C-O-L-D Guitar :( - Left it out by accident

[kennydoe]

I got home late from a gig last night and unloaded all the gear from my van into my garage. *I meant to bring my guitar (an older Ibanez RG-550, maple neck/fretboard) in the house, but at 3:30am I guess I was just a litle anxious to get myself inside and I forgot it in the cold garage (in its SKB hard case).

I realized this morning (after about 5 hours) that she was still out there. *I brought her in and apologized up and down.

I live in NY and it was pretty damn cold last night. *What kind of damage can I expect? *Any? *what should I look for? *The neck was already kinda shot anyway...

Anybody know abuot this?
~Kenny

[tomizm]

From what I understand, your only concern is quik temperature changes. *Gradual changes are not a concern. *You should be more worried about bringing the guitar indoors then when you left it out.
The quik freeze to warm change can do things like warp the neck, but if your action is really high, you may not notice it. *The body and the hardware should be fine though.

[Rich]

Everytime you ship a guitar in the winter these things are frozen for up to a week at a time. No worries (unless it's a JEM10) as long as you let it warm to room temp before you open it. I usually end up cheating by a few hours and haven't had any problems, yet.

[kennydoe]

crap. *I opened it an hung it up as soon as I brought it in.

What am I in for here?
~K

[Vaibanez]

I would loosen the string a tad and let it relax in the warmth for a day or so before re-tuning. I would check all the specs for any drastic change and make adjustments accordingly. The neck should be ok, but let it sit over night in the house before playing it again.

J>

[Rich]

If nothing has happened yet it's fine. Finish cracks are possible, and the neck could 'move' a little, nothing that won't 'move' back with a truss adjustment.

[alienx]

Hey Kennydoe, do you see any differences like cracks??? Or, did you play it, does it feel any different???

[kennydoe]

well, It's now 2:50pm EST - I took the guitar inside about 6 hours ago. *It's room temp now and I just picked it up for the first time to play it. *i didn't loosen the strings or anything.

It doesn't seem any worse for the wear - The guitar has been my main gig guitar for going on 8 years now, so cracks in the finish would go relatively unnoticed unless they were inches and inches long. *The neck is still as f'd up as it was when I put it in the case at the gig last night

The guitar was still pretty well in tune too *says a lot for the Floyd on there.

Thanks for the help guys. *I guess I was panicy over nothing - i just never did anything that stupid before. *At least I didn't leave it outside outside :-p

~kenny

[Jimi D]

I live in a city where the winter nights habitually plunge below -30 degrees Celcius in January and February - and that's frickin' cold, believe me . I've hauled guitars through this all my life, and besides using a little common sense - such as leaving the instruments to warm up for half an hour before whacking away at them - I've never taken extra precautions with them, nor have I noticed any adverse effects (this town's seasons are so extreme that EVERYONE is a habitual truss-rod tweaker) I've even played outside, at night, in February (it's amazing how much heat those lights throw off! :-)

Also, Rich's point about shipping guitars in the winter is a good one! And I'm a cheater too *- *I just HAVE to look before the "warm up" period is done! Never had any problems (knock on basswood!)

[alienx]

Kennydoe, glad to hear that everything is fine by now. I agree, knock on basswood. :biggrin:

[jemsite]

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