Heat & Humidity
Your instrument is made of wood and subject to the effects of heat and humidity. Extreme heat, cold, and dryness can warp or crack your instrument.
Protect it from the elements:
- Don’t leave your guitar in your car. The inside of a parked car can be up to 40 degrees higher than outside and it takes only about 30 minutes to get that hot. Not good for your pet, not good for your guitar
- At home, keep your guitar away from direct sunlight
- During the winter, humidify your guitar. Buy a guitar humidifier to protect your guitar
- When you go out, keep that guitar safe in a case
Cleaning And Maintenance
- Clean your guitar (except fingerboard) with a guitar or musical instrument polish only
- Wipe down your strings after each practice to prolong the life of your strings
- Do not keep strings at higher tension than regular tuning for extended periods of time
- Store your guitar in the case, or on a guitar stand, when not in use
Guitar strings are subjected to many conditions that shorten their life, including overstretching the string, wear, and corrosion. Here are a number of suggestions which you can do to increase the life of your strings and improve the tone of your guitar.
Simple Steps to Preserve the Tone of Your Strings
- Right before playing, apply a small (maybe about the size of a dime) drop of hand sanitizer and rub your hands together briskly. The sanitizer will not only kill whatever bacteria are hiding out in your palms but will also evaporate harmful oils which will dull strings. I prefer this to just washing your hands as during handwashing, the water can soften calluses and fingernails — not a good result.
- Do not over-stretch your strings during when you tune — this will shorten the life of the string’s elasticity.
- Periodically, check the condition of the guitar bridge and bridge saddle to avoid breaking a string during the replacement process.
- When you are replacing strings, do not crimp the string at the tuning peg.
- When you’re through playing, wipe the strings with a soft cotton cloth ( an old T-shirt or even a diaper) or a microfiber cloth. Wipe the entire strings, not just the top — wrap your cloth around the string and go up and down the length. You should see the hand grime on your cloth. Or check or a product called The String Cleaner, which cleans and lubricates your strings very efficiently for under fifteen bucks.
- Other commercially available string cleaners are: Ernie Ball’s Wonder Wipes, Fast Fret, Dr. Stringfellow, and Dunlop Ultraglide, to name a few of the most popular. Check your local music store or browse online.
How Often Should Your Strings Be Replaced?
Of course the answer to that depends on a lot of factors including:
- What tone are you looking for (bright or more muted)?
- How often do you play or practice? and for how long?
- What kind of string care do you perform?
If you care for your strings (and your hands before playing), here’s a guide to string life:
(courtesy of Access Rock)
| I play the guitar: | Change your strings every: |
| 2 hours every day | 2 to 3 weeks |
| 30 minutes to 1 hour a day | 1 month to 6 weeks |
| 30 minutes to 1 hour 3 to 5 times a week | 6 weeks to 2 months |
| almost never or never | 2 to 3 months |
And, of course, they should be replaced any time they won’t stay in tune, or you don’t like how they sound. It’s often just a personal choice. Good luck !
If you want the best sound and the best “playability” from your instrument, your guitar will need to have certain adjustments made — this is called a “set-up”. Unless you have a customized instrument made specially for you, your instrument will have its specs set for the average customer. A set-up will make adjustments that are right for YOU.
A “setup” is the set of adjustments that will make a guitar play as well as possible, taking into account the design of the guitar and your preferences. It will cure (or minimize) fret buzz, high action, and other problems.
You can do it yourself — there are many “how-to’s” on the web — but most people like to have it done by someone who does it on a regular basis.
Here is what is generally covered in a set-up:
- Neck Relief/Truss Rod Adjustment. You need to have a small bit of relief or clearance in the middle of the fingerboard so that a vibrating string has ample clearance to vibrate freely and naturally. This is achieved by adjusting the truss rod, which runs down the length of the neck. Tightening and loosening in it flexes the neck and allows curvature to be applied to the neck, altering its characteristics and its playability. Great care needs to be given during this adjustment as each manufacturer’s setting is different and adjustments must be made – and checked — very slightly each time.
- String Height Adjustment. Each string has to clear the length of the fretboard cleanly and not buzz when it is depressed at the fret. This adjustment is generally done by adjusting the bridge but occasionally done at the nut as well. The result should be that every string can be played easily and that every note up and down the fretboard rings true with no buzzing.
- (Optional) Pickup Height Adjustment. Because guitar tone is such a personal preference, this is often done by the indivual player, but a guitar tech will check the pickup height to ensure it is not too close to the strings, as it will cause undesirable distortion and kill sustain.
- Intonation. Intonation refers to the ability of a guitar to play in tune up and down the neck. Different string gauges, scale lengths, set ups, fret sizes, playing techniques and other variables can effect your instrument’s intonation. Also, the guitar is what is called a tempered instrument and the distance between frets is based on a mathematical equation to find the best “balance” between sharp and flat notes. The trick in setting intonation is to move the bridge saddles to make the string slightly longer or shorter. This generally requires a strobe tuner and a great deal of patience.
- Instrument Inspection and Cleaning. The guitar will be inspected for cracks, dings, worn frets, etc., and the fretboard will be cleaned and dressed.
- String Change. It’s best to bring your own strings so that the guitar will be set up specifically for the strings you prefer to play.