do your self a favor

pull your bottom lip over your head and swallow.
just kidding


this is for everyone but mostly for people new to playing.

LEARN PROPER MAINTINACE NOW
this is really starting to come back at me i take pretty good care of my gear but some times i do get lazy.

learn how to take care of you gear now while you have a $200 guitar rather than waiting till you have a $2000 guitar. preventative maintinace like cleaning, conditioning, lubing, and just doing a check now and then can save you big in the long run. there is a ton of info on this site as well as other places,

SO LEARN ALREADY

Okay, I'll start.

With every string change, clean your fret board and oil it back up with either Lemon oil or Linseed oil ( :( smelly)

If you use lemon oil, make sure it's fomulated for guitars like Dunlop or equivelent.

IMO, you should only oil the neck 2 or 3 times a year. If you play on a daily basis, the natural oils from your fingers is perfect to keep the neck oil and easy to play.

So broken....what happennnneeed? :(

Another tip: Have a case or proper storage for EACH guitar that you own. Don't just have one carry bag for all of your guitars. When you are not playing the guitar STORE IT!! Just like anything else, leaving it out in the elements without any protection is going to damage it over long periods of time. I have 4 guitars but I generally only play one the most. The other 3 just sit there doing nothing until I need a particular sound I can't get from my main axe.. So they sit in their little baggies and hard cases until I need them (or for when I want to show them off.. hehe..).

That's not to say you should spend $100's on cases.. even if you wrap them in plastic or anything else similar to the function a soft case serves.. it's only to keep the constant weathering down to a minimum.

Originally Posted by: elklanderccIMO, you should only oil the neck 2 or 3 times a year. If you play on a daily basis, the natural oils from your fingers is perfect to keep the neck oil and easy to play.

So broken....what happennnneeed? :(

not much is really wrong but i do think we should point it out to the begineers that a guitar is not a toy (its an aphrodisiac) and that if you take care of it it will take care of you.

also a little drop of lube 2 months ago and i wouldnt have had to run around today. i could have kicked back and played guitar all day.

and im not talking about conditioning your fret board once a week. im not sure that might even cause a warp. i only condition my rosewood fret boards a few times a year when i redo my set up for the season changes. but i do like to take a stiff rag with a little bit of lemon oil every time i can my strings. just because of all the gunk that actually comes off.

I've never oiled my guitar ever, and it's fine. Oil is a preference thing, isn't it?

Originally Posted by: earthman buckI've never oiled my guitar ever, and it's fine. Oil is a preference thing, isn't it?

I think it's more a maintenance thing on rosewood neck guitars. As far as I can see, of my close to a dozen guitars, only 2 have maple fretboards and have a lacquer finish on 'em. On the rosewoods, it seems like there's no finish on 'em. I only just started oiling my rosewoods with lemon oil and it seems like the oil seeps right into the wood. I think this is to keep the wood from drying out. On my maples, when I see gunk buildup I just use some kinda cleaner- I think it's actually called "GunK Oil".

Good thread starter. After nearly 40 yrs of playing and owning various instruments, I've treated them like crap, been careless with them, dropped them, you name it. It was only recently that I started to really maintain and clean them, do my own setups, and have just about all the tools necessary to keep them in shape.

Hell no! I never clean my guitar. Its from the 80's and polishing it up takes the life out of it it and hey!... this is true

The dust keeps it in tune

I think I oil my fretboard too often. But even still it always feels a bit dry. I use some dunlop fret conditioner on my frets for all my guitars every time I change strings. It feels good, but like all rosewood fretboards, it's a bit dry and scratchy feeling. I wish I could get it to feel nice and buttery like a Maple. Any tips?