Guitar Care

Temperature and humidity can cause a great deal of damage to a wooden instrument. But if you follow some simple rules, you can avoid some costly repairs.

1. First do not leave your guitar in any place that could get above 100 degrees F. For example in a car on a hot day or above a fire place or other heat source. Even if it is inside a case, the glue can melt and fail. This can cause warped necks or bridges to come loose.

2. Cold can also cause damage. If your guitar gets very cold, bring it to a warmer place but leave it in the case so it will slowly get warmer until it reaches room temperature. Drastic warming can cause the finish to crack.

3. Keep your guitar in a humid environment of around 40%. Extremely low humidity of below 30% can cause the wood to shrink to the point where it will crack. You can use a household humidity system or a sound hole humidifier. Sometimes both are required. Extremely high humidity can cause swelling of the wood to the point of damage but this is much less common. But too much humidity can cause mold or dull tone.

4. Direct sunlight can cause UV fading and over heating so avoid this if you can.

5. I also recommend keeping your guitar in its case when not in use. This will help avoid drastic environmental changes as well as damage from pets or other flying objects.

 

Changing Strings

Strings can deteriorate for many reasons. Humidity can cause tarnish, chemicals from our fingers, and simply wear from friction against the frets can cause strings to loose their tone. Playability can also be affected by worn strings and it can cause intonation issues.

I use D'Addario Strings on my instruments and I recommend them to everyone that buys one of my guitars.

To change strings I recommend a string winder to speed things up. It is a small crank that fits over the tuning machine. Some have a bridge pin puller on them too.

Remove the old strings and discard them. At this point you can inspect and clean the finger board. Usually it just needs to be wiped with a soft cloth.

Put on the new strings one at a time. Start with the lowest string. A good way to judge how much string to wind on the tuning peg is to place your hand on the 12th fret. Place your hand on edge with the pinky on the fingerboard and you thumb pointing away from the finger board. Run the string over your hand and pull the end of the string until there is no slack in the string.

Now hold the string so it doesn't slip and begin turning the tuning machine. Remove your hand and tighten the string. You don't need to bring the string to final pitch yet. Check the bridge and the nut and make sure that the string is sitting properly at both ends.

Repeat with each string.

Now bring them to pitch.

 

On archtop guitars or resophonics, or any guitar that has a floating bridge, it is important to remove and replace only one string at a time so that the bridge is not moved. If the bridge does move there will be intonation issues.

 

Cleaning

After you are done playing you should wipe the guitar with a soft cloth, including the strings. Just a quick wipe down will remove sweat, beer or bug spray that may have gotten on the guitar.

A guitar polish can help remove heavier grime but use caution if the finish has small cracks in it. the polish can seep down and cause more separation between the finish and the wood.