Essential Care Tips for Your Guitar

Essential Care Tips for Your Guitar

If you want to keep your guitar in top condition, so that it always sounds great and keeps it's value, a few simple care and maintenance tasks need to be carried out. The guitar is a sensitive instrument and by following these simple steps, you will make sure that your guitar continues to perform at its best.
Watch the temperature.

Your guitar can tolerate a range of low and high temperatures, but it is rapid change in temperature that can cause problems such as a cracks in the body. Never leave your guitar next to a radiator, or in the back of your car on a hot day. Keeping your guitar in it's case when not in use can offer some protection against extremes of temperature change.

Is your guitar drying out?

Lack of humidity is another threat to your guitar, especially if it is an acoustic. Low humidity can cause cracking fret boards, split tops etc.. Keeping you guitar in it's case will protect against sudden changes in humidity as well as temperature. Use of a humidifier is recommended to deal with any humidity issues. These are usually placed in the sound hole so that the humidity within the guitar can be maintained at a suitable level and avoid the guitar drying out. This is particularly important in winter, when your heating will be drying out the atmosphere in your house.

Storing your guitar.

As already mentioned, storing your guitar in it's case when not in use is a good way to protect against changes in temperature and humidity. But is also good for general protection of your guitar from dust, knocks etc.. A solid body case is best as this affords better protection against knocks.

The alternative and cheaper option is to buy a rack or stand, so that the guitar can be stored in a secure position.

If you are not going to play your guitar for about a month or more, it is a good idea to loosen the strings. When tuned, the strings exert a strong force against the neck and body of the guitar. Over time this can cause warping, and bending out of shape. Loosening the strings takes the pressure off and will prevent any occurrence of this. You will simply need to retune your guitar once you start playing again.

Cleaning

The first step toward keeping a clean guitar is to make sure your hands are clean before you start playing. The life of strings can be affected by sweat and chemicals that are deposited by your fingers when playing. Keeping your finger nails trimmed on your fret hand will also prevent unnecessary wear of the fret board.

The strings should be cleaned after each session, by wiping with a soft cloth to remove any deposits. Cleaning the strings will not only extend the playing life of the strings, but will help keep the guitar in tune.

When the time comes to change the strings, take the opportunity to give the fret board a clean. This can get quite grubby with muck accumulating behind the frets. A dirty fret board will also reduce the useful life of your strings. To clean the fret board, use a damp paper towel to wipe gently between the frets. Be careful not to get the fret board wet. Then wipe the fret board with a dry paper towel. Many guitarist use Fretboard 65 Lemon Oil. This is a popular fretboard cleaning agent and treatment.

The finish on the body of modern guitars is usually quite durable and so should only require a wipe down with a soft cloth. Polishing, if required, should only be carried out using a specialist guitar polish. Ordinary furniture polish is not recommended as these often contain mild abrasives. If you polish your guitar too frequently with ordinary household wax polish, the layers of polish can eventually harden and alter the tone of your guitar.

Change old strings

If your guitar is sounding dull, or the guitar keeps going out of tune, this is usually a sign that the strings need replacing. If you are a professional or an amateur who plays frequently, you will probably have to change your strings every two weeks. For more casual use, every two to three months is more likely. All strings should be replaced at the same time. This is so that the characteristics and youth of the strings are consistent for all strings. Changing one string in isolation will give you problems maintaining tune of your guitar. When you are changing your strings, check the action of the tuning gears to make sure that there is no looseness or slack in the gearing. If any slack is found, the tuning gears should be checked and repaired by a competent guitar technician.

By following these simple guitar care tips, you will enjoy a long and tuneful relationship with your guitar.



About the Author
Ken Radwell has produced a free report "Secrets to Success Teaching Yourself Guitar" which can be obtained along with other information and reviews of guitar learning materials via his website www.GuitarSuccessNow.com/freereport.html

Interesting Electric Guitar Facts You May Not Know

Interesting Electric Guitar Facts You May Not Know by David Smithe

As with any old pastime, there is a great deal of trivia associated with electric guitars and the people who played them well. Electric guitar innovators in manufacturing and performance techniques alike are heralded as some of the great historical icons. From the man who made the instrument famous to the booming manufacturing era, here are some highly interesting electric guitar facts.

The Need for Electric Guitars:

Electric guitars first appeared because of an unlikely demand. It is a well known electric guitar fact that the first instruments were needed by big jazz bands in the early 1930's. Bandleaders called for a source of amplification for the guitar so that it could be heard over the screaming horn sections and drums. Electric guitars for jazz were initially hollow bodied in nature, and this eventually led to the use of the instrument in other genres of music.

The First Electric Guitarist:

There were many attempts to create a guitar that could be amplified in the 1930's. Players and manufacturers experimented with attaching microphones to guitars, but their feats produced few viable results. The first successfully produced electric guitar was called the Rickenbacker. Now with this great new invention, there had to be a person that could really make the instrument sing. Electric guitars are different from acoustic guitars. Remember that at this time, there was no such thing as electric guitar technique. Charlie Christian is heralded as the very first electric guitarist. His unique guitar playing technique went on to inspire many other famous guitarists, and as more players began to develop skill, a need arose for more progressive models of electric guitars.

The First Solid Body Electric Guitar:

One of the most widely known electric guitar facts is that innovator Les Paul created the solid body electric guitar. One of the most recognizable instruments in the world, the solid body electric is so popular these days largely due to the early efforts of Les Paul. Les Paul wanted a smaller bodied guitar that relied more on the power of its electronics than acoustic offerings of a hollow body electric. Makers like Fender and Rickenbacker quickly followed suit and began producing impressive solid body electrics. The Les Pal model, however, retains its seat as the king of all electrics, and is still one of the most popularly sold and played instruments today.

The Electric Guitar Invades Classical Music:

Electric guitars are common in jazz, rock, blues, and country music. Gurus of all types tend to overlook electric guitar facts relating to classical music. The instrument crossed into this unlikely genre and plays an important role for classical guitarists and composers alike. Composers experiment with wild songs that call for some 100 electric guitarists, and the instruments are often employed for live performances and recording sessions alike.

These are some very basic electric guitar facts, and there are many more like them. Records have been set and broken, and you just might find yourself turning into a guitar fact finding guru if you continue researching the history of the electric guitar.

About the Author

To discover some unusual but very effective strategies for mastering guitar scales, be sure to check out this website: Guitar Scales Mastery

Study or steady??

ERmmm..halo guys.what should we do if we want to achive something that we want to use for?..no need to think hard baby..just imagine that u hav ur own strenght n try to cover ur weakness..
Study and demand..sometimes we rise but sometimes we fall..that normal but normal is boring n boring is normal....
..im also student like u all..study, study and study..but we must steady when we study...no need to stress..dont do anything or something that mess ur think..study but steady..
recently i hav bad marks on my quiz..hehehe..u do so right??..so why do like to suffer like this??just follow the instruction that given..hehehehhhe.

Music..

haloo guys..... take ur health better than before. what matter that u believe is not urself..just wanna describe u are wanna to be.
.......so how about music??? do you know that music is a part of our friend!! i mean when we start to like it..we start to bring out the emosion and some kind of that.
SoOO dont say anything about music..just serve it..we not a slave of music.we are creator of music..music can describe who you are...
..I like rock music...
Guns n roses is legend of my rock!!!!!