Cleaning Your Guitar
It´s really important for the looks and the sound of your
guitar that you take good care of it and keep it clean.
In this section of my website you’ll find various
techniques for looking after your guitar.
Whether it is an electric or an acoustic guitar,
I'll tell you everything you need to know...This way you'll be able to get your guitar back into
perfect condition!
Things you'll need:
• Cotton Polishing Cloth (the same you use to clean your car)
• Screwdriver (for an electric guitar)
• Optionally: Oil-cutting solvent and polish
First of all, you need to test the strings on your guitar.
It's vital to maintain good pitch and tone on your guitar.
You can use String Cleaner Wipes to clean them, but in case
they're no good anymore or if you can't remember the last
time you've changed them, buy new strings and replace all of them (this is a lot easier with a speed winder).
We're going to speed wind the strings one by one until their loose enough to pull off the guitar.
Unwind them from the neck in order to remove them, if you cut them these problems can occur:
- You can damage the wood or leave permanent marks when you try to get the cutters around the string.
- Because it's a sudden tension-release, it could cause the bridgetension to recoil and bounce out of place.
- Extremely taught strings can fly all over the place (including your eyes...).
In case you have an electric guitar, you should examine the pickups.
In case they look rusty, unscrew the faceplate.
Be careful to not disturb the wiring inside the guitar while removing the pickups.
Use any common rust dissolving agent to clean the rust, then put the pickups back in place and polish them.
The next step is to check the fretboard.
The oil and sweat from your hands dulls the sound and sullies the wood after weeks of play
(you may want to use Fretboard Conditioner Wipes to reduce this).
There are finished and unfinished fretboards.
Mostly the darker fretboards (ebony) are unfinished and the light fretboards (maple) have a finish on them, however the process for any fretboard is the same if a damp cloth is being used.
Take a look at the nut as well (it's located at the top of the fretboard).
Take the strings out and lubricate the grooves with a professional solution or soap.
Dry it off and replace the strings, this will keep them in tune.
Clean the body of your guitar as well (oil and grease from your hands will build up on the guitar over time).
Breath on it first in order to fog it up and then wipe it with a cloth or just use a damp cloth.
There are a lot of different finishes (like satin, high gloss or veneer), for all of them this will work great.
You can also use a gentle oil-cutting solvent if there's a lot of grease on the body, but make sure you:
- read the product instructions first for proper applications
- put the product on a cloth in stead of onto the guitar
- use another section of the cloth if the used section gets dirty.
There are special Instrument Polish Wipes available to make your guitar as shiny as new...
You may use polish on clear shiny finishes (make sure it's recommended for guitars),
but make sure you don't use polish on a satin finish (not shiny) .
After this, use a damp cloth to wipe off the bridge.
Use a small toothbrush to remove embedded dirt if it needs more than a perfunctory cleaning.
Tip:
In case your strings are still in a good condition (but just a little bit dirty) you can clean them by
using a long, small piece of paper.
Just put the piece of paper underneath a string, hold onto both ends of the piece of paper and
go up and down the entire string with it a few times while you have a little tension on it
(if you have too much tension, the paper will rip). Repeat this for every string seperately.
In the first picture you can see how I clean my strings with a piece of paper and on in the second
picture you can see a stripe of dirt (which came off one string) in the middle of the piece of paper.
