Weather conditions can heavily affect a guitar, especially cold weather. Many people often ask this question: Can I leave my guitar in a cold car? Professional guitarists may face particular circumstances in their lives where they have to keep their guitars in vehicles for a prolonged time.
Can I leave my guitar in a cold car?
You should not leave your guitar in a cold car. Keeping your guitar in a cold car for a long time will harm it whether it is a classical, acoustic, or electric guitar.
If you do this repeatedly several times, you will notice particular changes in your guitar sturdiness, performance, and overall structure. That’s why go for an alternative option to keep your guitar safely.
Can I Leave My Guitar In A Cold Car?
It is affecting the overall structure of the guitar. So, anything that physically affects this musical instrument is harmful to it. Make sure the humidity level for your guitar is 45-55%.
Is It OK To Leave A Guitar In A Cold Car? It is not a good idea to keep your beautiful guitar inside a cold car. The car becomes cold when the outside temperature is foggy. The humidity level changes fast during cold conditions.
Your guitar is likely to contact dry air if the area you live in has a low humidity level. It can affect your guitar in various ways, such as unwanted tumble, looseness issues on the fretboard, etc.
How Does Temperature Affect Your Guitar?
Condensation is one of the most common things that occur during low-temperature environments. It often takes as the primary culprit to destroy guitars. As condensation involves moisturize, it harms several metal components of this musical instrument.
Not just metal areas, moisture can also reach dense wood sections too. For electrical guitars, the mess is more because electrics parts will be affected negatively. In addition, rustiness might be a common scenario on the guitar strings.
The temperature in a cold car is not stable. It will fluctuate randomly. Keeping your guitar under this condition means your guitar overall wood construction will expand and contract.
Your naked eyes may not see it. But you can observe the wood pieces which are attached through glue. There might be a small gap, and the gap will be larger over time if you keep storing your guitar in a cold car.
What Are The Affected Areas Of The Guitar?
The neck will be the most heavily affected area since most guitar parts are connected through the neck. You are most likely to experience an unreasonable front bend on the neck area for leaving your guitar in a cold vehicle for a prolonged time.
You think only the neck will be affected? NO! Cold conditions will also affect your guitar bridge. At worse, it may damage the part heavily.
Additionally, when you regularly store your guitar in a cold car, it will affect the tuning. The vibration and tensions created from strings won’t be as smooth as they used to be. Precise tuning will be compromised.
How Can I Store My Guitar In The Cold Safely?
Sometimes we may face situations where we don’t have any alternative but keeping the guitar inside the cold vehicle. Under this circumstance, you should store it safely to reduce the damage.
The modern era has modern solutions. Thankfully, many guitar cases are available in the market to provide extreme safety to store the guitar in cold conditions. Make sure you purchase a well-made cover to ensure the maximum safeguard.
A well-built guitar case prevents moisture from entering inside the guitar parts. Hence, no chance of occurring condensation!
Another effective step you can do to protect your guitar performance is making it out of tune. So, temperature conditions will not affect your guitar tuning negatively. Hopefully, you have gathered enough idea about “How can I store my guitar in the cold safely?”
What Is The Optimal Temperature To Store My Guitar?
The optimal temperature ranges between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius or 70 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Before keeping your guitar with a case, you must know the optimum temperature to store it. You think it is hard to find the best temperature to store it? NO!
Which type of temperature do you feel most comfortable with? It must be between too hot and too cold. Temperate climate! The same goes for your guitar too.
However, according to most experts, the optimal temperature ranges between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius or 70 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This climate condition is the best temperature to store any guitar you own.
However, you can’t overlook the humidity level too. Humidity levels range between 45% to 50% is the best condition to store this musical instrument.
So, why does humidity matter? The tone quality and guitar performance are heavily affected by a particular humidity level.
Can You Leave Your Guitar In A Hot Car?
Absolutely not! The more hot the weather, the higher the humidity level. If you keep your guitar in a hot car for a prolonged time, it’s not uncommon for guitar wood to swell enormously.
As you have already known, glues are used to join various parts of the guitar together. These glue joints will start to break down when they contact with excessive heat.
If the temperature exceeds 50 degrees Celsius, the glue will start to melt. Keeping your guitar in such excessive hot conditions will damage its components. The bridge or nut of the guitar may become loose when you store the guitar in a hot car for a long time.
A guitar includes various parts, and its capability to withstand hot temperatures is not the same. But surely, an expansion will occur for all body parts at an individual rate.
For example, the deck of a guitar is crafted from wood. But, stainless steel frets are also equipped on them. Hence, the expansion for the wooden fretboard and stainless steel frets won’t be the same.
Further, the strings will also be expanded, reducing the efficiency of fine-tuning. However, it is not visible as other issues.
Can sunlight damage a guitar?
Definitely, in various ways! Firstly, it may fade the original color of your guitar. Secondly, wood fatigue could happen by lessening the capacity of efficiency that creates better sound. All these occur due to the UV rays from the sunlight.
Never Pile Your Guitars
Cautiousness is essential if you own several guitars. Never make the mistake of stacking one guitar on top of another.
An upright position is the best approach to keep your guitar safely. Put the musical instrument inside the cover and hang it as you do for your suit.
However, guitars cover a large amount of space. That’s why you may struggle to keep in an upright position, especially if you have limited space.
In that case, storing them in one side position is also okay. But don’t forget to keep the guitar’s upper side in a facing-up position — not completely flat.
Loosening the guitar strings is another safety tip you can follow to store your guitar. Since you are not playing the guitar, regular tension is not required for the guitar strings.
However, it is necessary to maintain a few kinds of tension on your guitar neck to function properly. If not, your guitar will bend at the neck area.
Home: Best Place to Store Guitars
Home is the best place to store guitars where you can ensure proper airflow. Keeping it in the middle room of your home is a better choice to prevent temperature fluctuation.
A humidifier may be useful if you can use one. It can control the humidity level, especially in colder temperatures.
Here are five best humidifiers you can checkout from Amazon:
| No. | Product Name |
| 1. | Music Nomad MN300 Humitar |
| 2. | ThermoPro TP 50 Hygrometer |
| 3. | Oasis OH-6 Case Humidifier |
| 4. | TaoTronics Top Fill Humidifier |
| 5. | Oasis Instrument Humidifier |
What Temperature Is Too Cold for a Guitar?
5-10 degrees Celsius temperature or less is too cold for a guitar. For maximum retention of durability, make sure you have it away from this condition.
Effective Tips to Store Your Guitar Safely In a Cold Car
Parking At The Right Spot
Pick a perfect spot to park your car. You should not park the vehicle where excessive sunlight can reach.
Slightly Opening Car Windows
Keep open your car windows slightly—not more than one inch. Fully open windows will allow entering excessive heat temperature inside it. You just need to create a situation to let enough air pass through.
Not More Than Few Hours!
Keeping your guitars for the whole day or overnight will heavily damage their construction and tuning. Symptoms that you will experience have already been discussed.
If you mistakenly store it for more than 24 hours, it can be ruinous for your musical instrument. Many people have already experienced damaging their guitars by keeping them inside the car for several days.
Final Takeover
A guitar is not just a guitar; it is full of emotions and memories. Ensuring the maximum protection for your favorite musical instrument is your responsibility.
You neither want to store it in excessive cold or hot temperatures. Moderate temperature with sufficient airflow is what you should focus on.
Keeping your guitar in a cold car will damage the components of your guitar. Buy a high-quality bag to store your guitar in our home. Enhanced protection! Hopefully, you have learned some precise details on “Can I leave my guitar in a cold car?”
