A Moisture and Density Detector (MDD) provides a method and apparatus to determine the moisture content and/or density, as well as presence and location of anomalies, and/or wood type of any dielectric material for various purposes. This device is very useful in detecting the moisture content of wood and wood-based materials, such as that of lumber in a dry kiln prior to, during and/or following drying. The MDD passes a radio frequency signal and/or any other signal between opposed or adjacent capacitance electrodes and measures the signal strength and phase shift of the signal. The addition of phase shift and multiple frequencies improves the accuracy of the results.