People who play musical instruments often find themselves asking the same question: How to store musical instruments? Even though it sounds easy to stash them just by putting them alongside other stuff, we suggest to think again and read this article in order to find out!
Store at home or at storage?
This is the key question that we need to find an answer before we can continue. The universal answer is that it depends on the size of the instrument. You can very easily stash smaller instruments inside your house or apartment with where they won’t take much space for other stuff. But when we talk about bigger instruments, you have to consider finding a company that can grant you this request. Most of the moving companies have this service at their disposal so you can use it. There are various Stoney Creek options you can choose from and pick the one that fulfills all of your needs. Also, we advise that you ask all the questions regarding the storage so you don’t get smaller storage when you actually need a bigger one. Be free to ask all that you want.
Store before moving
When we talk about moving with an instrument, there isn’t actually any dilemma. You have to store musical instruments in storage. You have no other way where you can put your instruments until its time to move. Of course, smaller instruments like flute are the exception to the rule. We advise that you rent a storage room weeks prior to the move so you don’t have problems storing bigger musical instruments.
Climate control
One of the biggest problems when storing musical instruments in storage units. This means that conditions must be ideal for some instruments so that you could even consider storing them. Wooden instruments like guitar, violin, cello are very susceptible to temperature and humidity. It is widely advised that temperature is 60-70 degrees and that humidity is 30%-50%. when stashing musical instruments. This is because some of them absorb moisture which causes them to expand. But when humidity decreases the wood will contract which can cause wood to break and damage your instrument. When making a deal about storage units you have to keep in mind these facts and to ask if they even have the ability to provide those conditions. If yes, you are ready to store musical instruments!
Prepare musical instruments for storage
Various instruments require different methods for preparation, but the common thing is that it is best to put them in their original cases. Most of them are hard cases, which is good. If they aren’t, we advise you to buy one. Hard cases prevent breaking or damaging if something falls on the case. Most people will put instruments with other belongings and no matter how you protect them, they can always break. You can take all the precautions but you never know what can happen. Also, you should never put things above the instrument because this way you increase a chance for something to fall over the instrument. Even though it is in a hard case, it isn’t unbreakable.
How to prepare woodwind and string instruments
You need to understand that every musical instrument requires different attention when preparing them for storage. When preparing woodwind and string instruments you should:
- Clean them properly – Don’t use common methods that you use at home. You should use precise tools for cleaning your instruments. The most common woodwind and string instrument is guitar so if you have it you should definitely know how to clean your guitar. You can buy materials in any music store that is near you.
- Remove pieces– Most of them are jointed so you should remove pieces so they don’t break after you store them. After all, we all know that the most fragile area of an instrument is joint.
- Loosen strings– This way you will decrease the pressure so you can store musical instruments that have strings on them. The only exception is piano where you don’t have to loosen the strings because they are already made to handle a lot of pressure.
How to prepare drums and piano
We already said that you don’t need to loosen strings on a piano but other stuff like pedals or bench should be packed individually and well protected. Also, you should put covers over the piano so dust doesn’t fall down. When we talk about drums, you should probably loosen drums skins so they don’t stretch when storing them. If this happens you will have a bigger job to put them back on the previous condition.
Keyboard?
Even though it is similar to the piano, it requires less attention. All you need to do is to clean it prior the storing, and put covers over the keyboard.
Store musical instruments properly
When putting saving musical instruments in a storage unit you should know the size of the unit. Assuming that you chose the one that fulfills your needs, you have to allocate your instruments adequately. Don’t put them on the floor no matter what the instrument! The floor represents the part of storage that is the most susceptible to climate changes. Even though you have perfect conditions inside the storage unit, there is always some difference on the floor. This difference can be enough to make changes to your instruments. Store musical instruments above the floor and away from the entrance to the storage unit.
This is the right way to save your instruments but there is the question that is often ringing inside peoples heads. How often should you check on the storage? In this case, we can say with ease that you don’t have to do that. If you do things the right way, you shouldn’t have problems with your instruments after you take them out of storage.
Moving
No matter how long have your musical instruments been in storage, they should be fine and ready to use. Having musical talent is a blessing so we hope that you are using it the best way possible. We all know that the best way you can use it at various musical festivals. If you are moving to Hamilton you will have a chance to see World Music Festival that is described as one of the best in Canada.
We can see that it isn’t that difficult to store musical instruments. You only need to rent a proper storage unit with the possibility to control the climate in there, some minor changes to the instruments and placing them in the proper area. After that, you only need to pick them up and use them again!