Taking Care of your Guitar

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:21 pm Post subject: Taking Care of your Guitar

Hi Everyone! Fresh start again this year...many new things are showing up for me so early....things i didn't even think much about last year

Praise the Lord.well,about guitar :

I notice on my Cort that the wood color on the last few frets is slightly changing, you see on the pic, the frets got some dark-brown lines plus small scratches....guess bec i never play so far up there

My old Yamaha has the same problem, only ten times worse, it's like dirt all over the frets, bec of the 5years neglect.....

but with this Cort, I always clean up after playing, normally with a small towel, clean the body and oil off the strings. Once the storekeeper at a music store offered me some kind of a special spray to keep the frets and string in perfect condition but i thought I'll manage myself.....

I need some suggestions from you guys...anyone?

Mr.Brown, if i'm not mistaken, you got that Old-6strings with you right? that weighs a ton? how do you keep her in prime shape, esp the frets and the head ?

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

It looks to me that there's just grime built up around the frets. Try just rubbing parallel to the frets with a clean cotton cloth. Elbow grease can't hurt anything. Smile

J Dan Brown · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 4:27 am Post subject:

Music, Sharring is mostly right. The neck, frets and headstock do tend to collect atmosphere, body fluids, and abraded fingerprints. I live on a recently paved road (about 18 mo. ago), am surrounded by pasture and have more dust than anything, but I have encountered the grime of which you speak. I perspire profusely and I play much outside in Summer. Sweat is hard on a finish and strings like cement is on the bottom of a case. A soft cloth, a mild detergent and friction is the best medicine. Take care not to leave any moisture near glue joints.

As far as finish goes, I tend to never play higher than an 10th fret open D chord, but envirionment dirt collects on the higher frets. My finish, however, can go a long way before I deal with it. My guitar repair guy and all I have read suggests NOT to use silicone based furniture furniture polishes or even furniture oils as it tends to build up during every use, and is hard (especially silicone) to remove if you ever need to re-finish. My guitar guy recommends a fine custom car polish available at better auto parts stores, as it leaves no residue, for all wooden musical instruments.

I also think that a guitar without wounds is sort of like the proverbial fired school-teacher, and has practically "no class." Smile

I don't mean chicken grease, melted ChapStiick, or dried suntan lotion, but normal wear. Every scratch on any of mine has a story and a proud memory connected with it. My Guild has a very deep scratch caused by an axle of a walker at the VAMC. A large gentleman sitting on this device fell over backwards while listening to me and I foolishly tried to catch him while holding my guitar. The axle rubbed a deep dent across the lower part of the top, but not through the finish. I am told that the wood could be steamed and ironed, to raise the lower part of the dent back up level, but I ask myself if I am that vain or if I shoudn't just sing something and pray that it's God's will that it is of use, loved and understood. If I brooded about what people thought of my guitar care or rushed to refinish every scratch, tiny or large, it would much hinder the work to which I am called. The best guitarist I know has something in his skin chemistry that corrodes strings almost instantly to instruments he plays the tiniest bit that are owned and played by someone else, but not to ones he regularly plays. Wierd stuff, yet un-explained, huh? Hope this helps some!
Blessed, even by this Ghost town, Dan

markm2553 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:31 am Post subject:

I use Q-tips to clean on either side of my frets.

About once a year, or whenever I get a wild hair, I use lemon oil on the fretboard. It will make it look new again. I again use the Q-tips, use one to appliy the lemon oil lightly, then others to buff and remove the extra. Remove all the excess, it should be dry when your done.

It does not take much, I would say I use about a capfull for the entire fret board, the bottle I bought three yeras ago should last my lifetime, my kids lifetime and their kids lifetime, if the Lord taries that long...

J Dan Brown · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:52 pm Post subject:

Great "Last Days" advice, Mark! You're right about the lemon oil on the fret board and bridge woods (ususally Indian rosewood or ebony) as they're usually not finished and a bit really does go a long way. I would indeed leave only that which soaks in and be cautious to not leave any liquid, only an invisible, dry sheen. Because of the clear finish on the rest though, the oil can't be drawn adequately into places like the headstock, the back of neck, the top, the back and sides and leaves only a greasy place, perfect for dust attration or for about a 100 fingerprints.

Wow! Keith Green (one of my favorite "old-school" Christian songwriters) would have been 54 this year, had he not been killed tragically in '82 at the age of 28. I wonder what one of his "Last Days Newsletters" would be talkin' about today, in '08? I wonder!
Blessed, by a "called Home" Minister/Singer/Songwriter whose fire was indeed Lord-lit in his day, Dan

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 4:51 am Post subject:

Gee many many thanks for the tips friends! although sometimes i get confused with the terms you're all using plus i'm not that handy,like lemon oil...here we got so many types of lemon oil, we got toilet-scrubbing lemon oil, dishes-lemon-oil, car-dashboard-lemon-oil, floor mopping lemon oil....or squeeze right out of a lemon fruit? hahahaha.....

How long do your new strings usually get kinda corroded? I just put on new ones last nov, now they're pretty dark and ugly.....could I be having the "Skin chemistry" problem Mr.Dan mentioned? Shocked

markm2553 · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:49 am Post subject:

Here is the type I bought, anything for wood should work fine.
Got mine at the local ACE hardware.

http://www.formbys.com/products/lemon_oil.cfm

I think it is much more hot and humid where you live, two months for string rust might be expected. If you clean your srings off with a towel after every use, your doing about all you can, I would think...

I have heard you can use WD40 to clean strings also, if you try it, make sure you get all the extra off! Kind of like shinning them up a bit.

There is an old wifes tail around that you can take a dead set of strings off, boil them in water, and reinstall them and get another go around out of them? Don't ask me if it works, once I take a string off, it don't get put back on. Wink

PunkStar · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 4:27 pm Post subject:

I've certainly heard the string-boiling thing too. I first heard about it from the bass player at my church, and he recommends it for bass. And it's certainly viable for bass guitars. They have really thick strings that can easily withstand pressures of larger tuning (like when you take a string off) changes without the fear of breaking. And it's fairly likely that guitar strings can do the same, but I've never tried it so I can't say.

But string boiling is more useful on wound strings (like your E, A, D and sometimes G) because the muck that gets on the strings gets stuck in between the winds and is hard to clean out. The dirt can't get into anywhere on the non-wound strings, so you can just wipe them off. Generally, I wipe them down after playing if necessary and change the strings when they need it.

J Dan Brown · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:58 am Post subject:

One more thing about "string boiling:" Several guitar techs have told me that while some body oils and what-not are removed by boiling your strings, more damage than good is done to wound strings, because the winding always slips on the core when you totally reduce the tension to take the string off and even more when you again re-tension the string while tuning it back up. The causes much deadening as a string with a firm grip by the winding to the core vibrates much easier and longer than one with a separated (slipped) core and winding. Just what I've heard and I can't prove it, but I have indeed more than once witnessed it.
Blessed, and in His grip, Dan