Quote from Forum Archives on April 21, 2015, 10:29 am

Posted by: srolfe <srolfe@...>

They always tell you to let frozen gear thaw before using it, but as long as there wasn't a much in the way of condensation on it, I've never had an amp or cab cause me trouble from the cold alone.

Humidity is a different matter. 

Up here in the frozen north, there are a number of things you learn over the years:

- High humidity and poor temperature control are hard on gear.

- Repeated freeze/thaw cycles are harder still.

I've learned that you can tell whether gear has ever been stored in an uninsulated garage or shed, just by looking for pitting or tarnish on chromed parts. It's amazing how quickly it happens. I have moved stuff from my insulated (but not heated) garage to the garden shed for as little as a month or two, only to find them sporting a patina that I would normally associate with decades of use.

I don't know whether the problems Sherry experienced were due to damp cones in her cab, or condensation/crud on jacks or switches.

Either way, the message is clear: Find better storage.

Humidity is very different from temperature. You can't confine it to one room of a house. In the same way, you can't keep it out of something that's stored in a damp space just by throwing a bag over it, unless the bag can be hermetically sealed. Finding a kayaker's Dry Bag large enough to hold a 4x10 is a lot easier said than done! 

Living with a large family in a series of too-small houses, I know how tough it is to find space for your gear amongst the clutter, but there are ways. I've even thrown a cloth across my speaker cabs, and used them as end tables...

On Monday, April 20, 2015 11:22 AM, Peter Sharp <pwsharp@gmail.com&gt; wrote:

From: <a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:pwsharp@gmail.com" href="mailto:pwsharp@gmail.com">pwsharp@gmail.com

While you would expect a little flex from a dry paper cone, it should be
essentially stiff with the greatest flexibility found in the ribbed
outer ring section. I imagine a dampened cone would, by comparison, be a
dreadfully sloppy structure more prone to be affected by the air
adjacent than to actually move it. Just compare ANY damp sheet of paper
with its dry counterpart.

I'm glad a couple of days drying out seems to have restored normality to
your gear! 🙂

Peter Sharp
Dubuque, IA

On 18/04/2015 10:06 PM, Bill and Sherry Crann wrote:
> Hi friends,
>
> Wow - I just had a major point driven home this week.
>
> I was asked to play bass for our community concert choir because they
> needed someone who could read sheets and improvise off chord charts for
> different songs.  I showed up with my practice rig and my "big rig".
> I've been using the practice rig this winter (we live in Michigan), and
> had stored the big rig out in the garage.  It's warmed up some but has
> been damp out there the last couple of weeks.
>
> So I showed up, tried using just the practice amp because they were
> going to mic it and put it through the house, but the director wanted a
> bass solo-ish part for one song and the smaller amp just didn't have the
> oomph or phatness of tone that I wanted.  So I set up the big rig (bass
> to Presonus tone box to Crown power amp to a Carvin 4x10 with a horn)
> expecting that I'd need to turn it way down so I didn't blow the pianist
> across the stage.
>
> I turned on my rig, and proceeded to be horrified by the floppy, thin,
> wavery sound coming out of it.  Talk about dead spots - I was only
> getting every other note to sound it seemed.  I seriously was thinking
> maybe mice got into it while it was in the garage and had chewed up
> stuff that I couldn't see from the outside.  It was especially bad on Fs
> and Bbs, which was going to suck badly because one bass-feature piece is
> in F 🙂  So I kept playing scales and it started sounding a little
> better, though nothing at all like my big rig should sound.  After
> practice I was wracking my brain to figure out what was going on.
>
> The next time we got together - 2 days later - "my rig" was back. It
> sounded awesome - tight, punchy, growly, and LOUD (I did end up turning
> it way down at that point).  I think it just needed to warm up and dry
> out (the cones are paper fiber) to get the mojo back. Everything seems
> to be working as it has in the past, and I think it was dampness and not
> mice that caused the issue.
>
> So I'm trying to think of where else I can store my equipment when I'm
> not using it 🙂  And if you've had equipment in storage in a not-ambient
> atmosphere, maybe it just needs to acclimate to sound right.  Oddly
> enough we have played some venues when the humidity was high but I don't
> recall ever having my rig sound like it did that first night at practice
> - and I hope I never do again....
>
> Alternatively, has anyone tried "bagging" their equipment in such a
> storage situation, and does that keep out the moisture well enough? I'm
> not sure where I would store my equipment elsewhere, so the garage may
> be my only option.
>
> Grace,
> Sherry
>
>
>
> --
> "A person's a person, no matter how small."
>
> /Horton the Elephant /
>
>
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