How long to acclimate?

[bbcee]

Not sure where to post this, so please move it if there's a better place.

I'm about to take possession of a really nice mando. It is traveling a long way, and it will get here during a cold snap in somewhat humid Barcelona, so it will be that wettish-cool kind of weather. Living spaces here aren't generally insulated well as in truly cold places - keeping them cool & breezy is much more of a concern for most of the year. We just put on a sweater, maybe turn on a space heater, and get on with it.

Anyway, my question is - how long should I let it sit to acclimate after it arrives? What steps or stages do you generally go through before actually opening the case? In this weather I usually turn on a heater in the room, let the case sit in it for 15-20 minutes, then crack the case for 15-20 minutes before opening. In the hot, humid summer, I crack the case for some minutes before fully opening it.

[George R. Lane]

Let the shipping box come to room temperature, then remove the instrument case and let it come to room temperature. Then you can take the mandolin out of the case.

[dwc]

Let the shipping box come to room temperature, then remove the instrument case and let it come to room temperature. Then you can take the mandolin out of the case.

That was what I was going to say. When the box is no longer cold to the touch, open the box and take out the case. When the case is no longer cool to the touch open the case.

But if you go over to Acoustic Guitar Forum, they will counsel some extreme acclimatization processes that involve gradually warming the box by bringing it into the garage and letting it sit in the garage (which is theoretically warmer than outside, but still cooler than your home) for 12 hours or so, then bringing it into the house and letting it sit in the house for 12-24 hours, then opening the box and letting the case sit for 12 hours or so before finally opening the case.

[pops1]

How cold is it? Are we talking sub freezing? or 50 degrees. Traveling in a sub freezing temps for a time requires some slow warm up. Traveling in 40-50 degrees, a couple hours should be sufficient.

[George R. Lane]

Just checked the weather in Barcelona. According to AccuWeather is around 58 degrees, not that cold really. Here in Helena, Montana we are a balmy 20 degrees.

[ajh]

In Minnesota....
You take the case inside the building and set it down. Drink a beer.
You then open the latches on the case. Drink a beer.
You then open the case fully. Drink a beer.
Now you are both acclimated.

I really wish it worked that way with me...after two beers I don't function so well anymore.

[Ryk Loske]

Variation on the already proposed theme:
When the carton is room temperature i open the ends and remove and packing material so i can touch the ends of the case.
When the ends are room temperature i remove the case.
When the case is room temperature i open the latches and crack the case.
When i can put my fingers through the crack and feel the instrument is room temperature i open the case.
When i can put my fingers around the edge between the case and instrument and it all feels the same.
I'm good to go.
When i've gone through all this frustration everything is fine.
When i haven't, i wished i had.
This is for cold weather in northern Vermont.
Good Scotch helps with the wait.
Ryk

[Ivan Kelsall]

From dwc - " When the box is no longer cold to the touch....". If the whole package has been exposed to a cold temp.for long enough,it will be 'soaked'. Even if the outer packaging is at room temp.,the case containing the mandolin could still be very cold.

Some judgement is required here. My Lebeda mandolin was shipped up to me during the Winter period over here & it was very cold. It sat in the back of a van in a depot.over a full weekend. When i received it,i removed the case from the packaging because it was keeping the mandolin/case cold. I let the case sit over night & opened it up the following morning. The mandolin was still a tad chilly,but no moisture condensed on it. I let it sit for a few hours in a warmish room & only then did i pick it up,tune it & play it - i was totally underwhelmed !!. However,thanks to the info. i'd gained from reading so much about this scenerio on the Cafe,i knew it woiuld take time for the mandolin to settle down. I put new strings on it,set it up correctly & played the living hades out of it for several weeks & it came around to sounding really good.

Regarding the packaging - apart from protecting the 'whatever',it can also keep 'whatever' warm (if it's been exposed to heat) or cold,so it needs to come off ASAP IMO. Let the case/mando. sit for a day or so. Unless the temp.difference is very extreme,i'd doubt that the mandolin will come to any harm,
Ivan

[bbcee]

Thanks everyone for the common-sense answers. I should see it later today or tomorrow AM. It is in fact pretty balmy today in Barcelona (thanks for nothing, Accu-Weather), but the mando has just sat the weekend in much colder Madrid.

I'll remove the case from the packing - good idea there, Ivan - and let that come to temperature, then judge whether the mando can come straight out, or should sit with the case cracked. Luckily good Scotch is at hand and works just as well in Spain as in Vermont, winter or summer.

The problem in all this is - the wait!! It's NMD, for Pete's sake!! You can tell what kid of kid I was at Christmastime.

I'll let you know how we both fare. I'm not expecting it to wake up until it gets played for some days.

[Timbofood]

This is always so interesting to me, back when I sold guitars and so on, we would get instruments off the truck in the morning, get rid of the cartons let them sit in unopened cases until,afternoon or maybe the next morning if we felt the need and I don't think we had one issue with that method.
If you open the case, thermal shock is going to happen, large opening or just enough to stick your pinkey finger in, the shock is the same to the finish.
Take the box off, set aside (in case there is an issue warranting return) wait until the evening or the next day and just "BE PATIENT".
Rushing will not help anything, ever.

[CES]

I've been lucky with my last couple...shipped during very moderate temps and arrived while I was at work, so they had a few hours to sit before I got home. I've never been patient enough to wait more than 6-8 hours, but also haven't ordered during extreme cold...

[sblock]

Some of the advice found here will certainly work, but it is overly cautious. Yes, you can follow these rather conservative recipes, but you will also wind up waiting a lot more than is necessary! As a rule of thumb, you don't want to warm up the instrument much faster than about 5-6 degrees F (3 deg C) per hour. That's about 10 min for every degree F. (The instrument receives more thermal shock than this by simply being placed against your body for playing, incidentally).

Here are some worked examples:

If the instrument comes in frozen (say, at around 30 F = -1 C) and you want to bring it up slowly to room temperature (70 F = 21 C), then you will need roughly 8 hours (or somewhat less) to do that. You most certainly do NOT require a full day, or 24 hours. If the instrument is just cold (say, 40 F), then 5-6 hours will easily do it. And if the instrument is really, really frozen (0 F = -18 C), then 12 hours should do it. Finally, if the instrument has merely been exposed to some cooler outdoor temperatures, around 50 F (10 C), or even warehouse temperatures, then you need only wait about 3-4 hours, tops! Unless the instrument comes to you frozen, it won't hurt to remove it from its outer carton and just leave it stored inside the closed case to equilibrate. If it's frozen, leave the outer carton on for the first third or so of the time and then take it off, leaving it inside the closed case for the remainder.

[JeffD]

Let the shipping box come to room temperature, then remove the instrument case and let it come to room temperature. Then you can take the mandolin out of the case.

Yes exactly. And the way to judge room temperature is to compare the feel of the box with the feel of an inside wall of the room.

I would add, once you take the instrument out of the case, let it become room temperature as well, before you tune it up and play.

[mandroid]

Yea may take 48 hours..

even then opening the case in a cold room, days later can cause lacquer cracks.

[40bpm]

I'm on the conservative side. I know I can't undo finish damage from an impatient moment. The few hours it takes for acclimatization is brief compared to the hours of regret from a rash and rushed action. Finish crazing can't be undone. Best of luck and enjoy.