Basic Guitar Maintenance (September 1999)

by Tom Leeman, Guitar Repair

Throughout my years as a performing guitarist, teacher, and instrument repairman, I have noticed that veteran players and students alike often neglect the basic care of their instrument. Too often I have seen rusty strings, warped necks, broken wires, stripped screw holes, ruined finishes, and a host of other problems. By paying attention to the way your guitar looks and plays and by following a few simple procedures, your instrument should give you years of trouble-free service. Below I have outlined a few things to help you keep your instrument in shape.

Keep your guitar in a case. There are three basic types of cases: chipboard, gigbag, and hard shell. A chipboard case is rather flimsy and I don’t usually recommend them, but they at least will protect your guitar from bad weather and sharp objects. Gig bags are very popular as they are padded and have shoulder straps for carrying. If you take your guitar out of the house a lot, a gig bag may be a good choice. The ultimate in protection is a hard shell case. Being much sturdier, they can take a lot of abuse. A friend of mine had his guitar run over by a van in a parking lot and thanks to the hard shell case, the instrument survived!

Wipe off your guitar after you play, especially the strings and neck. Use a soft, clean cloth (such as a cotton T-shirt or flannel) to wipe over, around, and under the length of the strings. Nothing wrecks strings faster than the dirt and sweat from your hands.

Change your strings often - at least every couple of months or more if your hands tend to sweat a lot or if you play for hours every day (some pros change after every show). Fresh strings sound good, feel good, and stay in tune better than old, dirty strings.

Keep your guitar tuned to pitch. This helps keep the neck stable and less prone to warping. A good quality tuner like the Boss® TU-12H is a handy tool to have. If you use alternate tunings, it is best to have different guitars set up specifically for those tunings. (Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards keeps his favorite Telecaster® set up to the “G” tuning made famous in such tunes as Brown Sugar and Start Me Up).

Watch for signs of needed maintenance — high action, warped neck, loose jacks or screws, etc. If you have an acoustic guitar, look for signs of the bridge or neck heel coming unglued. All these things are easily fixable if you catch them early.

Have your guitar setup at least once a year by a professional repair person. This will keep your instrument playing its best and the repair person may notice things that you don’t. Be sure to specify what gauge of strings you use as that will affect how the guitar is set up.

Whether you are a beginning student or have been playing for years, take some time to care for your instrument properly. Keep your guitar clean, change your strings regularly, and make sure everthing is tight and working properly.

Pitch bend is an effect usually controlled by a lever or wheel which makes a note slide upward or downward in pitch.

Guitar Maintenance

Cleaning Your Guitar (November 1999)
by Tom Leeman, Guitar Repair

Here are some basic cleaning procedures to keep your guitar looking it’s best.

General Cleaning
Most surface dirt and dust can be removed with a soft, clean rag. Cotton T-shirts or 100% cotton flannel work the best. Some companies sell buffing rags made of flannel, often packaged together with a bottle of guitar polish. If your guitar has spots that won’t come off with a dry rag, moisten your cloth slightly (don’t get it sopping wet!) with warm water and clean a section at a time, turning the cloth frequently to avoid putting the dirt back on the guitar. After this procedure is done, you can buff the instrument with guitar polish and a clean rag to remove any other surface dirt and shine the finish. If you have a hazy or sticky spot where your skin frequently touches the guitars finish, try cleaning with a dry rag first, then with polish. It may take several buffing sessions over a period of time to get rid of a cloudy finish.

Dirty Finishes
If your instrument is extremely dirty, clean it first and then use polish. If you polish a real dirty guitar, you will end up just pushing the dirt around or putting polish on top of dirt. First, wipe or vacuum off any loose particles of dirt. Then clean with a soft rag moistened in warm water as described above. You can remove really stubborn dirt with Naphtha (a solvent), but make sure you use gloves and work in a well ventilated area to avoid breathing too much of the fumes. Next, use a good quality guitar polish (Martin® or Gibson® brands are good), and then buff with a clean, soft rag to bring out the shine.

Vintage Guitars
Older guitars often have a thin finish that actually enhances the tone. Always clean these with a soft, dry rag first - polishes are designed to penetrate a finish and add softness and flexibility - this may not be beneficial to an old guitar, especially acoustic instruments. Be careful with vintage finishes that are thin or “checked” (small cracks in the instrument’s finish). If you polish these with commercial guitar polish, you may end up forcing polish through the cracks and into the wood! Warm water (slightly damp rag) can be used, but again, be careful of working water down into the cracks. A good cleaning method to try for these cracked or thin finishes is to get your face close to the instrument and breath warm, moist air onto it and immediately wipe off the dirt with your cloth. Some older instruments (especially those made before the 1930’s) may have a finish made of lacquer or varnish that has become soft or sticky. Don’t try to rub or polish these finishes as you might make the condition worse! Consult your local repairperson as to whether the finish can be restored.

