Routine Maintenance for P245 Semi Hollow

fgeorge097

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Feb 3, 2016
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First time PRS buyer here, P245 Semi Hollow.
What do I need to do as far as routine maintenance to keep the guitar as durable as possible?

Especially, I am concerned about humidity effects. I do not want the guitar or fretboard to dry out.

Any specific fretboard conditioning products that I should use? Do I need a humidifier for the guitar case?
 
Your humidity is going to depend on where you live. When I first get new (or used) guitars, I oil the fret board with either lemon oil, or Gibson fret board conditioner. There are several types of products out there that will all do the same thing.
Putting a humidifier in your guitar case should not hurt the guitar, but that is a personal matter. I've owned all types of acoustic and semi acoustic and electric guitars and never used a humidifier. I never experienced any problems, and my guitars went every place.

I would polish the guitar with a polish that did not accumulate on the finish. I personally use Pledge, but I wipe it thoroughly off and don't polish it that often. However, I do wipe it completely down with a dry cloth after every use before putting it back in the case. There are a lot of choices for polish, but again, it is a personal decision as to which you choose to use.

When I started playing, there was only Gibson polish and that was all I ever used, but that was back in the 1950's before a lot of different guitar products were made available.

Don't be afraid to play and enjoy the guitar. Some people get nice gear and then baby it or are afraid to play it as they would a less expensive guitar. Honest wear is expected. Remember that if you don't play and enjoy your guitars, that when it finally is sold off, the next person will probably play it and enjoy it, so don't spend money for a guitar so that the next person gets an almost unplayed guitar that you paid more money for.
 
I don't think you need to treat it any differently than any other solid body guitar. For what it's worth, here is a summary of how I care for mine (including semi hollow and hollow bodies).

I tune it before I start playing - every time.
When I finish playing, I wipe it down with a dry cloth - I keep one in every case so it is convenient. All I'm doing is wiping my body oil off of it so it stays shiny and the strings last a bit longer.
When I change the strings, I clean the guitar and if the board looks dry put a tiny bit of lemon oil on it - this probably works out to once every 2-3 years. I apply the oil with a cloth, let it sit for a while and then wipe off whatever the neck didn't absorb. Then put the new strings on.
I keep the house as close to 40% humidity as I can in the winter. I don't put humidifiers in any of the electric guitar cases. Probably not a problem for Stephen, who I believe lives in Florida.

The only other maintenance thing I do is that if I notice the neck is a bit off (which can happen seasonally where I live) I give the truss rod a tiny adjustment - likely a quarter turn or less - direction depending on the season. Most of my PRS never need it.
 
Ditto on the wiping down often with a dry cloth.
I always wipe mine down before it is cased, I use either a 100% cotton Planet Waves cloth, or a PRS or Planet Waves Microfiber cloth.
I also use a device called The String Cleaner which is awesome.
I have one for every guitar, and this really keeps the strings clean, thus lasting longer.


About once a year I rewax my guitars with Virtuoso Polish.
 
First, rosewood fretboards don't really dry out where it counts, since PRS has already purposely gotten as much moisture out of them as possible - for good reason.

Rosewood does, however, have natural oils that stay in the wood. The evaporation rate on these is incredibly slow - and your hand oils are sufficient to keep everything fine and dandy.

Lemon oils are actually naphtha with a lemon scent. They are for cleaning the fretboard, only. Naphtha is what your dry cleaner uses to clean your clothing, because it evaporates, taking the grime with it. It does the same thing on your fretboard - it evaporates, taking the grime and oils with it as you rub. The idea that a fretboard gets "oiled" by it is just not true. It can draw oils in the wood to the surface, however, that's the opposite of what one wants.

PRS recommends using the lemon oil to clean the rosewood fretboard, wipe it off, and then seal it with a regular furniture polish. As I understand it, this is what they do even in Private Stock (I believe they use Behold). If your hands leave a lot of residue you might need to clean it more often than I do, mine stay fine for years.

All of the food-based oils (and this includes what's incorrectly called rosewood oil) only rot in the pores of the wood. They do nothing for the guitar, and in fact, can screw up and soften the fretboard, which is not a good idea at all. "Mineral oil" is absolutely the worst, put it on a fingerboard and you can literally dig up the wood with your fingernail.

Sometimes less is more.

As to care of the body, it's all about preventing cracks, though a PRS HB has been purposely dried, it's not gonna hurt to keep the humidity around 40%. PRS told me that the factory runs the humidity at 40-50%.

In the winter when it's dry in the house, I keep the guitars cased and in a humidified room at around 40% RH (more than that tends to be clammy in winter). That's really all the acoustic instruments need to stay in tip-top shape, and a hollow body electric should do just fine, but if you're super-paranoid like me, you could throw a Planet Waves humidipak in the case (with the cases for electric guitars there's usually an open area near the neck or headstock). These keep the RH in the case around 40%, and I find that the necks even on my electrics need less maintenance since I started using them. The beauty is that you can't over-humidify with these things; they absorb excess humidity if it's too humid, and release humidity when it's too dry. I started using them year 'round about a year and a half ago (thanks Cory for the tip), and no issues at all.
 
If you have cats, then I would regularly perform a cavity search, if you ever leave it uncased and take your eyes off it, even for a second.
 
Hey, speaking of fretboards, have you tried the Gorgomyte sheets?

Not a product I'd use on my guitars. I have seen the videos, and heard/read the spiel.

I don't care who uses it; it's not for me.
 
I have a pack I bought a year or so back, but have not tried it yet.
From reading the reviews at the site and reviews on Amazon, it seems to work a lot better than using #0000 steel wool.
 
I have a pack I bought a year or so back, but have not tried it yet.
From reading the reviews at the site and reviews on Amazon, it seems to work a lot better than using #0000 steel wool.

The main ingredient is lemon oil. That's naphtha. Why not just clean your fretboard with lemon oil like PRS sells, and then wipe it down, and seal it with a furniture polish like Behold as PRS recommends?

As to polishing frets, sorry but you can't really polish scuffs and scratches out of metal without some sort of abrasive, so all you're doing with this stuff is cleaning the frets and making them shiny with this product, which is petroleum based obviously (naphtha is a petroleum product). If this stuff could dissolve the surface of metal to polish out scratches, there's no way you'd want it on your fretboard, but I'm confident that it can't.

I'm really not into the idea of putting more petroleum products on my fretboard than absolutely necessary to clean it - every couple of years, in my case (my hands are dry).

Will it loosen inlays over the years? Who knows. Will it raise the wood around the frets or loosen the frets by virtue of its chemicals? Who knows.

They won't say what's in it. That tells me something right there.
 
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