Top 5 Essential Guitar Maintenance Tips

Good guitars are expensive, so when we have a beautiful instrument in our hands we want to keep it in great condition for as long as possible.

23:47 21 June 2023

Good guitars are expensive, so when we have a beautiful instrument in our hands we want to keep it in great condition for as long as possible.

To help you avoid warped necks, loose strings, and rusty parts, we have 5 tips we want to share.

Before we wrote these tips, we first spoke to Guitar Experts to ensure our information was as accurate as possible.

1. Maintain Humidity

Most guitars are made from different woods. This is what creates the beautiful and hollow sound we come to expect. However, wood is very reactive to moisture. It will absorb all the water in the air if you let it.

Although most guitars will have a protective paint layer to avoid moisture retention, you have to help that thin layer of paint do its job.

Ideally, your guitar storage room should have a humidity level of 45 to 55%. If it’s more than that, use a dehumidifier to keep the room's moisture levels low.

Failing to do this can cause your guitar to weaken as it becomes moist, or to shrink due to the lack of moisture. This will change the shape of your guitar and the sound it creates.

1. Clean Your Guitar

Every time you play your guitar, you will be adding sweat, dead skin cells, and natural oils to the string, neck, and body. Even when you aren’t playing, dust will settle on the same important parts of the instrument. 

If you leave these natural but harmful byproducts on your guitar, the oils will degrade the wood, and the sweat will rust the strings.

If you play your guitar daily, then you should clean it every day. If you play your guitar often, but not always, you should clean it before and after every use. If you play it rarely, you should clean it every month.

To clean your guitar properly, you should use a cloth with a polish made of wood. You should also use a cloth with a polish made of metal, on the strings. There are specific guitar cleaning solutions you can use.

No matter which ones you pick, make sure to feed the cloth through the gap between the string and neck so you reach every part of the guitar.

1. Condition Your Fingerboard

The body of your guitar will have been treated and sealed to help protect it from the elements (like the natural oils and temperature issues we mentioned before). However, the fingerboard is normally left untreated.

This is why fingerboards are often the first part of the guitar to wear down.

This is normally to keep your fingerboard grippy, but in all honesty, after a few plays, this shouldn’t be an issue.

To help maintain your guitar as a whole you should condition and seal your fingerboard so it has the same protection as the rest of your guitar.

Pick one which doesn’t have silicone in, so you don't ruin the grip.

1. Learn To Re-String Correctly

All guitarists should know how to restring their guitars. Make it too tight, and you risk breaking the nuts, make it too loose, and the sound won’t be right. 

You don’t just have to worry about the tightness though. You also need to buy the right strings for your guitar.

To make sure you have the correct strings for your guitar, search for the manufacturer's instructions and follow their advice on string tightening.

1. Correct Neck Alignments

If your music contains buzzing between the 7th and 1st fret, then your neck may be too straight. If the sound has an unusually high action, then your neck has bowed too far forward.

These issues will occur from string tension, pressure while playing, and moisture retention leading to morphed wood.

When you correct your neck alignment, you first need to learn why the neck is unaligned in the first place. Correct that error, and then relieve the neck to prevent off-sounds.

You might need a professional to help identify and rectify these issues and help them from developing again in the future.

Final Thoughts

Maintaining your guitar will help it stay in tune for longer, and keep it as part of your working collection for longer too.

We suggest asking a professional to teach you how to re-string and correct neck alignments, but cleaning, dehumidifying, and conditioning your guitar are things you can learn after a quick YouTube Video.

Once you know how to maintain your guitar, you can keep it looking and feeling fresh for years to come.