Hello to all of you, and best wishes for the New Year!
I have only once run into a real problem with my musical gear due to low temperatures.
Many years ago we were travelling wintertimes booked for weekend gigs in our ski resorts in mid Sweden (Sälen/Idre/Björnrike for you Swedes here). The very first time we brought our gear in an un-isolated trailer behind our trusty Volvo 745.
The transport in this cold environment itself (this time down to minus 36-38 dgrC + windeffect during 4,5 hours driving) wasn't the problem.
The problem came when we brought the gear indoors on stage, when all the deep frozen equipment start to get warm and build up condensation water. Crazy things happend during the sound check. I had my Motif refuse to boot up, one of the guitar guys had a pedal board dying, both due to condensating water inside.
I believe we managed to evaporate the moisture using a number of electric car interior heater fans (”kupevärmare”, maybe only known for us Swedes). First my MOTIF was out of tune and later had a strange distorted sound the whole gig (nice for the E-pianos), but it survived.
Some years later we manged to get money enough to buy us a longbed Dodge Van, so we could bring our gear inside, in a decent temperature.
Today it suppose to be a real winter here in my region, with almost half meter of snow and real sub-zero temp's - but now in this moment it's raining and +4 dgr C. The global warming is causing us, and will cause us even more, problems!
Best regards
Aulis Gårdemark