Hey Friend,
Since we’ve talked a bit about gear over the past couple weeks, I thought I’d ask...
What do you use to clean your guitar? You DO clean your guitar, don’t you?
I mean, besides your fingers and hands, your guitar is the most important piece of gear in your signal chain. And I know you clean your hands…
Even when we wash our hands before grabbing and fondling our beloved, there is still oil and sweat that come out of our hands and fingertips on to the guitar. Combined with dust/smoke in the air, humidity and the friction (heat) from your fast fingers, it doesn’t take long for dirt to build up.
These same “environmental” issues are what cause your strings to start sounding dull or dead. Once they lose the brightness in their sound, it’s time to start thinking about replacing the strings with a new set.
And that presents the perfect opportunity to give your guitar a good cleaning!
I have to confess, I don’t clean my guitars nearly as much as I should, which also means I probably don’t change my strings often enough. But let’s stick to the subject at hand - a good clean guitar.
I’ve never gone as far as buying guitar cleaner/polish (well, once, a long time ago), but I do give the entire neck and body a good rubdown with a microfiber dusting cloth. I have been known to use a little furniture polish on the body to buff it up nice.
However, Tyler Larson brings up some good information in this Guitar World article and video, particularly about your fingerboard. Take a look at his suggestions. It might inspire you to do a little late spring cleaning...
If you want to try some of the products he talked about, here are some links to check them out.
There are tons of products out there for cleaning and polishing your guitar, so ask around, too. Martin puts out products, Dunlop and Ernie Ball as well. Check out some forums (Harmony Central) and see what people use and like.
In fact, I need to get out and find some myself, so maybe I’ll try out Tyler’s suggestions. If they’re good enough for his expensive PRS guitars, they’re probably good enough for mine!
Peace~
Dave
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