[Dhelihiker]

I fucked up a fairly expensive Martin just leaving it in a hot upstairs bedroom. Im guessing a car is worse.

[brice618]

Definitely a bad idea. You can get humidifiers for the case, but it won't help the stupid hot temperatures it will be experiencing. It will warp the neck making it practically unplayable since it won't hold a tune. You should get a trailer that's got a generator and run a window unit all day.

[iceman]

Buy a "cheap" Martin.

You can buy a new Martin "Backpacker" guitar for well less than $200, I saw them as cheap as $179. in a quick search. They're made to be abused and weigh under 3 lbs. Leave your good guitar somewhere safe.

[sb]

Guitars are like babies, it'll be fine.

POTD so far

[iceman]

Whoa time warp.

[AdironRider]

You can buy a new Martin "Backpacker" guitar for well less than $200, I saw them as cheap as $179. in a quick search. They're made to be abused and weigh under 3 lbs. Leave your good guitar somewhere safe.

This, was going to chime in myself and recco.

My pops got me one when I moved to Jackson 7 years ago. At the time I was like cool Dad .... I'm never going to use this thing. Now its practically the only one I play. I dont play all that often to begin with, but this thing has been all over the Tetons and just keeps on pickin. You will appreciate its small size when you are living out of your car.

[leroy jenkins]

I wouldn't do that to my drums, and you shouldn't try it with a guitar you care about. Buy the shitty one for the trip. It's gonna get way hotter that 100* in your car on southern Utah in the summer. More like 160* if it sits in the sun long enough.

This isnt summer, its more like may/june, and really once it gets hot in the desert im going to be up in the mountains anyways.



I hear everything you guys are saying, and yea, its all kind of common sense. I still think there HAS to be a way though. I probably will leave the taylor behind but I kind of want a 'real' guitar, and not something that I'll just let get trashed and warp because fuck it it was cheap. I'm not going to buy a $50 CL special, I already have a beat to shit old POS and whenever I play it it just makes me wish I had something else. Even if I get a $300 guitar I'm still going to want to take some steps to prevent it from turning into a $50 guitar.


I'm pretty confidant I can control the temperature. Next to a big cooler full of frozen/cold stuff, with all the water on top of the guitar case, throw a couple blankets over the whole thing, when I've car camped before I've done this just to keep my food cold, and upon returning I've always found the blankets to be cool to the touch inside.

So that leaves the humidity. What if I get one of those big waterproof rubber bags meant for river trips? I have one but not quite big enough for a full size guitar, although it might work for a classical. That should block it off from the condensation from the water/cooler right? Or not well enough? I get that if it gets wet enough condensation can still get inside, but its not going to be submerged or anything.



I probably won't be willing to use the taylor for this experiment but regardless of what I bring I'll need to control the temp and protect it from humidity. I think I've got the temp handled, so that leaves humidity. Any ideas other than guitar case inside a dry bag?

[bad dancer]

Sounds like your going to go ahead and go against every ones advise by bringing it. The thing is that it plays really nice now right ? When you you done, it will no longer be the guitar that you like playing. Nothing like playing a guitar with 1" action on the fretboard. Good times.

[leroy jenkins]

Sounds like your going to go ahead and go against every ones advise by bringing it. The thing is that it plays really nice now right ? When you you done, it will no longer be the guitar that you like playing. Nothing like playing a guitar with 1" action on the fretboard. Good times.

I probably won't be willing to use the taylor for this experiment but regardless of what I bring I'll need to control the temp and protect it from humidity. I think I've got the temp handled, so that leaves humidity. Any ideas other than guitar case inside a dry bag?

I won't be bringing the taylor. You're right though, I already have a guitar with a 3/4" action, and its not worth playing. If I wanted something I could just not care about I'd bring that. Currently I'm thinking I will bring something a lot cheaper than the taylor, but still not an absolute unplayable POS. If I bring a $300 guitar I'm still going to be looking for ways to keep it from turning into a complete POS. I think I've got temperature under control, which leaves humidity. Any ideas other than a guitar sized dry bag?

[irul&ublo]

Leaving 1500 worth of anything in your car for extended periods of time unattended isn't wise.

Advers once lost his prized Manny Ramirez dildo collection that way