How to take care of your guitar?
Playing an instrument is a very difficult and long process. This process takes dedication, time, and patience. After we start playing an instrument, we need to be whole with it and make them a part of our lives. Shouldn’t we be so interested in our instruments while we are so interested in our performance? Yes! We must love our instrument and not skimp on its care to get the necessary performance from it and spend time together for many years. The guitar is one of the most widely played instruments among musical instruments. If you are willing to play guitar, you should also learn guitar care and maintenance. We can divide guitar care into 3:
1. String Care
2. Handle and Body Care
3. Guitar Hardware Care
Guitar Care
String Care in Guitar Care
The most crucial thing in guitar care is wire care. Strings have a certain period of use. Even if you don’t use the guitar, the guitar strings get old over time. There are specific reasons for this condition. Most importantly, it is exposed to the air. Due to the fact that the strings are winding, oxidization occurs in the string as a result of contact with air over time.
In addition, the humidity of the air and the sweat and dirt on our fingers when playing the guitar fill these windings and shorten the string’s life. What happens as a result of this? The fact that the strings are contaminated and oxidized leads to the fact that the desired efficiency cannot be obtained from the guitar tone, and these impurities damage the guitar keyboard and frets over time. In addition to changing the guitar strings, you can also clean them. But if you want to get a full yield, you should change the strings regularly. If guitar maintenance is carried out without interruption, both continuity of performance of your guitar is ensured and life of the strings is extended.
So, how often should these strings be replaced?
In fact, the answer to it depends on you. The main thing in guitar care is how much attention you have on your guitar. If you keep your guitar in too humid places and play it with dirty hands, your frequency of changing the string will increase. We recommend changing the strings between 3-5 months if we need to give an average time about this issue, which has many variables such as the environment where the guitar is located the cleanliness of the hands of the person playing. Of course, it is possible to extend this period a little longer with regular care.
Which guitar string should be used?
Guitar strings are also categorized according to their thickness and features. After deciding to take care of the guitar, the correct way to choose a guitar string is to try each string because everyone’s expectations and choices from the guitar string are different. But you should avoid buying stainless guitar strings. Because with the thought of saving the string, you can cause serious damage to your keyboard.
Body cleaning in guitar care
You should pay attention to some points when you decide to clean the guitar body. Guitar body care has two stages. In the first stage, you should use a cleaner and after that, you should use a polisher. Cleaner, cleans the dust and fingerprints that form on the body of your guitar and cleans scratches also allows your guitar to feel fresh. A polisher allows your guitar to get a glossy surface.
First, the dust of the body should be removed with a microfiber cloth. In addition, you can get a deep cleaning of your guitar with co-applied cleaners. Take special care not to put too much pressure on your guitar during practice. Otherwise, you may encounter various scratches and deformations on your guitar. In the cleaning process, cleaning products that are sold in stores can be used, as well as it can be done with a damp cloth or a wet wipe without getting the body too wet and provided that it is dried immediately.
After the cleaning process, the polishing process is applied, which will help the guitar to get a bright image and let the tree breathe. In this process, a product suitable for the type and structure of your guitar should be preferred. It has been seen that the care polishes presented with the creamy structure are very effective in removing defects such as scratches. You can apply these products, which you can also find as a spray, with special sponges and guitar cleaning cloths.
Fretboard Cleaning in Guitar Care
You contact with your keybord on your guitar most. For this reason, firstly, you can start deep guitar care cleaning from the fretboard. If you don’t take care of your guitar, you won’t get the performance it deserves from your guitar. Before doing guitar fretboard care, you should research guitar fretboard care products. If you have a guitar with an ebony or rosewood fretboard, you can use lemon oil as a cleaning product.
Thus, you can make both economical maintenances and maintain the condition of your guitar. You can get lemon oil from places or shops that sell skin care products. But when buying lemon oil, you should pay attention to the fact that it is lemon oil, the acidic value of which is not very high. If you have a guitar with a maple fretboard, your have two cleaning options. One of them is polished fretboard cleaning, and the other is unpolished fretboard cleaning.
You should not use lemon oil for your unpolished fretboard. Lemon oil for a polished guitar fretboard will be the cause of the darkening. Also, baby oil can be an option here. A polished fretboard’s care is easier than unpolished ones. You can clean the fretboard with zippo gas and care for it with lemon oil. For maple fretboard care, it will be convenient for you to perform maintenance on average two times in 5 months.
Guitar Hardware’s Cleaning in Guitar Care
Many guitar limbs, such as bridges, magnetic caps, and decibels, are among the metal parts. Using rust remover products, you can provide quite good care. The most important thing you should pay attention to here is not to touch the electronic and wooden parts of this product. To avoid this, you can apply the product with the help of a cloth.
You can use an ear stick to clean metal parts with an electronic area around them. Especially on an electric guitar, the care of metal parts is very important because this guitar maintenance extends the life of your guitar. The metal parts you need to clean are: magnetic screws, cover screws, guitar bridge, guitar augers. It would be best if you used a contact cleaner for magnetic Switches. When taking care of your guitar, you should clean it carefully because these parts are connected to electronic components. Contact cleaners also solve the problems of sizzle.
