Hey Chaz,
I missed this somehow but it must have worked subliminally because it's exactly what I'm doing, so it's heartening to see someone with a lot of experience recommend this rather than giving up on it (someone understandably hollering "Send it back!) which I can't, don't know why, but I want to keep it, of course I want to keep it, I think it's one of one, somehow, for better or worse...
I think that insane cold ("dry cold") on the way here is where got it, I think it sucked every bit of moisture out of it. Freezing can do that, it's weird... You go inside and get totally overheated, and you're sweating and you think I can't go back out in that frozen sh*t like this, but you do, and in less than two minutes, you're totally dried out and you're just fine under all your layers. Sub zero temps pulls the moisture from your clothing almost instantly.
Fantastic advice though, I do have two sponges in there, and I pull it out a couple times of day to see if I'm starting to get a little haze on the guitar, and feeling for the fret ends to retract (if you will) to the point where they don't feel like they need filed (this would be nice).
I do have some string tension on it, at least a step down, just because I want to play it. I couldn't see tuning it and detuning it everyday, too much instability? I tuned it way down and discovered a new sound, and wt?, but I can do pentatonic scale bends that sound like I'm playing my Tele, and it sounds gorgeous to boot tuned down like that a little.
It's already part of my guitar journey, this could be "the" guitar for me, I think I'm still looking for that one.
Anyway, it is responding to treatment quite well, and I may have misjudged the neck angle, per Adorshki's post. I don't want to cut down a nice 36" metal rule, but I desperately need a 24" rule, the one I'm using is an old Wescott 18", and it is misleading. On this guitar, the end of the fret board looks like it sloping downwards to the top, but the neck angle looks like it's dead on up by the nut, which has been replaced, the nut slots are silly high and that will be addressed. I finally bought the files, the good ones from Stew Mac, 10 piece set, and maybe half my guitars need attention there... looks like I'll be starting with this one.
Speaking of high nut slots, I was on the phone with a longtime guitar player friend down the road from us, and he says (this could be guitar lore, or true?) "the reason why the nut slots are always high on a off the shelf guitar is for volume", to make the guitar loud. It makes total sense. You go into a store, check out a couple guitars, one's louder than the others, you buy it.