How to Take Care of your Guitar like a Hero

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Here is a great top five list sent in by a community member, who says this can also apply to most any musical instrument. It’s very important to take good care of your instruments, as repairs can be very expensive.

• Store your instrument in a temperature controlled room. Putting your guitar in a room that has constantly changing temperatures and humidity levels can be bad for it. Remember that a guitar is basically just a piece of wood, so it’s sensitive to humidity and the like. The consequence may be as little as the strings getting out of tune, but it may be as severe as the neck of the guitar warping, which is very hard if not impossible to fix.
• Clean the fretboard regularly. When you play your guitar, dust and dead skin can fall onto the frets which can get stuck in the grooves in the wood. Over time, it builds up and will look very bad. Sweat and other things may build up as well. I’ve seen a guitar which had some sort of black buildup on the frets and it was very disgusting. I would never have played a guitar in such a condition. Buildup like this could potentially block the strings if it gets too high.
• Change the strings regularly. Changing the strings is just like changing the tires on your car. Would you want to drive around on a very old and worn out set of tires? No, you wouldn’t. While old strings aren’t quite as dangerous, they can rust and potentially snap off and hit you in the face, which is never a pleasant experience. By changing the strings, you will also improve the quality of the sound your guitar will produce. Rock stars don’t change the strings on their guitars before every show just for the fun of it after all! Old strings can get out of tune a lot faster than new ones. Also, make sure you buy the correct gauge of strings. Changing to a gauge that’s significantly higher than the previous one can have negative effects on the neck: such as bending, warping, or even cracks developing in the wood.
• Invest in a good case and/or stand for your instrument. Buying a cheap case or stand is never a good idea. Why spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a guitar when you’re going to put it into a $10 case which may fall apart as you’re holding it? Your investment may just crash down to the ground. A good stand is also useful. I hadn’t even thought of this until recently when i went out and bought a new stand for my guitar. How the stand is built can have positive or negative effects on the instrument. Things like where the guitar is being supported can affect the guitar negatively. By getting a stand that hangs the guitar from the headstock rather than one that it sits on is better for the neck joint, which is a very sensitive part of the guitar.
• This one is a bit subjective, but a good thing to do is to invest in guitar cleaners and polishes. The lacquer on an instrument can wear off over time, and it may not wear evenly so you may end up with a strangely painted guitar. Using a guitar cleaner and polish can help prevent this, as well as make your guitar look nicer. Having a clean instrument makes you look more professional.

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