Caring for your Huss & Dalton Instrument

Temperature
You should try to keep your instrument between the temps of 40 degrees and 95 degrees, roughly. At least as important as temp extremes, are temp fluctuations. Whenever your guitar has been colder than usual, you should leave the guitar in the case and slowly bring it back to room temp. Never leave your guitar or banjo in the trunk of your car. Your musical instruments are most comfortable in the same temps and humidity that you yourself are!

Humidity
Your instrument should be kept in a humidity range of 45% to around 65%. You can monitor the humidity inside your case by using a small, inexpensive Hygrometer such as the ones sold by D’Addario/Planet Waves, or a similar one from Radio Shack. If you keep your guitar in your case, simply put the hygrometer in with the guitar, and check the humidity every day or two. If you keep your guitar out of the case on a stand, you will have to monitor and control the humidity in the whole room. Allowing the humidity to get too low in dry climates, or with wintertime home heating can cause severe problems such as wood cracks and playability issues. We use and recommend the D'Addario Planet Waves Humidipak® system to maintain the humidity in your instrument. These work to both humidify and de-humidify and are very easy to use. A small investment here could save a lot of money and trouble in the future.

Caring for the finish
Your guitar/banjo finish needs little care. You should wipe it down with a clean, soft, damp cloth as needed. Then follow up with a soft dry cloth.  Old t-shirts work great. If you should want to use a polish, make sure that it has no silicone added. We use and recommend Paul Beard Resophonic’s own brand of polish named Resolution Guitar Polish.  It leaves a nice, silky feel and has no silicone. Once a year or so, you may want to clean your fingerboard with 0000 steel wool. Then, rub in some Fingerboard oil onto the FB and bridge. Lemon oil works fine for this. Don’t overdo this part, but it is a good idea, especially in Fall right before the air gets dry.

Strings and Gauge
All Huss and Dalton Guitars are shipped with D'Addario brand strings.  Most larger body guitars ship with Mediums, while smaller bodies ship with lights. All H&D guitars can be strung with light or medium strings except the OO and OO-SP models, (www.HussandDalton.com/models.htm) which are braced for light gauge or lighter only. We also usually recommend that Guitars with Cedar tops be strung with light gauge strings. All Banjos can be strung light or medium.

Action
The action (string height) of your guitar should be around 6to7/64ths under the low “E” string at the 12th fret. (Measure from top of 12th fret to bottom of string) and around 5/64ths on the high “E” string. You may want to have lower action than this, and that’s fine, but keep in mind the playability/buzz threshold which comes in somewhere just under these measurements. If you are not experienced with adjusting the action of a guitar, any action adjustment should be made by a qualified repairperson, or here at the H&D shop.

Adjusting the Truss Rod
All Huss and Dalton Instruments have an adjustable truss rod. Some Models adjust from the peghead, while traditional series models and slotted pegheads adjust from inside the body. We set the relief at about .011 inch as the spec set-up. To measure relief, put a capo on the strings at the first fret. With your left hand, push down the 3rd string at the 12th fret position. Now slide a .011 feeler gauge under the 3rd string at the 7th fret. You should feel a slight resistance, without the feeler gauge actually pushing the string up any.

If the rod needs adjustment, remove the truss rod cover on Standard H&D instruments, insert the Allen wrench provided and turn clockwise to tighten, counter-clockwise to loosen the rod. You may want the neck a bit flatter than .011, and that’s okay, but you will want some relief in the neck and the neck should NEVER be back-bowed. To adjust the rod on Traditional/body access guitars, set the guitar on a table or bench and turn it up to your body with the soundhole facing you. (Picture) Then reach inside with your short Allen wrench and feel along the nameplate located on the head block. When you reach the top of the nameplate, the end of the truss rod can be felt inside a small hole in the center. Now insert the wrench and adjust as needed. The Singletree Old Time Banjo has an adjustable truss rod, but the neck must be removed from the pot assembly to allow access. You may want to take this in to a banjo repairperson.

Installing a Strap Button
We recommend taking your instrument to a reputable repair technician to install your strap button.

Shipping
If it should be necessary to ship your guitar or banjo by a common carrier such as UPS, you should carefully pack the instrument in its case, with some packing added as a support behind the peghead. If the endpin is not glued in, you should remove it. Loosen the tension on the strings.
Remove everything except the instrument out of the case. Acquire a box that the case can be packed tightly inside.
Make sure that you put add additional insurance on your instrument to cover the replacement value.

sales information:  mailto:sales@hussanddalton.com