The Essential Guitar Maintenance Guide

As a guitarist one of the most important and most often overlooked things is making sure that your keep your guitar in good shape. Know it may seem more fun to play guitar and rocking out than spending time making sure that your guitar is cleaned always in perfect condition, but a little guitar maintenance before practice or playing a gig will go a long way to making sure that your guitar will last of many years.

This article will act a guitar maintenance guide that will help show guitarists some of the simple ways that you can help keep your instrument looking great and playing great for the life of the guitar.

Cleaning your Guitar

The first step to making sure that your guitar is kept in good condition is cleaning the guitar. As a guitarist myself I know that it can be a drag having to clean your guitar because it takes time and a lot of effort to clean it. However, it is important to keep your guitar clean because over time dirt fingerprints will start to build up on the guitar as it is played. The dirt and fingerprint can cause the finish to scratch - this will damage the overall image of the guitar.

Taking the extra time to clean your guitar will not only help your guitar looking its best, it also gives you the chance to see if anything is wrong with your guitar. Since you will be looking at your guitar you will be able to see if any of the wood is starting to warp, the condition of your frets and if anything on the guitar needs to be replaced.

Keeping Your Guitar in a Case

This one may seem pretty obvious, but it can often be the most overlooked thing when caring for your guitar. I know that it is important to keep your guitar out because it can easily be picked up and saves you the extra hassle of having to get your case and take your guitar out.

However keeping the guitar in its case while it is not being played can help protect your guitar from various things like being dropped, changes in the weather and having things hit your guitar.

Just think you would be pretty upset if you or someone you know accidentally bumped into your guitar stand and knocked it over causing your guitar to hit the floor. In addition to this, humidity is a killer to a guitar because it causes damage to the wood and can lead to warping of the wood that can permanently damage your guitar's neck and the guitar's body.

Picking Up Your Guitar and Playing It

Yes you did read that right. Picking up your guitar is not only about having fun playing your favorite song, it is also a way to help keep your guitar in a good playable shape. Playing your guitar can give you clues that something might be wrong. For example, I was playing my Epiphone electric guitar one day and noticed that I was getting a buzzing sound and that I had to push down a lot harder to get chords to ring out. I went to my local guitar store and found out that the truss rod needed to be adjusted which the guy at the store showed me how to do.

Another thing that you can tell from playing your guitar is the condition of your strings. I have had a good number of strings break because I failed to notice the rust and corrosion that had built up over time. Now I always make sure that my strings are in great shape and that they are changed on a stricter basis.

Guitar maintenance is a very important part of playing the instrument as it helps to extend the life and keep the instrument in playing shape. It may seem a little tedious at times to stop playing and look at the condition of your guitar, but it will help you to better understand what kind of care that your guitar needs to have to keep it in top form at all times.