# Any guitar players aboard?



## TSOJOURNER

Hi Gals,

My husband and I bought a small boat recently and are learning how to sail. I am a musician by trade and have played in a variety of bands as a keyboardist, guitarist, and vocalist. My education is in music therapy and I work mostly with seniors and adults with disabilities. When we head out on longer trips I will probably bring a guitar on the boat. Any guitar players out there that have lugged around an acoustic guitar on an extended trip? How did the conditions affect the guitar? Out here in Colorado the dryness is a factor and one of my guitars needs some work. Any musicians out there? 

One other question: how much sailing do you do in the winter? We live in a mountain town in Colorado but are hoping to be able to head to a southern resevoir during the colder months and still get out. I'm a total rookie at this - are wetsuits a good idea? I know how to dress to climb a mountain, but am clueless about this water stuff. 

I am also starting a major plan tomorrow in order to lose some weight and get into better shape for boating. I feel sluggish on the boat and am not moving around with much quickness or agileness when doing boating stuff. I would also like to not look atrocious in a wet suit this winter. I'm going to weigh in once a week every monday starting tomorrow 7/7 and with 25 weeks left in the year I hope to be lean and mean. You can read about my progress ad nauseum at flylikeabeagle.blogspot.com Any women out there that are looking for a weight loss pal and want to take up the challenge with me would be great. I'm sure you all are very fit though from your sailing experience

Sorry for such a long post! Laura


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## Valiente

I haven't field-tested my guitars yet by leaving them on board, but I would suggest that the odds are good that it's going to be too humid for them. Consequently, I would do two things: Make an Ovation or some other "plastic-backed" guitar your "boat guitar", and be fastidious about cycling out dessicant packages through the guitar case, and to keep the guitar IN the case when not in use.

I will probably just bring a "beater" guitar with us when we voyage, because my Larivees are too nice to get abused...


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## welshwind

We're typically only weekend sailors and play acoustic guitars. My daughter brings her Laguna up, I sometimes bring my old Ovation. I would NOT bring my Taylor. We don't leave any of them up there during the week as the boat gets awfully warm when it is all locked up (just like we don't leave any wine either  ).

If we were going on a longer trip, we would bring my Ovation and leave the Laguna at home for the reasons mentioned above. And ditto on keeping it in the case when not in use. It may be easy to do something stupid at home, it is much easier to do something stupid on the boat as it is a smaller area and inherently less stable.

Enjoy... a beautiful sunset and singing with guitars is a wonderful thing.


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## NCountry

Wow, timing is everything even here on sail net. I've been wanting to take my guitar on board BUT was concerned about humidity and its "ill" effects on my 2nd favorite toy. Spent lots of time trying to figure out a plan to deal with humidity and picked up a neat trick in a cruising magazine.
I bought a couple of 12 volt computer fans at the local radio shack and using some 5200 adhesive glued them into the clam shell vents on the back of my 30 foot Islander. I leave the boat plugged into shore power anyway when I'm away so the 12 volt drain is not a problem AND the humidity and it's associated problems with the woodwork have completely ended. This last weekend my wife even commented about how dry the boat interior is. I've also made a habit of turning the fans on for a little while when we're on board and on the water. 15 minutes or so just to freshen the air in the boat and it has had a miraculous affect. I'm not sure how much air solar vents pull through the boat but in comparison to the boats I know of that have them my computer/vent fans are kicking butt. SO, now I'm ready to bring my guitar on board. I won't be leaving it while I'm away BUT now I'm very confidant that I'll have no humidity associated problems with my guitar while onboard. JAM NIGHT here we come!


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## cranki

I am a guy so sorry for posting in your forum, but, I saw the title of this thread and thought I might have some knowledge. I find that the salt does more damage than humidity. I am assuming that by extended trip you mean ocean and not lake sailing. The salt will wreak havoc on any metal hardware (tuning machine heads)

I have a cheaper but decent sounding Epiphone that I call my beach guitar. I bring it and sometimes leave it on the boat. I take it camping and, yes, to the beach.

