How To Keep Your Guitar Beautiful

At some point everybody wonders how to keep a clean guitar, hopefully sooner rather than later. It is obviously easier to keep a guitar clean rather than make a major project out of it. It’s a bit like cleaning your room; read on…

How To Clean Your Guitar

Taking care of your guitar is easy, and enjoyable; you will get to know your instrument better and connect with it in a new way. You will soon be playing away with your favorite blues, lead or rock songs; don’t forget to look good too! The Dunlop Cleaning Kit is for the serious player.

Keep Your Guitar Looking Great

Gloss finish guitars can be cleaned with a damp cloth to remove the obvious grime and smudges. Next you should use a polish to protect the finish and bring out the gloss and beauty of the wood.
One great cleaner that has been used for years is the Gibson Guitar Pump. This is made especially for acoustic wood and will give great results. They even toss in a peg winder and polishing cloth! Once you know how to clean a guitar, it is much easier to keep keep it that way.

In the past a lot of guys have used car polish paste. This certainly works, but also has the tendency to leave a white pasty residue in any nooks, crannies or cracks. For the tiny price of the Gibson Guitar Pump, it just makes sense to use something made for guitars!

All you need for a polishing cloth is a piece of flannel cloth. If you are really picky, you can buy a micro fiber cloth because it is a bit finer and leaves less swirl marks that only you know about.

The Planet Waves Micro Fiber Polishing Cloth is a great choice. You can keep it in the bag and store it in your case to keep a clean guitar all nice and spiffy!

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Satin Guitar Finishes

Satin finish guitars must not be cleaned with a paste, such as the car wax paste. You want to keep the nice, satin look. The Martin Guitar Polish is a great spray that will clean and seal the wood and keep the finish looking like new.

Whatever you do, never use an abrasive to try and get a clean guitar. It will damage the gloss and satin finish and require extensive work to repair. If you have stains, be careful what you use to clean your guitar. Lemon oil is safe and works well.

Vintage Finishes

Vintage finishes often have very thin finishes and can be easily damaged. You should get the advice of a professional before doing it yourself.

How to clean a guitar fretboard

Unpainted fingerboards can be cleaned with 000/0000 steel wool, which is extremely fine. Most Ebony and Rosewood fretboards are unpainted and can be brought back to an almost new condition quite easily.

If you are cleaning an electric guitar, make sure you cover the pickups, otherwise the little hairs of steel wool will cover them. If the fretboard is really cruddy, you might need some Naphtha cleaner to remove it. This actually helps with playing chords and lead.
Painted fingerboards must be treated the same way as the glossy body approach mentioned above. Nearly all Maple fretboards are painted and must be treated as such. Just use care when trying to get a clean guitar.

A little lemon oil, or mineral oil does wonders for the wood and will also act to help prevent cracks. It also has great cleaning abilities and is good for the wood. This is great for keeping a clean guitar.

Polishing the frets might seem silly, but the nice, smooth surface is great for easier playing and note bending. You can accomplish this with the 000/0000 steel wool, just pay attention to work the frets evenly. This really helps with the blues and lead guitar playing.

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