On Another Note: Storing Your Musical Instrument
But what if you need to store your instrument for a long period of time? Where you store it, how you store it, and what maintenance you provide for it all factor into the condition of your instrument when you finally bring it back to life.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritize Climate Control: Maintain a steady environment between 60-70°F and 35-50% humidity. Extreme fluctuations can cause wood to crack, metal to corrode (“Red Rot”), and components to warp.
- Invest in Monitoring: Use a digital hygrometer to track humidity levels in your storage space. If the environment is naturally dry, use instrument-specific humidifiers to prevent wood shrinkage.
- Use Hard Cases: Always store instruments in a high-quality hard case rather than a gig bag to provide a physical buffer against bumps, dust, and temperature shifts.
- Prepare Before Storing: *
- Strings: Loosen string and bow tension slightly to prevent neck or stick warping.
- Brass: Deep clean, dry thoroughly, and oil all valves and slides to prevent seizing.
- Percussion: Oil leather drum skins to prevent drying and cracking.
- Mind the Orientation: Store violins and cellos on their backs and guitars vertically. Larger tuned percussion (like marimbas) should always be stored flat.
- Document Everything: Take photos and a detailed inventory before storing. This provides a baseline for your annual inspections and is essential for insurance purposes.
- Schedule Routine Maintenance: Visit your unit at least once a year to tune, clean, and inspect your instruments for signs of pests or environmental damage.
Climate Control is a Necessity
But ideally, you’ll want to store your instrument in a place that will allow you to maintain a temperature of 60-70 degrees and a humidity level of 35-50%, according to Strings Magazine.
If you’re thinking of storing the instrument in a room of your home, invest in a temperature/humidity monitor. You can get a reasonably-price one from AcuRite for under $10. This particular model shows a week’s worth of temperature and humidity range. This can give you an idea of how steady the levels are.
If you’re considering a basement or garage, and plan to store the instrument for a long period, you’ll need to run this test for longer prior to actually storing your instrument in this environment. You may need to invest in a humidifier specifically made for your instrument. Musician’s Friend carries a variety of humidifiers for different instruments. While this will vary depending on the season, it gives you some idea of where you stand.
For storage units, storing an instrument safely may depend on the location’s environment and whether some type of climate control is available. For some locations that experience higher summer temperatures such as San Jose, Costa Mesa, San Pedro and others, thermostatic climate control is a must, allowing the temperature to be kept at a constant temperature year-round.
For other, less-hostile locations in Oregon and Washington for instance, having a storage unit that is well-insulated and provides thermostically-controlled heat in the winter months is enough to maintain the type of conditions needed to store instruments safely.
If you are considering keeping your instrument at a storage facility, check with the store manager to see if they offer climate-controlled or heated storage as well as what the temperature and humidity levels are kept at. If they fall within the ranges mentioned above, a storage unit is an excellent place to keep your instrument. You’ll want to make sure that you’re carrying enough insurance to cover any items that you put in storage in case of theft or damage.
How to Store Your Instrument Correctly
Then consider the orientation and adjustment of the instrument. Cellos and violins, for instance, should be kept on their back to ensure they don’t get knocked over. You may want to loosen the strings slightly, but not so much that the bridges fall out. You’ll also want to loosen the bow tension if storing it for an extended period, otherwise the bow stick may warp over time.
Guitars should be stored vertically. While some people like to hang them, we advise keeping them in their case and storing them in a cabinet specifically designed for holding guitars upright. You should also consider a slight loosening of the strings while stored to prevent undue tension on the neck.
Insider Tip: We recommend checking manufacturer specifications for storing since different instruments will require different storing environments.
Keeping Your Percussion and Keyboard Instruments in Storage
The same rules regarding climate-control apply to brass instruments. Higher levels of humidity can result in “Red Rot” otherwise known as de-zincification. Keeping trumpets, trombones, baritones and the like in maintainable humidity and temperature level will insure the longevity of the instrument.
Insider Tip: For additional protection against humidity, our managers recommend using moisture absorbers inside the storage unit.
Annual Check-Up
Tune it Up
A Last Note
Find the right storage unit size for your instruments by checking out our storage unit size guide or giving your local self storage facility a call. Even better, you can swing by and our team will show you the exact storage unit you can rent to ensure it’s the right fit.