I leave the expensive babies at home.


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## sailingdog

A friend of mine has a carbon fiber guitar. Humidity isn't an issue for it.


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## harpguitar

Carbon Fiber guitars are made by rainsong. They are not cheap. Personally I would just use an old harmony or yamaha that is in the under 100 price range. I wouldn't think you would want to leave even that level of guitar on the boat for extended periods.

Rick


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## Harvester

Hi, My boat owns her own guitar that I bought for 30 euros and is allways there (I can't carry it in and out every time I go sailing). It's only been 6 months so I can't say yet how much it deteriorates. I have a Seagull at home but I haven't taken it to the boat and I don't think I will.


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## Joesaila

I was carrying a baby Taylor back and forth...now its left on the boat. I have coated strings [ELIXER] that cost a little more but are supposed to stand up to moisture. [never considered the keys...gulp,maybe some fine oil for them?] We'll see how it goes though.


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## sailingdog

Might also want to consider spraying the string tensioning screws with a bit of Boeshield T9.



Joesaila said:


> I was carrying a baby Taylor back and forth...now its left on the boat. I have coated strings [ELIXER] that cost a little more but are supposed to stand up to moisture. [never considered the keys...gulp,maybe some fine oil for them?] We'll see how it goes though.


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## Jonesee

Yamaha Silent Guitar here!!! Nylon string classical of course. They also make a steel string version. If you don't know what it is, google it. A picture is worth a thousand of my words. Small and easy to transport when broken down. Normal outside dimensions when put together. Works without anything, or with headphones or amp. I am impressed with the sound and and consider it more than satisfactory. It won't hold a candle to my Alvarez Concert Series, but I would never take the Alvarez out on the boat. I don't even take it out of the house for that matter.

I have had the Yamaha for 4-5 years now and use it more than my other 3 combined. Just handy to bang around with no worries. It just keeps going and going...

And I would love to have a Rainsong, but that will put a hurt on a wallet. With that much money, there would be soooo many guitars to choose from.

Oh, I just saw, please forgive for posting on your forum. The guitar headline lured me in.

And I saw you are from Colorado. If you are going to spend much time with a guitar on the water someplace like my very humid state of Florida. Make sure the guitar is humidified and acclimated back to your dryer climate. It will avoid splitting the back or front. If you feel for yours like I do mine, a crack would make me cry.


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## TSOJOURNER

Thanks for all of the great information in your replies. Nice to know there are a bunch of guitar players out there. I have an older Yamaha guitar that I bought at a garage sale for about $100 bucks. It sounds great and that will probably be my traveling guitar. I will leave my Takamine (pathetic that I'm not sure of the spelling after looking at it every day) at home or in storage. I have about 6 guitars in all - they are hard to part with and I seem to buy every guitar I see at a garage sail.


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## welshwind

You spelled it correctly...I always think of "Tak-a-mine" like I'm some kind of Italian offering the use of my guitar  (and yes, I know phonetically it is Tock - a - mean - e)


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## Yofy

Well it's good that I stumbled across this thread. Talk about timing. I have just been pricing and considering buying a guitar. I'm a complete beginner ...only have spent a few months with a borrowed guitar, but thought that it would be a great addition to the cruising lifestyle. Now I'm not so sure  

We currently liveaboard on the Red Sea and the climate is very dry. Deep desert... maybe 15% humidity throughout the year. But we are hoping to sail up to the Med in the future and then we would be heading for high humidity...say 80% for about half the year. 

From what I'm reading, I might be better off to wait till we reach the Med before I go out and buy a guitar.... 

Robyn


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## LarryandSusanMacDonald

Got a cheap guitar (under $200.) had it on board for 12 years. No deterioration - well, to the guitar, anyway. I keep it in a case and away from the sweating hull - usually on the bed in the v-berth. No desicants or anything. We live on the Chesapeake and have traveled several times to Florida and the Bahamas. I think that as long as your boat is reasonably dry; I'd say go for it. It all sounds like good advice to me - and I'd hate to be without my music. (Also have a Midi keyboard on board. Also, no problem.)