Guitar Care Products
Microfiber cloths, guitar creams, and polishes are among the products you can buy and use in your guitar. Manufacturers of musical instruments and accessories sell specially designed polishing cloths specifically for cleaning the guitar. By purchasing these polishing pads, you can clean and polish your guitar well. The easiest way to get rid of fat deposits on your fretboard is to use a good guitar conditioner. You can clean it with a microfiber or cotton cloth with guitar cream. Also, your guitar will shine more if you don’t clean it with gentle, circular movements.
But if you want economical guitar care, an old 100 percent cotton T-shirt can also help you take care of your guitar fretboard. Or, you can clean the dirt on the fretboard with an old toothbrush. But when cleaning the fretboard with a toothbrush, you should apply so little pressure that it does not damage the keyboard. After cleaning the fretboard, be sure to wipe and clean the fretboard with a paper towel. But be careful because paper towels can scratch the guitar. Pay attention to paper towels, especially if your guitar has lacquer or French varnishes. As another idea, most professional guitarists and even guitar manufacturers recommend wax. The reason it is so popular is that it works well on both glossy and satin surfaces.
Since these products are of great importance, we have listed the highlights from the brands which might be helpful.
Jim Dunlop
Jim Dunlop from United States brand of guitar is among the most preferred brands by having a wide range of accessories and care products.
Planet Waves
Another prominent brand in guitar care products is Planet Waves. All the products you need, from polishing sprays to string cleaner, microfiber cloth to lemon oil, are available in this brand.
Gibson
Gibson, another brand based in America, is an essential manufacturer of electric guitars and acoustic guitars. The brand’s products, where you can find everything you need about the guitars, are famous
MusicNomad
MusicNomad is among the most used brands in guitar decency. The brand provides professional-quality products to maintain the quality of your instrument and maintain that quality and extend the life of your instrument.
Because the products you use during the guitar care process may contain various chemicals, you should not forget to wash your hands after using these types of products. Because if you smear cleaning products on your face and eyes, it can lead to various health problems. However, you should not touch your guitar for a while after cleaning it. If you touch your guitar during this process, you may cause it to become dirtier.
Which product should we avoid in guitar care?
Furniture decontamination products are definitely among the products you should not use in your guitar care. Most people think that it is good to use furniture cleaners since it can clean woods but this is entirely wrong. If you are not using a special varnish for the guitar, make sure that it does not contain lemon oil, alcohol, or silicone that you are using. All of these types of products can permanently damage your guitar.
Guitar Care Kit
Your guitar gets old over time because of moisture, dirt, and environmental factors that cause the quality of materials in guitar making to decrease over time. Guitar care kits are the thing that will help you a lot in your guitar maintenance. Guitar care kits help protect your guitar. So, does the quality of guitar care kits matter? Of course, they have matter. A good guitar care kit can save you from damages. Let’s look a little at the products included in a guitar care kit and their purpose.
Guitar care oil: Provides cleaning and protection of the guitar fretboard. It delays the formation of dirt. It cleans the fretboard allows you to play quickly and conveniently. But in Maple fretboards, you shouldn’t use it.
Guitar cleaner: It makes your instrument look like it did on the first day. Thanks to the components of this cleaner; you can clean fingerprints, and dirt on your guitar.
String cleaner: improves wire life and tone. You can apply string cleaner oil on your strings and clean them so that you can play your guitar faster and use it for longer. It usually has an applicator that is located to clean your strands. You need to wipe and clean the strands from top to bottom with it.
Fretboard feeder: Replenishes the proper oil balance of the wood and prevents cracks.
Fretboard maintenance polish: Cleans and cares for the fretboard. Removes dirts and oils. It gives natural moisture.
Guitar care products, and now you want to know their purpose of kits to buy as a package from brands yourself, or you can create your kit by bringing together the products you want. The choice is entirely yours.
Guitar maintenance
After cleaning and taking care of your guitar, it’s time for the other important thing; maintenance. Storage and case are two crucial features to protect your guitar. Storage is about where you keep your guitar. The environment in which the guitar is located is vital. It may sound ridiculous, but you should not keep it in humid environments if you want to be with your guitar for many years. This is how your guitar enclosure works best. In addition, of course, you need to keep it away from things that may fall on it. As a case, you can choose hard cases for protection, but you can’t easily carry your guitar on your back because its weight will increase. But it will be good for you to choose cases in which the inside of the case is soft.
Now, how to get the guitar tone you want?
Advancing your way throughout the guitar journey is a wholistic process which includes two main pillars: 1. Improving your playing skills; 2. Tweaking the guitar effects and amps to shape your guitar sound.
We all have a guitarist idol that we dig the sound of, right?
Getting the guitar sound of your favorite guitarists/band can be very costly and frustrating. It can require years of expertise to achieve your desired guitar tone.
Don’t worry, you don’t actually have to spend that much money and effort to get any guitar tone you want. Deplike Guitar FX Amp Sim suite plug-in got you covered on all Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices. All you have to do is plug your guitar and play!
