Playing outdoors in high humidity

[Jake Arnold]

Hi everyone! So I’ve been playing a bunch of outdoor gigs recently and I’ve noticed that when it is raining/extremely humid my fingers stick to the guitar strings extremely bad and make it ridiculously hard to do riffs and solos that change position a lot. So I keep messing up my songs here and there and it kind of sucks.
Has anyone had much experience with this? and do you have any tips on making my strings/fingers a little more slippery so that its not like playing rubber bands? hahah

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Gahh I live in Missouri so I know exactly what you’re talking about! There are numerous types of spray from guitar stores you can buy specifically for this problem. They softly lubricate your neck and strings to where it’s much easier to slide. I literally depended on those sprays when I was 16 I just can’t remember what they’re called but i’m sure Captain Ed will chime in soon and he’ll know. He knows everything

 

[Ed Seith]

I’ll have to let y’all down here. I’ve always played bare-neck guitars (no finish AT ALL) and so this never really affected me when I lived back east in all the humidity. Occasionally my fingers would feel sticky and sluggish, and a light touch of baby powder on the hands would help, but that’s about it for me.
When I bought the PRS, it had a gloss neck, and as I was getting ready to take the sander to it, Mrs. Ed let out a blood-curdling scream about how I BETTER not deface something I just spent 4 grand on until I *tried* to get used to it.
Mrs. Ed is often right. She’s a smart cookie. I’m still not a fan of finished necks in general, but whatever PRS uses, I did adapt quickly, and it’s my favorite neck (it being a set neck with a small heel that only STARTS at the 19th fret probably helps), but living in the Arizona sun now, I don’t often have issues with humidity anymore, so…
Sorry, folks. Park’s closed. Moose out front shoulda toldja. In other words, I got nothing.
Damn, that’s a long post to say, “I don’t know.”
Oh well, that’s what you get with me.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

@Ed you just made my day with that response

 

[Jake Arnold]

@jak ugh so you do feel my pain! Hahah I was just in Missouri and I would say Michigan and Missouri are equal when it comes to horrible humidity xD I will definitely have to check out those sprays you mentioned, I’ve seen them before but I assumed they were one of those rip off type deals “makes you play better automatically!” Haha They make sense now that I’m sticking to the strings. And Captian Ed! That is great!
@Captian Ed I will have to try the baby powder! 3 of 4 guitars I own are a matte finish on the neck so I don’t really have a problem sticking to the neck, it’s more like the strings get a super grip on them. And I feel what Mrs. Ed was saying hahah I heard a guy in the guitar exchange say “first thing I do is sand the neck” while holding a $5,000 guitar and I gasped in pain lol
But like everything else it is your guitar, your preference
No worries on the long response! You gave me something to read rather than just saying “shit can’t help ya” so I enjoyed it haha.
Thank both of you very much for the tips! I’ll try them both!
Oh and Jak I’ll let ya know if I find any other solutions as well since you live in humidity hell also hahah