Fretboards
Products are sold to protect fingerboards, but generally these are not needed. The natural oil in your fingers will be absorbed somewhat by the fingerboard and usually will be enough to keep the wood conditioned (unless, like me, you have really dry hands). Occasionally a fretboard may develop tiny, hairline cracks due to an extremely dry climate. To avoid this condition, rub a few drops of mineral oil (linseed or lemon oil works good) into the fingerboard once a year to restore moisture and keep the wood from drying out. Make sure that you wipe off any excess oil with a dry rag. If your fretboard has built-up dirt and grime on it, you can remove this with some extra-fine #0000 steel wool. Pinch a piece between your thumb and forefinger and use your thumbnail to get into the corner between the fret and the wood. If the dirt is especially thick, try using the edge of a credit card or any other thin, stiff piece of plastic to scrape the dirt off of the wood. Follow up with the mineral oil application.

As a final note–don’t use furniture polish on your guitar–most of these have oils in them that stay on top of the guitar’s finish. Most modern polyurethane, polyester or even new lacquer finishes that are free of checking can be cleaned and polished quite frequently. Consult the manufacturer of your new guitar about the type of finish and recommended cleaning procedure.

Restringing Your Guitar (March 2000)
by Tom Leeman, Guitar Repair
As a guitar instructor, I am often asked by students what is the best way to install strings on the guitar. Well, there really is no one “best” way to do this, but there are some things to keep in mind. Always wind the strings neatly toward the bottom of the tuner post. This increases the downward angle of the string coming out of the nut, which increases sustain and keeps the string from bouncing around in the bottom of the nut slot. Two or three windings around the tuner post are plenty (except for locking tuners such as the type made by Sperzel®, which don’t require any winding). Leave some slack for winding. One method for calculating the amount of slack is to measure the string two tuning posts longer than the post for which you are stringing (less for the thicker wound strings).

When installing strings at the bridge end of a steel-string acoustic guitar always make sure that the ball end of the string seats up against the bottom of the bridge pad and not on the end of the bridge pin. If you can’t see the winding wraps next to the bridge pin, the ball is probably sitting on the end of the pin and you need to reinstall the string. In addition, the string should wrap toward the inside of the post. On classical guitars, the string should wrap over the barrel shaft. Described below are several different methods for installing strings. One common method for installing strings is to stick the string through the hole in the tuner post (leaving some slack for windings), pull the string around toward the inside of the post, loop it back underneath the string, and then up against the post. This locks the string against itself, helping to reduce slippage. This method works best for unwound strings, although some people use it for wound strings (I don’t recommend it-especially for the low E and A strings). Generally, just wrapping the wound strings downward will do the trick.

Another method for installing strings (and the one that I prefer) is this: Pull the string through the tuner post hole (leaving slack for winding as described above) and make a 90 degree bend on both sides of the post. Then wind the string as usual (toward the bottom of the post). This locks the string against the post and keeps it from slipping.

On classical guitars, which use nylon strings, one end of the string needs to be tied to the bridge (although there are ball-end nylon strings available-these shouldn’t be used on nicer classical guitars). Don’t ever use steel strings on a classical guitar. These guitars aren’t braced for the greater tension of steel strings and you could a lot of damage to an instrument! To attach the string to the bridge of a classical guitar, pull about two or three inches of string through the back side of the bridge block. Then bring the string back up over the bridge, under the string, and loop or twist it toward the back edge of the tie block. Two twists are enough for the thicker sixth, fifth, third, and second strings, the smaller fourth and first strings can take three twists. The last twist should be at the back of the tie block, with the loose end tucked under the string where it exits the hole in the bridge. There are several ways to tie a classical string at the tuner end. A quick method is to poke the string through the tuner barrel twice so the string won’t slip, and then wind. I personally don’t recommend this method, though, since it can be hard to remove the string later. A better method is to run the string through the hole and then back over the barrel and under itself. Then thread the string up through the loop created by bringing the string back over the barrel. Pull the loose end of the string tight to lock the string against itself and wind. One last note on classical strings. Some manufacturers make the wound strings with a stiff end and a limp end. Do not tie the limp end to the bridge. This end is weaker and will break sooner, and can dig into the bridge block, causing scarring as well as intonation and buzzing problems.