Do I need to use a humidifier for my violin?

Ginny asked this: I live in Colorado, a dry climate. I use a tube type of humidifier that slides into my violin. I can’t tell if it’s working. How can you tell? Do you think those work well?

• In dry areas, the wood dries out, causing instrument to shrink
• The instrument should be kept in a 40% humidity environment or higher
  • Use a room humidifier
  • In-case humidifier
  • In-instrument humidifier
    • Dampit
  • Keep it away from air-conditioning and heaters
  • Here’s a video explanation:

• In high humidity areas, do the opposite
  • Iron a pillow case, place on fiddle to absorb excess moisture.
  • I’ll let Olaf the Violinmaker explain further:

Further learning

This micro-lesson is an excerpt from an office hours webinar I gave on July 15, 2020. View the entire live-stream with indexed questions here.

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