How to take care of the guitar?

Once we buy our dream instrument, we should properly care for it and take care of it so that it will serve us as long as possible. It is only up to us whether the guitar will be as good as it was on the day of purchase in 5 or 10 years time. Maybe some people find it hard to believe, but the guitar itself will not get old by itself. The fact that the guitar may be in bad shape is mainly the result of careless handling. I mean, first of all, the wrong place to store the instrument and the lack of adequate protection for transport.

A rigid case is such a basis when it comes to securing the guitar during transport. I emphasize here stiff because only in such a case will our guitar be reasonably well protected against possible mechanical damage. In an ordinary cloth bag, she will never be completely safe. Even the smallest accidental knock can end in damage, not only in the form of chipping off the paintwork. Of course, soft cases can also be used, but only when we know that it is safe and, for example, we travel in our car ourselves, and the guitar is with us in the back seat, although it will also be safer in a hard case. However, if we use public transport or, for example, in the luggage area of ​​the car, apart from our guitar, there is also other equipment, e.g. other members of the band, the guitar in an ordinary material case will be exposed to serious damage. The guitar, like most musical instruments, does not handle too high temperature fluctuations very well. Therefore, if, for example, in winter we travel a lot by public transport with our guitar, it is worth thinking about buying a case with a sufficiently thick insulating sponge so that our instrument will feel this low temperature as little as possible. When we are at the temperature, just as instruments, especially wooden ones, cannot stand too low and too high temperatures. Therefore, we should not expose our instrument to all-day sunlight. The guitar should have a strictly defined place in our home. It is best to find a corner for her in the wardrobe, where she will be protected against dust and sun, and at the same time we will provide her with a constant temperature. And just as the room should not be too humid, it should not be too dry, that is, away from radiators, boilers, etc. heating devices.

Another such important element of caring for the instrument is our personal hygiene. I hope that this is obvious and the vast majority of it is followed, but just to remind you, sit at the instrument with clean hands. The defamation of the instrument is to start playing with some dirty, greasy or sticky hands. Not only does this have an aesthetic significance, but it is directly reflected in the sound of our instrument. If you have clean hands, your strings will be cleaner as well, and this has a direct impact on the sound, which will also be cleaner and clearer. As you can see, maintaining proper hygiene will only pay off. After you finish playing, do not put the guitar back in its case. Let’s take a cotton cloth and wipe the strings along the neck a few times. Let’s devote a longer moment to it and try to do it thoroughly, so that not only the top part of the string is rubbed, but also the less accessible one. We can purchase specially for such daily string care

dedicated cosmetics. It is not an expensive investment, because such funds cost about PLN 20, and a bottle of such a liquid will last you for several months. Clean strings not only sound better and are more pleasant to the touch, but many techniques are easier to perform on such strings.

And such an important procedure to keep our guitar in good shape is also the replacement of the strings. It’s definitely best to replace the entire set at once, not individual strings. Of course, in the event that we have recently replaced the entire string set and one of them broke off shortly after, there is no need to replace the entire string set. But if for a long time the scale on a set and one of the strings breaks, it is definitely better to replace the whole set, because in the case of replacing only the broken one, this new string will sound significantly different from the others.

These are the basic principles that every instrumentalist should take to heart. By applying and following them, you will significantly prolong the youth of your guitar.

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