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## jfriday

I keep an old D35 in it's case, inside a Climate Case (not sure if they still make those) on my boat in Colorado all the time it is in the water. It changes temperature very slowly, and I keep a humidifier in it. I know it's probably too good of a machine to do that with, but life is short, play good instruments. The Collings and the Parker stay at home...


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## Leither

I agree with all those commenting positively on taking a guitar on board - not a problem, providing you are careful.

My best guitar story happened when I was kayaking with a group of friends around a group of isolated islands on the west coast of Scotland. We were camping and I took my (old and not valuable) guitar. It was strapped on the back of the "provisions" kayak, which was being towed. Without going into the gory details, this kayak sank on the trip out to the island and my guitar took a prolonged dip in the briny. It still played OK (!) but during the course of the following two weeks of camp life, it gradually de-laminated. Finally, during a rousing chorus of "Wild Mountain Thyme" it gracefully folded in two and was later buried with due ceremony.......

Stuart


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## tschmidty

Timing is funny. I recently bought a "travel guitar" thinking it would be good to leave on boat but decided the sound is more like a mandolin so it's not going to get much use. I will probably just buy a cheap guitar and use that.

And hey guitar center has a special, buy 10 sets of coated strings for $100 and get a free acoustic guitar! I am sure it's a super high quality instrument but hey the price is right and if nothing else you have 10 sets of coated strings for another guitar.


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## MIKEMCKEE

If I remember right Cruising World Mag has an artical on boat guitars this month.

Good Luck,

Mike & Glinda


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## Giulietta

Ohhh I sit everynight on my deck, watching the sun go down, and I play my guitar to the world..

I love to play the guitar while I sail...yes I do

strummmmmmm

strummmmmmm

strummmmmmm

I am all love and music when I sail.....and the bees....and the trees...me and my cruising Valiant ...


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## Cruisingdreamspress

I carried a‘beater guitar’ on my solo voyage around the world. I often sang enthusiastically (and loudly in my lonely hours.) Loved the fun of it. I also enjoyed singing Tom Dooley, Down in the Valley and other ‘great’ tunes to fellow cruisers when I reached shore for they always applauded although, in hindsight, I recall no one ever asked for an encore. Still, I enjoyed the show bus life.

My show bus career, however, ended one evening in a remote lagoon in Fiji. Reality, as often happens, is made crystal clear by the honesty of children. I had invited a Fijian family to my boat, ‘Mika,’ and after dinner I, of course, brought out my guitar. I thought Down in the Valley went well but in the middle of Tom Dooley, Una, the 8 year old daughter, began to fidget. Her expression looked pained. I feared a sour stomach caused by my rich dinner. 

Una, snuggled close to her mother in Mika’s cockpit, and tugged at her mothers blouse to get her attention.’ Mama,’ she whispered several times. And several times her mother signaled her to be quiet and to listen. I continued. ‘Hang down your head Tom…’ ‘Mama, Mama,’ said Una, more urgently. ‘Una,’ said her mother, a bit irritated, ‘what is it?’

‘Mama…when is he gonna STOP?’


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## Triquetra

My boat is a live-aboard, and I keep an Alvarez folk guitar onboard. I live in FL, so there is quite a bit of humidity, though I use a marine air conditioner which keeps the temperature and some of the humidity reasonable. I have noticed that the strings tarnish and need replacing more often than when I kept it off of the boat. The guitar seems to take the boat-life okay, but then again I would not consider myself a musician. (I sort of make noise on it. )


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## Maine Sail

*I used to*

have a cheap six stign for the boat but I hated playing it and teh humidity wreked havoc on it and it needed constant tuning. I won't bring my good guitars on boars so I finally settled on a Martin LXM.

