Guitar Care Guide

Taking care of your acoustic guitar is actually very easy and considerably important. This protects the value of your investment and ensures its longevity. Just like wine gets better by the age, so does a well- maintained guitar. However, the question is what exactly does ‘guitar care and maintenance’ mean? It simply means possessing a fundamental knowledge of the guitar and how the instrument is used. Given below is a brief guide to guitar care -

Storing the Guitar

Before you start with a guitar care schedule, think of how you will safeguard it from any kind of physical damage. For this you would firstly need to buy a properly fitted guitar case that would secure this asset. Always keep the guitar in a safe place, for this would effectively safeguard it from being stepped on, nicked, accidentally bumped, scratched or mistreated in any way. 

Frequent Use

If you are a regular user of the guitar, may it be for teaching, practicing or performing, use a good guitar stand. This would help you in placing the instrument safe, whenever you need a break. Always avoid intense heat or sunlight as they might make the wood brittle, dry, twisted, warped or cracked. Furthermore, this damage to the guitar might make the bridge to separate from the main body of the guitar and eventually make it useless.

The best way to take care of the guitar is to store it at room temperature (55-65°) and avoid intense climate changes.

Moisture

If you use an acoustic guitar, a humidifying system could prove to be very useful. If you live in a dry, hot climate keep the guitar inside a sound-hole to ensure, it does not dry.  

Cleaning the Guitar

Wipe the body and neck of the guitar to make it look good as well as sound better. Avoid using oily hands when playing the guitar, as these oily stained strings would attract dust and thus lose their luster. Use a soft cotton cloth to wipe the strings of the guitar. This would complement its longevity and limit corrosion. You can use the Dunlop guitar maintenance kit that has been specially developed for keeping the guitar in excellent condition.

How to change guitar strings

If you use the guitar very often, sooner or later they would start sounding dull and show signs of corrosion. You will have to change the strings, depending on how often you play the guitar. There are people who change them before every performance. Change the guitar strings according to your observation of the corrosion. To conclude, if you wish to reap more joy out of playing the guitar, take proper care and maintain it.