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hey guys. i have a small studio in a cottage with baseboard heat on my parents property. i usually go in there at least once a day for a couple hours and turn on the heat, but sometimes i don't and i always lock it and turn everything off at night. the temperature has been below freezing every night for the past few weeks and it's probably not going to be changing anytime soon. i'm basically just wondering if these cold temperatures can damage any of my gear (pedals, cables, keyboards, interfaces, monitors, mixers)? No guitars in there when I'm not in there.

All the stuff listed should be fine below freezing. Circuit boards and speakers are pretty resilient to temperature changes.

Yeah, I think all that stuff should be OK.
Things with germanium diodes can sound a bit different based on temperature
but shouldn't suffer any damage because of it.

There may be some risk in taking a tubes in an amp from freezing to hot fairly quickly.
Kind of like if you pour hot water on a frozen windshield it can crack.
(^This is not based on actual scientific knowlwdge)

^I can totally see that happening though.

But to answer your question I've worried about this too. The van my band drives around in has no heat and we end up leaving the equipment overnight in there. Which seriously sucks for the guitars but for everything else, knock on wood, we haven't had any other issues

Should be fine... Heating up too fast and causing condensation is what could be a problem but I doubt you'll bust in with an industrial heater after a freezing night and fire it up... Sound On Sound has this...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar10/a ... 0310_4.htm

Shit, I just remembered I've had an extension cab in my trunk for like two months.

shouldn't be an issue at all. i've toured with a trailer in the winter and all of that gear was exposed to freezing temperatures which was pulled out, set up and played on without issue for at least a month.

you should probably be more concerned about guitars warping than anything else.

Yup, I've seen some guitars ruined from extreme temps (hot or cold) but anything relying on electronics as opposed to wood for function seems to hold up very well.

cool guys, thanks! i bring all my guitars inside when i'm not in there.

stripes wrote:cool guys, thanks! i bring all my guitars inside when i'm not in there.

Yes and Mind Your Dew Points...

Regarding guitars: Wood doesn't react to temperature change, only humidity. So it is more interesting to keep an eye on that (below 70% is Fine - no idea about the lower borderline).

I leave One Guitar always in our practice Space, an unheated Bunker. I don't mind as Long as the humidity is constant. There is a Ventilation so everything is Fine...

Pour some room temperature water with a little table salt (for electrolytes) over your cold gear before turning it on. This should help the problem.

H18 wrote:Pour some room temperature water with a little table salt (for electrolytes) over your cold gear before turning it on. This should help the problem.

I hope you're joking. Water and electronics don't really mix well...

I know the OP just said guitars go in but I'll expand a little anyway...

45-55% is ideal guitar humidity. It's hella important with acoustics and hollow bodies but solid body instruments suffer too. Humidity plummets where I live in the winter and anything below 35% can cause issues real fast. The first thing you'll generally notice (beyond neck adjustments goin outta whack) is that goddamned fret sprout due to shrinking fretboards! I'll commonly see bound Gibsons with cracks all down the neck binding where the board shrank but the fret did not. It's repairable but a PIA and it feels like shit (ESP on unbound necks) so a repair is unavoidable.

Best way to combat it is keep guitars cased. I alsouse travel soap cases with damp sponges inside (distilled water ONLY). Drill holes on case exterior and velcro those bitches and a hygrometer in the case pocket. 50% humidity all winter, so easy.

That dew point mentioned is a big deal too. Anything hot or cold can quickly form a layer of dew when quickly exposed to opposite temps indoors/outdoors. Don't do that shit!

Holy Schnikes wrote:I know the OP just said guitars go in but I'll expand a little anyway...

45-55% is ideal guitar humidity. It's hella important with acoustics and hollow bodies but solid body instruments suffer too. Humidity plummets where I live in the winter and anything below 35% can cause issues real fast. The first thing you'll generally notice (beyond neck adjustments goin outta whack) is that goddamned fret sprout due to shrinking fretboards! I'll commonly see bound Gibsons with cracks all down the neck binding where the board shrank but the fret did not. It's repairable but a PIA and it feels like shit (ESP on unbound necks) so a repair is unavoidable.

I use travel soap cases with damp sponges (distemper water ONLY) and holes drooled on the exterior. Throw those and hygrometer on the case pocket, 50% humidity all winter. So easy.

That dew point mentioned is a big deal too. Anything hot or cold can quickly form a layer of dew when quickly exposed to opposite temps indoors. Don't do that shit!

Well they cost like $40 but a Walgreens ultrasonic humidifier, and a $10 hygrometer / barometer / thermometer on the wall (Got mine from Amazon) are an easy way if you're in there daily and can run the humidifier.. humidity in my practice space is actually a little more stable because there's no heating vents or heaters in there but the temperature gets cold at night. And temperature and humidity are intertwined, like someone else was saying.. dew point and all that. Have to be careful or everything will get condensation? I keep my humidity pretty low because I don't have acoustics in there but I'm afraid of really low humidity with my guitars.