The Martin LXM is made of a composite that looks a lot like Formica and the neck is made of a massive lamination schedule that basically makes it nearly inert to moisture variation and tuning issues. It sounds amazing for the size and sounds oodles better than my Big Baby Taylor did but never or very rarely needs tuning. It plays well, but it's no Santa Cruz, and also has decent low end for a mid sized guitar. It also takes up less boat space an an OM or Dreadnaught does..

I'm a big fan of the Martin LXM for the boat.. Neck & Body (photos courtesy of Elderly Brothes Music - one of the best sources of fine acoustic instruments in existance)


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## camaraderie

Giulietta said:


> Ohhh I sit everynight on my deck, watching the sun go down, and I play my guitar to the world..
> 
> I love to play the guitar while I sail...yes I do
> 
> strummmmmmm
> 
> strummmmmmm
> 
> strummmmmmm
> 
> I am all love and music when I sail.....and the bees....and the trees...me and my cruising Valiant ...


So...like...you're more into accordion music?


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## AdamLein

Guitars on board is awesome. A friend of ours brought one along in a hard case during the commissioning trip and in other circumstances my wife brings her "Resonata" beater guitar (which I think was made in the GDR). It wasn't left on board for long periods of time, but we noticed another problem: it takes up about as much space as another passenger, though it does eat less.

The OP didn't say what the size of her boat was, but she did refer to it as "small"; ours is a 27'. With a guitar and all the sail bags and back packs, it was an interesting challenge to sleep four people on our boat (especially if you insist on having access to the head at night).

Challenging but worth the effort.


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## Hillster

I play classical guitar and I live aboard. It is less humid than i thought it would be in my boat. But to be sure that I do not jeopordize an expensive instrument, I use my Yamaha CG-101 all wood laminate (ply) guitar. I've had no issues with it or my other solid top spruce that I had on board for 4 months during the hot and humid summer months.

Humid environments have far less damaging side-effects than the dry environments do.

My suggestion to you would be to go out and buy a nice quality low end guitar like the Yamaha for camping/boating. Both outings could involve things getting wet and thus make bringing expensive instruments not the best idea.


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## josrulz

I'm a big fan of sitting around the cockpit and playing music with friends. Some of my favorite cruises have revolved around music. 

As for the effects of a water environment on guitars (and I think this echoes what some others have said), a friend of mine used to bring his Martin D-35 with him all the time on board for weekends and extended cruises on his boat. That guitar now has a split on the side. I have a Martin HD-28, and because of his experience, I refrain from bringing it sailing (or anywhere like that even). I either bring my Backpacker, or if I want a full-size, a old Alvarez or Washburn, neither of which I worry about (both are veneer, not solid). 

Anyway, have fun playing on the water!
-J


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## meuritt

*sailor's instrument*

apologies for wandering a bit off topic. I used to be a guitar player until an industrial accident took the tip of a finger that is essential to playing. But music was in my blood, we had a small sailboat, space was a premium. The wife says why not a concertina? I said what's that? She said the instrument tall ship sailors played. So off we go to the music store and darn, if they didn't have a cheapie.

So been playin' that little squeeze box that only movie/cartoon sailors play for 30 years now. Not the cheapie, it didn't last 6 months.

I used to play lots of Shanties, one time we were sailing on SF Bay when a whale boat & crew raced along past us. I switched to a rowing tune for them.

(OK, five posts down, 5 to go  )

Mike
San Rafael, CA


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## Amgine

*How about a harp?*

Let me assure you, if you think a guitar is hard to keep in tune aboard...

Whenever I take off on an extended solo cruise, I bring a little folk harp I built from a kit. The kit was relatively cheap, yet once completed it had a better feel and sound than many higher-end production units (I like woody rather than tinny harps.) Even the little folk harp is too big aboard my little boat unless I'm soloing, though.

This particular design uses ply for sounding, and heavy solid cherry for the box, neck, and column. While the humidity is unlikely to directly harm the instrument, for the first week or so aboard it is plainly cantankerous to keep in any sense of tune. Tuning sessions take up a half hour, at least, almost as bad as when I'm stretching in a new suit of strings.

