How often to polish and tune-up your guitar?

[Alnus Rubra]

Believe me... it does have one.

Just hit the ‘I Believe’ button on this one, lol.

Or else we will get in trouble again. I’ve already had one spanking today; me no want another one.

Just as well we’re not on another thread, might get accused of trolling!

“spanking” ?! Nuff said!

 

[RiverRat]

At least once a week for the weekend gigs.

 

[Parralax view]

Twice today in two different forums, I am reminded that erbody needs restringing. ERBODY. I can usually do about 4 or so before I wilt, but that leaves 10 more of an assortment of acoustics, other electrics, a classical, four different ukuleles, which in reality hardly ever need strings.. But that's a lot of time spent on the lanai, beer and tools and polish and strings, and tuners, and you know the drill....I'm exhausted writing it. Perhaps that is why I clean strings like "My Precious" every time I play them...

 

[jxe]

throw them away when the strings lose their zazz. EASY

 

[László]

throw them away when the strings lose their zazz. EASY

I think that’s what MA Pete does.

 

[11top]

I think that’s what MA Pete does.

 

[Sculptair]

I wipe her down after every session and change strings on a whim after many months of use. Don't know why.

 

[SoCal Flood]

I’m a little anal about my gear so I polish it up just about every time I do a string change, which is once a month or so. I’m just a home player. I do try and give it a quick wipe down before I put it away each time.

 

[ScottR]

I dry clean mine after everytime I play it with a soft microfiber towel, when I'm done for the day I clean all the hard to reach places with compressed air and/or a q-tip I'm still trying different srings, but I clean the fretboard every string change and condition it every other string change...excessive? Probably...anal-retentive? Yup. OCD? You know it!

Do I have issues? More than National Geographic

 

[ScottR]

How the heck did we get on the subject of hammers?

Because I’ve got The Hammer Of The Gods right here:

Meantime, I only change strings when I have to, because I hate doing it. But my hands are pretty dry, I rotate among them, and I keep the guitars cased when not in use.

For cleaning, as others have mentioned, I use a clean, damp microfiber cloth every so often, and dry with another clean one. Every once in a blue moon - like, maybe every other year or less - I’ll use the PRS cleaner that puts on a nice shine with no abrasives after cleaning the guitar with the damp microfiber.

I think I did that on one of my guitars three years ago.

I only use abrasive polish if the guitar gets a swirl mark or scratch (most polishes have mild abrasives that remove swirl marks, etc.). The less you use abrasive polishes, the better, as far as I’m concerned.

In any case, my guitars look brand new, and are clean and shiny with minimal maintenance. I’m fussy.

As to fretboards, I’ll clean them with so-called lemon oil if they’re groty, and then wipe the stuff off, and seal the fretboard with a wood polish as PRS recommends. That happens extremely rarely, but as I said, I have very dry hands so no issues. ‘Lemon oil’ is actually naphtha (lighter fluid). It doesn’t add oil, it evaporates oil, that’s why they use it in dry cleaning.

The fretboards get shinier-looking after using naphtha, but all it’s done is leech oil out of the wood and bring it to the surface. It’s really not all that good for the wood.

Hubba hubba! Hoe have I missed this one? Thats rediculously cool..we sooo need a drool button.

 

[ScottR]

How the heck did we get on the subject of hammers?

When the heck were we ever off the subject? Oh sorry that was just me...

Wait for it...now THAT'S the Hammer of the Gods!

The time is now 12:06 A.M.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

The time is now 12:06 A.M.

aka “the witching hour”!