Taking care of your guitar is the most important point to extend the life of the instrument, here are 10 essential tips to enjoy the guitar for many years.
Cleaning Your Guitar
- Change the strings 2 by 2 to minimize the variation in tension on the neck.
- Whenever you play the guitar, clean the strings and the back of the neck with a dry cloth, thus extending the life of the strings and preventing oxidation.
- The guitar fretboard doesn’t need to be cleaned continuously, cleaning every 2 months is enough. It is important not to clean it with very wet and aggressive products. Loosen the cords and remove any dirt you see with a slightly damp cloth or an old T-shirt.
- Once a year or when you see that the fretboard is really dirty you can completely disassemble the strings and do a deep cleaning. Using Zippo gasoline and a toothbrush we can perfectly clean the keyboard leaving it perfect. For the corners under the keys we can use a toothpick. Once cleaned, we will moisturize with special lemon oil for silicone-free guitars and remove the excess with a dry cloth.
- If at the same time we clean the fretboard we want to polish the frets with steel wool and polish for metal, we will leave the frets as they did when we bought the guitar. (It is important to cover the fingerboard with bodybuilder tape first.
- For guitar paint maintenance, if we just want to clean the dirt, we can use a damp fiber cloth. But if we want to restore the guitar’s shine, we have to use a silicone-free polish. If we already want to repair small marks or scratches in the finish, we need to take the guitar apart and undergo a more exhaustive polishing process.
- Do not use rubber, PVC and derivatives mounts in nitrocellulose finish guitars as they can attack the finish.
- Always use a different rag for the fretboard than the body, different products are used in each and it is not good to mix them.
- For the maintenance of the metal parts of the guitar, such as the bridge, tuners, pickup poles etc. What we should use is a dry cloth to clean them after touching and avoid oxidation and wear. If they are very dirty and there is built-in dust in the corners, use a brush or compressed air and, as a final method, completely disassemble and use a metal cleaner.
- Do not use abrasive or generic cleaning products on the guitar, purchase specific products for musical instruments or perform cleaning and maintenance operations with dry rags. And always contact a good luthier if you have any serious problems with your guitar.