Puckdropper wrote:


Wouldn't a finish tend to retard the movement of moisture into and
out of the wood? If it's moisture changes causing the movement, and
not something else like temperature, then could the finish play a
part in allowing pieces to be transported with little difficulty?


Yeah but that's where it gets even worse - instruments are only finished on
the outside. The inside of a guitar for example, or a fiddle, etc. is raw
wood. That's a worst case scenario for wood. To be fair - the wood does
move, and guitars fall out of tune due to changes in humidity, and they are
all glued together with cross braces inside, and the like, so there is an
understandable reason why they don't move as much, but then there's that
stuff from IKEA. I still don't understand how it holds up.

--

-Mike-