Elise Michaels, a friend and fellow producer/musician suggests  to “be sure to put a humidifier in it. Planet Waves makes a good one.” The air humidity should be neither too low nor too high, thus somewhere in the 40-50% range, and the temperature of the area should be about 77 °F. These two factors are the biggest threat to an instrument, because changes in moisture and temperature can cause permanent warping of the neck and other critical parts. For guitars made out of solid wood, it is advised to use a humidifier to prevent cracks and damage from weather change.

John Alarcon, a Bend Singer/Songwriter pointed me to a good web resource of information on storing your guitar. Some great advice there is, a guitar gets most of its scrapes because one leans it against a wall, or against a table edge, and then it is knocked over from the slightest contact or draft of air. If one would have put it down, this would not have happened. Get it on a wall hook, on a stand or better yet in a case.

If you are not expecting to play your guitar for a while it is very important to loosen the strings. I’ve been told that the neck will eventually warp inward at the neck from the tension of the strings. When you are actively playing the instrument you’re constantly flexing the neck from tuning and playing. But if the strings and neck are stationary for a long time the neck will bend. Not a good thing, you’ll be out of tune and have more firewood.

A troll is a hater who hides behind anonymity and attempts to get an emotional response from his/her victims. The obvious target of a troll on a musician is their music with evil and snide comments. They are remarks like the common gut-stab “you suck,” to well thought out messages that are designed to look like actual criticism but are design to kill. Why do they do it? One of my guesses they use the medium to express some hate from rejection they’ve had in the past. WHO KNOWS?

They live behind fake names that reflect their purpose and wait for their victims as they post up their music or post something about their music online. They need absolute protection from being identified to thrive as a troll so you’ll commonly find them resting in forums, on websites that allow anonymous postings or on video and audio feeds.

A few years ago I had the unique opportunity to meet a troll in person and proudly told me how he trolled people on Craigslist. He didn’t actually show me doing it he just bragged about how he did it and I immediately could see his actions as clear as day when I randomly checked the feed a few months later.

The weirdest thing about this dude’s trolling strategy is he would start it off by trolling himself. He would post up something then become a troll and post a RE: on his own post. Weird HUH? He’d post in the Musician Community feed about something he felt strongly about (probably still does I’m sure).

One time  I saw a post that  made me think of him. I remember him ranting about not being paid by a venue and he said, “you pay your dishwasher but not the musician?” Then I saw the same rant on a few months later on Craigslist, “you pay your dishwasher…” It looked too similar.

He quickly posted up a RE: attacking his own rant with a short and sweet “you probably suck anyway.” Hmmm? It was the same strategy he bragged about before. Then I could recognize other key phrases the dude used in banter before. No doubt it was him.

That’s where he patiently waited for his victims underneath his bridge. People would respond to the post and he’d bash them, then flip sides and bash the others… he did everything to keep his own weird argument going, on and on and on until it was his own little pleasure hate world where he was in control.

I haven’t seen this person in a while, by choice. I was thinking that this might give some insight to some of you who frequent the Bend Craigslist Musician’s Community or any forum for that matter. It does have trolls, but not as many as you may think. It could just be one or two unfortunate souls who needs to spread some hate around.