The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello all!

    Country is on lockdown, AND it's the easter holiday... After two weeks of isolation to make sure I was symptom-free, I went back to my parents' place in western Norway to spend this strange time with them. I took the train, so I could bring my whole rig - including my beloved semi-hollow Gibson ES.
    I'm so sick of four walls, so when the sun's out I sit out on the patio in direct sunlight for hours on end and play guitar.

    Now, I can assume that it's not exactly "good" for my guitar, but just -how- bad is it?

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  3. #2

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    You have nothing whatsoever to worry about, enjoy.

  4. #3

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    Well one thing it does is, it ages the lacquer finish. Gives the finish and the bindings a amber/yellowish hue. I think that's a good thing. But it probably also has other, less favourable effects.
    Last edited by Tal_175; 04-06-2020 at 05:18 PM.

  5. #4

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    It kills viruses, and gives you needed vitamin D. Unless you get sunburn, I don't know of any other ill effects, either on people or guitars. Over a very long term, it can change the color by fading, but that takes longer than this pandemic is likely to last. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. I enjoy sitting outside for the week or two that spring and autumn last here. But in the summer it's far too hot and humid to do that, and in the winter it's too damp and cool. I expect the summer might be more pleasant that far north.

  6. #5

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    The sun is a giant burning ball of radioactive plasma. How bad could it be?


  7. #6

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    Since you live quite far up in the northern hemisphere I doubt that you have anything to worry about - the UV rays that are potentially harmful for your skin and the finish on your guitar are not nearly as intense there as in Middle and Southern Europe.

  8. #7

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    Here in New Zealand a sunburst finish is not a paint job.

  9. #8

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    Unless the guitar is out baking on its own, i dont think its an issue.

    but laquer reacts with UV and the clear coat on it will yellow over time. Probably a long time.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Litterick
    Here in New Zealand a sunburst finish is not a paint job.
    Yeah, but I’ll take all I can get down here in Dunedin. And I go from blonde to sunburst in a heartbeat.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  11. #10

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    Thanks mates, you have eased my mind... Have a good easter

  12. #11

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    I'd expect a bit of fading, but that might not be such a bad thing.

    Otherwise, the main negative is that the sun is responsible for this global warming thing.

  13. #12

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    The sun just keeps on doing what it does. We're responsible for what happens down here. The sun might cause some yellowing of the nitro, but if you don't get sunburn, neither will the guitar, warming or not.

  14. #13

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    Has your guitar recently been in Transylvania? Can you see it in a mirror. If the answers are "no" and "yes", your guitar is likely OK in the sun. If the opposite, probably not, and consider wearing a garlic pendant while playing.

    John

  15. #14

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    A local brick and mortar owner had a git custom made and used a pic of a late (faded) 50's LP CSB for the color he wanted. What he got was an actual cherry sunburst. Not happy with that AFAIK he placed it in various windows, and on a patio for extended periods and no fading.

    What he surmised is the maker used UV stabilized stains, and he still hates the git. I like it a LOT but not enough to have a LP clone at nearly the price I can get a used real R8 through R0 for :-)

  16. #15

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    Just stay away from Death Valley.......

  17. #16

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    And other places. I don't go out in the sun with my guitar down here. Or with anything else if I can avoid it. When it's 95 degrees and 95% relative humidity, it's very uncomfortable out in the sun, or even in the shade. I worry more about the heat than the sunlight, both on me and the guitar.

  18. #17

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    I've had a couple newish guitars that were natural maple, and that had a sort of anemic, whitish tone to the wood that I thought was sort of ugly, especially compared to old blonde maple guitars. Lacquer will yellow with age, but maple will also darken and get more golden with sunlight. I let them 'tan' in the sun; just a couple hours a day on sunny but cool days and they turned a much nicer color.

  19. #18

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    I'm less concerned what the sun will do to my guitars than what the dirt and oils on my hands will do. I have a guitar cloth, but shame on me, I don't use it as often as I ought to.

  20. #19

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    Looking at the weather map, nothing to worry about for a while...

  21. #20

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    I generally avoid direct sunlight with hollow-body guitars. I've read that the warmth can start relaxing the glue if it's out for a while. That's with flat-tops. Can't say I've heard of the issue with arch-tops.

  22. #21

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    You have to feel the head stock and lower bout to see hot they get. And try to keep the guitars humidity correct. as far as a finish goes it will cause discoloration. But I don't think where you are at and how long this shutdown lasts you wont have discoloration problems. Just keep the humidity stable.

  23. #22

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    Off-topic but from under the sun: a guy left his old double bass inside a car for a day. The car heated so much that the instrument, held together by hide glue, became a heap of shingles. This in Finland, same latitude as Norway. It sometimes happens that Lapland above the Arctic Circle posts Europe's highest temperatures in May, when the sun's up for 20 hours and more.

  24. #23

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    A car acts like an insulated greenhouse, and can get very, very hot. So hot that people or pets inside can be killed rather quickly. Leaving an instrument inside a car parked outside in the summer is a really bad idea. The trunk should be slightly cooler if it's completely separated, but most newer cars allow the rear seats to be lowered, so it gets just about as hot there as in the passenger compartment. Playing a guitar in the sun is one thing, but leaving it in a car parked in the sun all day is an entirely different proposition.

  25. #24

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    Pro musicians know that their insurance is void if the instrument has been left in a car.

  26. #25

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    Glamour shot from the other day on the bench on the patio out back. I got this guitar about 5 years ago this month, and it's been a trip. This guitar made me a better guitar player because I could never put it down, I owe it a lot