In my last post on humidifiers, I wrote about my Grover system and how it worked well but I had concerns with it fitting so tight between the strings and the guitar that it might scratch the finish. I was also having troubles with the sponge getting tangled with the electronics in side my guitar. Purchased a Kyser system from Amazon and I’m very happy with what I got.
My Impression:
The Kyser is constructed of some sort of soft/flexible plastic or rubber so no worries that it would scratch or scuff my guitar. Installation was simple, easily fitting into the sound hole sealing in the moister in where it belongs. The only drawback I could find in installation was that if the sponge is too saturated, water could drip onto or in your guitar so be careful. I left the humidifier in the guitar for the last three days and it has performed as well as my Grover. The sponge was still saturated and could go for a few more days.
Final Thoughts
The Kyser Lifeguard Humidifier System is a must have for any musician that needs a fair priced ($14.00) and efficient humidifier for their acoustic guitar. With the solid yet soft construction you can be assured that it will take care of your guitar without damaging it.
Update (5.13.08): It has now been about two weeks since this post and the Kyser is still working great. I re-saturated it today for the first time since the posting and the sponge was still damp and probably could have went longer. I must tell you that it was in a closed case the whole time but even in a closed case the Grover didn’t last more than 3 or 4 days. I now have my Martin hanging on the wall. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.
I’m sure, at one time or another, you have watched Esteban pimping out his “$800 dollar value” guitar for $200 or so bucks on Home Shopping Network. Now is your chance to try it out or just get the opinions of guitarists around the world via the “Esteban World Tour!” I discovered this clever idea on the Acoustic Guitar Magazine forum and think it’s great. The jist of the whole idea is to get as many people involved to play the guitar, make a video and upload it. The guy who started it, “Omaha,” manages the blog that tracks the videos and there seems to be about 10 or so videos posted as of today. So check out this world tour to see if the Esteban guitar is really all that it’s hyped up to be. According to some of the videos, it’s not but it can sure take a beating.
I’m a “how’s that work” or “Let’s see the guts” type of guy when I see new gadgets. This now includes the Gibson “Robot Guitar” and it’s self tuning mechanism. I have heard about this new gadget and haven’t looked into it too much until news.com had an interesting pictorial with descriptions on “Taking apart the robot guitar.” I’ve seen similar contraptions that can be installed on existing guitar but it’s nothing like the robot and requires some serious routing. It was pretty cool to see how Gibson hid the electronics to keep the guitar looking authentic. The machine heads are pretty bulky in the back and looks like you will need a bit of training on how to use it. Pretty cool but seems like a gadget that I can do without.
I’ve seen on twitter and other forums that guitarist (including myself) lament over [ad#125-125-floatright] the fact that they don’t have their guitar with them. Well, your lonely days are over! All you need is buy an iPhone and jailbreak it. Below, is a video of someone doing their best to play us a Beatles medley with their new guitarpod and I’m sure that you can see that our steal and nylon stringed companions won’t have to worry about getting replaced by this “Guitar Hero” for the iPhone. Anyway, I could see someone eventually getting pretty good at playing the iGuitar and will have a nice little gimmick in an act or at parties. I also see a nice little tool that could help you work out a melody that was stuck in your head or working on chords. Will this be enough for me to hack my iPhone? I think not. My iTouch….. well….. Nah. I’ll just stick to playing the real thing.
“The Acoustic Guitar: Adjustment, Care, Maintenance, and Repair,” (thoughts on book in upcoming posts). Mainly because I want to be able to make the necessary adjustments to my instrument without having to take it into a shop all the time. Some might want to work on their own guitar as well but others would rather give it to a professional but how can you find a good repair shop in your area?
I have a new friend through Twitter who provides great help in finding such guitar repair shops. It is repairmyguitar.com, which is a searchable database of repair shops throughout the United States. All you need to do is visit the site, choose your city, state and you will be given a list of local repair shops. I would say the list is pretty decent for the areas that I looked up and I’m sure that it is growing everyday. In the future, I hope to see an option to search for luthiers.
If you are looking to repair, setup or just do some standard maintenance on your guitar, check out repairmyguitar.com and find a local shop. They currently have a promotion where if you can win $50 if you submit a review of a shop that you used. Reviews will give us even more confidence in using this search tool. If you own a shop or repair guitars, visit the site and get listed, it’s free and a invaluable tool to promote your business.
In my last post on humidifiers, I wrote about my Grover system and how it worked well but I had concerns with it fitting so tight between the strings and the guitar that it might scratch the finish. I was also having troubles with the sponge getting tangled with the electronics in side my guitar. Purchased a Kyser system from Amazon
Installation was simple, easily fitting into the sound hole sealing in the moister in where it belongs. The only drawback I could find in installation was that if the sponge is too saturated, water could drip onto or in your guitar so be careful. I left the humidifier in the guitar for the last three days and it has performed as well as my Grover. The sponge was still saturated and could go for a few more days. 
