New Owner ,Straps and Humidifiers questions

[Broken2227]

Hello,

I recently purchased My first Collings D2H. While I have been playing guitar for a while, This is the first time, I owned an instrument of this caliber.

What type of strap do you use and have any of you had a strap button installed at the neck heel?

Humidifiers , what are your thoughts on these ? If going with one that goes inside the case, what one would you suggest and is a room humidifier necessary ?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
John

[PWE]

John, welcome to the forum and congrats on the D2h! I as well as many others own a D2H and I am confident you will not be disappointed. You bought it because you liked it and it only gets better with playing time and age. With respect to your humidification question, it all depends on where you currently live. For example I lived for many years in the Pacific Northwest. My daylight basement stayed a consistent 45 to 50% humidity level you’re around without any outside action on my part. This afforded me the luxury of hanging my guitars on the wall and enjoying them both visually and ease of play. I had several hygrometers in the area of my guitars and never had to do anything else except monitor them. Today is a different story since I have moved to Arizona. Down here I have a bedroom closet dedicated solely for the storage of my guitars which are stored in their cases with the closet humidified by a small room humidifier that automatically controls the humidity level at 45 to 50%.

If you travel by RV a lot such as I did for a number of years, there is another means that I came up with to maintain the health of my guitars during my travels. If you’re interested I would be more than happy to share my RV travel method with you as well.

Again welcome to the forum as there a lot of friendly folks here and good information.

Paul

[FreeBlues]

I use a Venta room humidifier. After trying several other, less expensive models, this one has proven to not only be the easiest to use and maintain, it keeps my guitar room very well humidified year round - and I live at 7,000' in Northern New Mexico. My acoustics live on stands in the room, never in a case. Also, a high quality hygrometer is essential. I use an analog model, don't trust the digital versions.

Straps are a personal item. I love Sully straps, one for a lifetime for me. I have strap button on the neck and the heel. I play out a lot, standing, so my strap is designed for standing play. (I also have a Collings 290 that likes a strap while seated, so I have two, one for standing and one used while seated.)

Hope this helps.

[jeffbokc]

Welcome to the Collings family, John!

I, like many others on this forum, am a Collings freak and take good care of my instruments.
For an in-case humidifier, I use D'Addario Humidipak's. They keep the humidity in cases at a very consistent 45% to 48% in my experience.

In the colder months in Oklahoma I use a room humidifier. I have tried the Venta but now use the AirCare MA Console humidifier. Yes, it requires more work than the Venta since you have to change the wicks every month or so, but I found that it works better for me than the Venta. Where I live, ambient indoor humidity in the warmer months is a comfortable and guitar-friendly roughly 45%, while in the colder months it gets to around 25% to 30%. The AirCare brings it up to where it needs to be, in the 45% to 50% range. (I use Humidipak's when I travel with a guitar.)

As far as straps go, I really like Bob Schell's straps at www.brookwoodleather.com. I have several of his straps. His website isn't the best, but his straps are! All are custom made and Bob is good at giving suggestions regarding colors, etc. His straps are very high quality.

-Jeff

[Red Oak]

Welcome to the Collings family, John!

I, like many others on this forum, am a Collings freak and take good care of my instruments.
For an in-case humidifier, I use D'Addario Humidipak's. They keep the humidity in cases at a very consistent 45% to 48% in my experience.

In the colder months in Oklahoma I use a room humidifier. I have tried the Venta but now use the AirCare MA Console humidifier. Yes, it requires more work than the Venta since you have to change the wicks every month or so, but I found that it works better for me than the Venta. Where I live, ambient indoor humidity in the warmer months is a comfortable and guitar-friendly roughly 45%, while in the colder months it gets to around 25% to 30%. The AirCare brings it up to where it needs to be, in the 45% to 50% range. (I use Humidipak's when I travel with a guitar.)

As far as straps go, I really like Bob Schell's straps at www.brookwoodleather.com. I have several of his straps. His website isn't the best, but his straps are! All are custom made and Bob is good at giving suggestions regarding colors, etc. His straps are very high quality.

-Jeff

Good suggestion regarding the strap. I was a big fan of Bobby Poff straps but I don’t know if they are still available.