The vast majority of guitarists want to care for their guitars and maintain them, allowing them to be played for several years. One of the main ways that just about any guitar player can take good care of his guitar is to try to clean it routinely. The main problem is many guitarists do not understand how to clean their guitars. In this posting, I will explain to you the right way to clean your guitar and what cleaning products are safe to use.
I'm sure what you are thinking about. Who cares, cleaning my guitar will not help it last longer. That is definitely just plain completely wrong. Cleaning a guitar doesn't just help it last longer; it will likely prevent potential guitar repairs. Whenever you clean your guitar consistently, you are more likely to look at it more and find more things like if it is dried out or swelling or perhaps in need of adjustment. All of these premature indicators might prevent harm and prevent potential guitar repairs.
Okay, enough about the warning symptoms. Let's start out cleaning. There are many of different cleaning and polishing solutions out there for guitars and the majority appear to be acceptable. In spite of this, it is not necessary to buy over priced cleaning solutions simply because they are "made for guitars." Some simple home furniture cleaning products will work best. I like to work with a mixture of solutions to clean and polish my guitars as well as my customers' guitars that come in for guitar repairs. Here's what I like to do.
The best way to clean and maintain your guitar body
A lot of guitars have glossy finish. This can be great simply because that generally glossy finish is much easier to clean than flat finish. There's two varieties of cleaning solutions: sprays and pastes or gels. In my experience, I don't use anything but aerosol cleaning products on my guitars. I'm sure these solutions do a good job eliminating the dust and finger prints at the same time providing a smooth shine. My personal favorite spray cleaner is Dunlop Formula 65 Polish Cleaner. I commonly just spray a couple of squirts over the guitar body. On electric guitars, be sure not to spray your pick-ups, as almost any form of solution might cause oxidation on the pickups. Then have a very soft rag, ordinarily I use an used t-shirt, and swirl in the cleaner. When the grime is taken away from the guitar surface area, I take a polish cloth and buff the finish to a nice shine.
If your guitar has cracks in the body or any totally exposed wood, be sure never to utilise any type of cleaning and polishing product on the exposed wood. This tends to make the wood swell and ruin the finish. Now you have an sort of an additional needless journey to the guitar repair shop.
The right way to clean and condition your guitar fretboard.
Most guitars except for numerous Fenders and Gretsches have unfinished fretboards. The normal unfinished fretboards are often manufactured from ebony and rosewood. Unfinished fretboards are really easy to clean, condition, and look gorgeous. You will need to clean your fretboard and moisturize it each and every time you change your strings. Fretboards can dry out and crack. You do not want to bring your guitar to a guitar repair shop as a consequence of something that might have been averted. Here's how I like to clean my fretboards.
There are numerous of specific fretboard cleaning and polishing products out there, although I prefer use Murphy's Oil Soap the best. Oil soap not just assists clean your fretboard, it also helps condition and moisturize it. The oil soap prevents your fretboard from drying out and breaking. It will also give your fretboard a fresh clean gloss.
I prefer to pour a small amount of oil soap on top of the fretboard. This doesn't take a lot at all -a small amount goes a long way. I Then use some #0000 steel wool and rub the oil soap to the fretboard while taking out the filth accumulation. Be sure you you cover your pickups so that parts of the steel wool don't get magnetically caught to the pickups. It's always a good idea to shine the frets while the steel wool is saturated in the oil soap. Doing this the entire fretboard and all of the frets look shiny and brand new all at once. Once the fretboard and frets are cleaned and polished, you'll want to wipe away the extra oil soap using a piece of paper towel. Now your fretboard is clean and conditioned and your frets are nice and shiny.
I'm sure what you are thinking about. Who cares, cleaning my guitar will not help it last longer. That is definitely just plain completely wrong. Cleaning a guitar doesn't just help it last longer; it will likely prevent potential guitar repairs. Whenever you clean your guitar consistently, you are more likely to look at it more and find more things like if it is dried out or swelling or perhaps in need of adjustment. All of these premature indicators might prevent harm and prevent potential guitar repairs.
Okay, enough about the warning symptoms. Let's start out cleaning. There are many of different cleaning and polishing solutions out there for guitars and the majority appear to be acceptable. In spite of this, it is not necessary to buy over priced cleaning solutions simply because they are "made for guitars." Some simple home furniture cleaning products will work best. I like to work with a mixture of solutions to clean and polish my guitars as well as my customers' guitars that come in for guitar repairs. Here's what I like to do.
The best way to clean and maintain your guitar body
A lot of guitars have glossy finish. This can be great simply because that generally glossy finish is much easier to clean than flat finish. There's two varieties of cleaning solutions: sprays and pastes or gels. In my experience, I don't use anything but aerosol cleaning products on my guitars. I'm sure these solutions do a good job eliminating the dust and finger prints at the same time providing a smooth shine. My personal favorite spray cleaner is Dunlop Formula 65 Polish Cleaner. I commonly just spray a couple of squirts over the guitar body. On electric guitars, be sure not to spray your pick-ups, as almost any form of solution might cause oxidation on the pickups. Then have a very soft rag, ordinarily I use an used t-shirt, and swirl in the cleaner. When the grime is taken away from the guitar surface area, I take a polish cloth and buff the finish to a nice shine.
If your guitar has cracks in the body or any totally exposed wood, be sure never to utilise any type of cleaning and polishing product on the exposed wood. This tends to make the wood swell and ruin the finish. Now you have an sort of an additional needless journey to the guitar repair shop.
The right way to clean and condition your guitar fretboard.
Most guitars except for numerous Fenders and Gretsches have unfinished fretboards. The normal unfinished fretboards are often manufactured from ebony and rosewood. Unfinished fretboards are really easy to clean, condition, and look gorgeous. You will need to clean your fretboard and moisturize it each and every time you change your strings. Fretboards can dry out and crack. You do not want to bring your guitar to a guitar repair shop as a consequence of something that might have been averted. Here's how I like to clean my fretboards.
There are numerous of specific fretboard cleaning and polishing products out there, although I prefer use Murphy's Oil Soap the best. Oil soap not just assists clean your fretboard, it also helps condition and moisturize it. The oil soap prevents your fretboard from drying out and breaking. It will also give your fretboard a fresh clean gloss.
I prefer to pour a small amount of oil soap on top of the fretboard. This doesn't take a lot at all -a small amount goes a long way. I Then use some #0000 steel wool and rub the oil soap to the fretboard while taking out the filth accumulation. Be sure you you cover your pickups so that parts of the steel wool don't get magnetically caught to the pickups. It's always a good idea to shine the frets while the steel wool is saturated in the oil soap. Doing this the entire fretboard and all of the frets look shiny and brand new all at once. Once the fretboard and frets are cleaned and polished, you'll want to wipe away the extra oil soap using a piece of paper towel. Now your fretboard is clean and conditioned and your frets are nice and shiny.
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