over resonating bridge

[keith]

i live in boston where the summers do get humid. last year we had the hottest and most humid summer in 100 years. unfortunately since then the note A on the 3, 4, and 5th strings seems to over resonate (is loud and thuddish) to the point that it is disturbing (it is a 3 year old ramirez). :( lightly placing a fingernail on the bridge--especially the tie block greatly reduces this over resonation. has anyone else had this experience? or knows of this problem? if so, was the solution to replace the bridge? thanks.

[David J.H.]

I live in Mobile, AL and believe me we're no strangers to humidity. In fact, Mobile is statistically one of the rainiest cities in the country (Seattle always steals the limelight). Being a Ramirez owner myself I have noticed the "A" pitches (especially mr. A-440) to become a little more ...boisterous since I first purchased it, however, I'm not sure if it's a disturbing as you've described. I'm also not sure if humidity is the culprit here either, because as long as you store your guitar in an air conditioned space, the humidity should be quite low in comparison to outdoors. Any seasoned (no pun intended) guitar tech should be able to tell you if there's been weather damage to your instrument . It would stand to reason that too much humidity would actually dampen and dirty the overall sound of a guitar. But...if humidity is to blame have little fear. If I may unashamedly steal a quote from one of the articles on GSI's site...
"The chief enemy of all guitars is the lack of humidity or excessive dryness. This problem exists in all parts of the world which have heating and air conditioning, and in areas which are commonly dry outdoors, for example, the Southwest United States. It is very rare that excessive humidity will cause irreversible damage. Equally rare is damage due to cold or heat."
so...dunno dude, get it checked out. Hope that helps and check out some of the other articles on the site.[/quote]

[Miguel]

Hi Keith,
I have never lived in a climate quite as humid as yours, but I do know for a fact that excessive humidity does strange things to guitars. But first of all, are you currently using a hygrometer?. Like David said, air conditioning systems and heaters both dry out the air, so your guitar may not necessarily be exposed to the high level of humidity your region is going through. A hygrometer would help you determine for sure whether humidity is the issue or not.
I do know of people who have had similar problems to yours, but they ended up being completely unrelated to humidity. One friend, for example, discovered that when he re-strung his guitar, the portion of the string between the nut and the tuning roller was touching the wood in the headstock. As it turns out, this small detail was causing certain pitches to sound very thuddy and unclear. Have you looked into that possibility?
Another possible cause for your problem may be the way you are tying the strings to the tie-block. Make sure the end of the string ends up pressed against the back of the tie-block, not the top of it. Also, the angle of the piece of string between the saddle and the hole in the tie-block should be as low as possible. The type of string you are using may be another factor, as well as the age of the string.
I would look into these options first. Replacing the bridge is a bit drastic, so I wouldn't go there until all else has failed and you have determined for sure that it is the only possible solution.
Hope this helps.
Miguel
GSI

[keith]

thanks guys. to respond to your comments: no i do not use a/c--i should and probably will. i do use a hygrometer and do whatever i can to respond to high levels of humidity. the strings, tying, etc. remains the same as before. lightly laying a fingernail on the treble arm of the bridge helps considerably--a local luthier gave me a very small piece of rose wood in the dimensions of the arm, about 1/16 inches thick that i have attached to the treble arm of the bridge with double stick tape--this seems to do the trick. once fall arrives the problem will resolve itself --as it did last year. until then, i guess a small piece of rosewood (brazillian at that) will be the solution.