Gentlemen: whenever you see a great big overgrown buck sitting at the mouth of some holler, or at the forks of some road, with a big slouch hat on, a blue celluloid collar, a celluloid, artificial red rose in his coat lapel, a banjo strung across his breast, and a-pickin' of Sourwood Mountain, fine that man, gentlemen, fine him! For if he hasn't already done something, he's a-going to - Josiah Combs, quoted in Old-Time Mountain Banjo
... don't necessarily go together well. I didn't know that, and thought I'd share this, in case someone else didn't either. At least some of you must ship guitars occasionally, and I've sometimes padded guitars with bubble wrap, when flying with them. Anyway, here's a rather sad picture from a thread from the UMGF.
Thanks - I have some 50's - 60's models that I think would react that way under special circumstances so info is appreciated - paper layer first. Might it be exposure to some high temperature that made react that way - near a heat source in the storage area?
One of the posters at the UMGF hit the nail on the head--it's a chemical reaction (obviously), and as such not limited to guitars and bubble wrap. A chemist with specific knowledge of the chemical composition of both substances (guitar finish and the bubble wrap) would be able to tell us exactly why it happened.
The outgassing and curing processes of many substances can take weeks, months or even forever before they stabilize. And even then it's not over. Glues and plastics shrink and deteriorate and this causes problems, for example, with the bindings on some of the classic archtops. Even the Teddy Bear fur liner of a guitar case can cause the finish to haze over--although that's an easier fix. The best thing to do is to play it safe and not put any plastic in contact with a musical instrument.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 09:04:02 AM by Stuart »
Also reading that this is not uncommon on a couple of boards and is recommended that wadded paper, packing paper, quality paper towels be used...I'll include a note the next time I buy on ebay - no direct contact with bubble wrap.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2013, 05:46:26 PM by harriet »