Guitar Maintance

I was wondering what all kind of prevenative maintance I need to be doing to my guitars. I noticed bottles of stuff at the music store for strings and some other stuff I have no clue what they are for. Me being a leed mechanic for an ambulance company that specializes in P.M. for vehickles... I cant belive I just now thought of things I need to do to take care of my babys...lol... by the way I have and acoustic and electric. Thanks

The supposed ideal upkeep would be to wipe down your strings, fretboard, and finish after every use. This will definitely improve the life of your strings. But really all of it's prolly not totally necessary, and I only wipe the finish occasionally. But I'll especially give it a thorough cleaning when changing strings (when you can access the headstock and near the nut, near the bridge, and the fretboard). That's considering general home use though...up on stage, in a basement, or wherever playing for hours and sweating all over it, yeah, that's a different story. Clean it.

I've always used Martin guitar polish. It's not real expensive, and does a good job. And, I've been playing since '94, and I think I've only had to buy like 3 bottles so far...it doesn't take a lot, thus it will last awhile. You could also use naptha, most commonly found in lighter fluid. Obviously you'll also need a soft rag of some kind (I've always used cotton bandannas).
You might get a differing opinion, but Dan Erlewine (highly regarded guitar tech) strongly emphasizes not to use lemon oil, thus most furniture polishes. The oil may work it's way into the wood and lift the finish. At the same time, I'll mention he strays away from guitar polishes, going for naptha or just a plain rag...but he deals a lot with practically priceless vintage instruments with thinner finishes. Polish should be ok on newer ones.
You might've seen guitar humidifiers, but being that you live in Texas, I seriously doubt you need one. I'm not sure where abouts exactly you are, but unless it's the far western and southern arid parts, our relative humidity hardly ever drops below 45%.

I seriously recommend you buy the book Guitar Player Repair Guide (by Dan mentioned above), not only for this topic, but also almost any other issues that can arise. Actually I'd consider it a mandatory read for any owner of guitars. Set-up, repairs, mods, upkeep, you name it...it's a "bible" so to speak.

Hey man good info. Now as far as the naptha is ok to put it on a ummmm .... I cant think of the name of the clear coat they put over a regualr wood finish. My Dean electric is just the wood and some sort of coating finish. You think it would be ok on it? By the way ... what is that stuff in the bottles for strings?

Nah, it won't harm the clear lacquer finishes on acoustics and some electrics, like yours, and especially won't harm the thicker typical electric finishes. It may leave a slight haze immediately afterwards, but a dry rag and/or additional polish will bring back the sheen.
As far as the string stuff, it supposedly is also a degreaser/protectant specifically for strings, marketed to lengthen the life of 'em. I've never used it myself though. It may work, I dunno...but the general occasional wipe down would be nearly as effective.
I think I remember also seeing some other kind of string applicant designed to make them slightly slicker for ease of play and unwanted noise reduction...but I've never used that either. :) Sorry. Again, it may or may not work, but prolly not necessary.

Thanks for the info bud.

Hey, no problem.
Forgot to mention though, whatever cleaner/polish you use, it's safer to only apply it to the rag, and not directly on the guitar...avoids having whole droplets saturate in.

I will keep that in mind. Thanks agin.

heck, all i ever used was pledge... i figured that they were finished wood , and furniture was finished wood ...

Different finishes on different woods. And furniture doesn't need to resonate well to have good tone. :)

Originally Posted by: iceandhotwaxheck, all i ever used was pledge... i figured that they were finished wood , and furniture was finished wood ...

Jeez!! Don't EVER take your guitar to a shop that does re-finishing, without first warning the owner! :mad:

Furniture polish often contains silicone, which is almost impossible to remove. Once a shop is contaminated with that ****, any paint or laquer work done there will suffer from horrible 'fish-eyes' where the new finish flows away from spots that have silicone on them.

hey.. i didnt say it was right , just that it is what i did (rethinkin that at the moment )