Fortunately for everyone in the anchorages I drop into I'm both a poor player and (I hope) a considerate one; I practice below, and not at all if anyone is hooked close by.


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## SJ34

I haven't read through all the posts so I may be repeating what somebody else has already said, sorry.
I had a terrible time keeping an old Yamaha in tune but I was hauling to and from the boat (don't like to keep too much stuff on board, it tends to grow). Got tired of ever tuning so I started leaving it and once it acclimated to the humidity it was fine. Of course, the boat is on the west coast and humidity isn't as high as say, the SE. You should be fine leaving an instrument aboard in CO.

As for feeling sluggish on board. Moving around on moving boats will make you hurt in places you didn't even know you had at first but you too will acclimatize to being on board. I used to sail with a guy who was in his middle ages, was way bigger around than he was tall but could move around on an Olson 30 like a monkey. He spent every weekend sailing and put us younger guys to shame.

I wish you luck with your fitness program.


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## doubleeboy

My thoughts about good guitars in humid environments are that short term hi humidity is not the problem, its long periods of very high humidity (above 60%) and then a change to low ( <35% ). I keep my Collings guitar in a Calton hardcase with a dehumidifier in the string compartment of case. You can buy these dehumidifiers at gun shops or Brownells online. They are the size of cigarette pack, you recharge them so to speak by putting them in an oven at 300 degrees F. for 3 hours. They keep my guitar at 45-55 % humidity in the case for 3 or 4 weeks even when humidity outside is much higher. The key is an airtight case like the Calton, or if using a lesser case, get a case cover.

I think exposure to direct sunlight ( hi temperature ) is much more concern than short term exposure to hi humidity. I do agree that a cheap used guitar is the safe way to go. I like 80s-90s Washburns, all solid wood, find em on ebone or Craiglist for couple hundred or so for a D-35.

michael


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## TSOJOURNER

I bought a Fender Catalina in a pawn shop while in Oregon last winter and brought it back to our boat in Louisiana. I don't know how to play yet but want to learn. I think it would be so cool to play guitar on the boat. I opened the hard case the other day and plucked on it and it seemed great! It does take up a ton of room though. I have steel strings and a fellow musician cruiser told me to oil them up with butter- My husband said to use vaseline so as not to attract bugs. Does anyone have problems with their steel strings rusting? I am surprised this really hasn't been brought up so it must not be as big a problem as I thought.

I am so glad to have found others with guitars and similar questions. Now if I could just get one of ya to teach me how to use the thing!  I would LOVE to learn sea shanties.


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## CoyoteDream

Hello all, 

I just joined this site because my wife and I and looking soon to retire from a state job, sell out stuff, and buy a sailboat for cash so we can engage in the live-aboard cruising lifestyle. 

Since I have been playing professionally as a musician for 35 years and my day job includes providing music in a healthcare setting (Music Therapy), I am contemplating doing a solo acoustic/singing act while cruising to help bring in extra spending cash. I just played a steak house few days ago for $50 + $35 tips for a 2 1/2 hour gig. 

I have been looking into the humidity problem in a marine environment and figured a good watertight case like those made by SKB and a dehumidifiers like those used in food prepping might help. Also, I use the Elixer strings which are coated and slow down oxidation. I tend to play enough hours anyway that I would probably need to change them before any affects of humidity set in. 

Also, I will have to do more research but it seems to me string instruments do better in higher humidities that the dryer climates. The most famous Stradivarius were built in Northern Italy with very humid summers. 

Any of you folks know of anyone picking up gigs around the marina areas around the US and down into the Caribbean. I figured even playing for tips would lots of fun and a great way meet people. Do they just play sea/sailing songs and Jimmy Buffet songs? I am more into performing the Jerry Jeff Walker, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits singing/sonwriter tunes. 

Anyway, thanks. I figured just posting this first post is one of my first steps in making the dream happen.


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