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I have purchased a dry cabinet to store my camera lenses. I also found out in its manual that you can use it to store instruments and scientific materials as well.

I wanted to know if using a dry cabinet to store a Tabla is a good idea or not.

This is how a dry cabinet just a bit bigger than the Tabla looks like. Tabla inside dry cabinet

Aaron
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abunickabhi
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1 Answers1

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Most musical instruments are happiest when they are kept at a constant humidity of about 40 to 70% (similar to the comfort range for humans). Humidities above or below this range and rapid changes are bad. If you live somewhere where the humidity is regularly well above 70%, then a dry cabinet or a dehumidifier might be useful, but you should set it to about 70% so the instrument doesn't get a shock when you take it out.
If the humidity goes much below 40%, then a room humidifier can be useful.

PiedPiper
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  • I do not think the instrument will be getting a shock when it is pulled out of the dry cabinet. Humidity change effects are more subtle as compared to temperature change effects and charge change effects on materials. – abunickabhi Oct 20 '21 at 08:09
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    Sudden temperature changes are worse, but you still want to keep the moisture content stable. – PiedPiper Oct 20 '21 at 08:17
  • Just how dry is this dry cabinet? Skin drumheads are not happy at very low humidity, they become brittle and can crack. Has happened to a djembe I kept too close to the woodstove. I'd say anything less than about 30% humidity is not good for a natural skin drumhead. – Scott Wallace Oct 20 '21 at 09:54
  • @ScottWallace The photo appears to show 45% humidity, which is okay for drum skins. It's just totally unnecessary to keep a drum in a cabinet at that humidity. – PiedPiper Oct 20 '21 at 10:53
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    @abunickabhi I find that skin drumheads (and gut violin strings) respond quite quickly to changes in humidity (like within minutes). I would be not so much concerned that taking it out of a 45% cabinet and trying to play it in a 70% room would damage it, so much as that it would be a nuisance or impossible. As the head and tensioning straps relax it would sink in pitch and you'd be re-tuning repeatedly. – Andy Bonner Oct 20 '21 at 13:30
  • The dry cabinet can go as low as 30Rh% with the tabla inside it, and it gets upto 16Rh% when it is empty for a few hours. – abunickabhi Oct 20 '21 at 14:03
  • @abunickabhi 30% will probably ruin your tabla. – PiedPiper Oct 20 '21 at 18:28
  • I have set it at a constant of 45% now, since the manual it said to maintain 40-50% for musical instruments. – abunickabhi Oct 21 '21 at 09:53
  • @abunickabhi 45% should be fine. – Scott Wallace Oct 21 '21 at 11:02
  • Okay thanks for the confirmation and the help. A lot of my doubts were cleared because of this post. – abunickabhi Oct 21 '21 at 11:36
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    @abunickabhi You really don't need the cabinet unless your local humidity is way over 70% (and if it is, then a setting of 45% is far too low). There's no problem storing a tabla at 70% humidity. – PiedPiper Oct 21 '21 at 14:39
  • The humidity at my place is 80-90% throughout the year. – abunickabhi Oct 21 '21 at 14:42
  • @abunickabhi Then a setting of 70% would be good, if your cabinet can do that (as I wrote in my original answer). – PiedPiper Oct 21 '21 at 15:49