Top 5 Guitar Maintenance Tips

Whether you’ve just begun playing guitar or are well into your guitar-playing journey, there’s only one thing that will never change: The importance of guitar maintenance. To keep your guitar in excellent shape, here’s a handy list of guitar maintenance tips:

Keep your hands and strings clean

As a guitar player myself, I know how tempting it can be to continue playing guitar even after you’ve finished snacking on some potato chips. Don’t. Before continuing your practice, be sure to make a quick stop at your sink to get your hands clean. This will keep any excess oils from rubbing off onto your guitar strings, extending their lifespan and preserving the quality of sound.

And, after you’re done with your guitar, be sure to wipe off your strings. Even if you started with clean hands, if you’re practicing hard enough, finger sweat can get on your swings and mess with your instrument. So grab a clean cloth and wipe your strings!

Put your guitar back on the stand/case

This is the most simple tip but one that is easily overlooked by many players. Unless you’re in a bind like you’re at a show and need to quickly grab something: Always put your guitar back on its stand or in its place. From experience, I can tell you that failure to do so will result in your guitar gaining all sorts of “character “like scratches on the body, cuts on the neck, and so on. Even worse you run the risk of snapping the headstock and neck, leading to expensive repairs. So, to keep your guitar pristine and ready for a nice trade-in once you’re ready to upgrade, put it back in its case.

When cleaning, change your strings regularly

I know it can be a pain to change strings but it has to be done. Doing so when cleaning will not only keep your guitar sounding great, but it will look amazing too. This is because you can’t really get to the fretboard and parts of the body that are usually covered by strings. You’ll also extend the life of your strings with regular cleaning, which is great considering the current cost of living! A new set of strings will run you at least 7 pounds, so why not clean and save some money?

Keep your room dry and cool

Keeping your guitar room dry and cool is essential if you want to preserve the health of your guitar. This is because changes in humidity and temperature can cause the wood in your guitar to warp, leading to problems with tuning and limiting what you can do on the guitar. From experience, I’ve lost access to bending on certain frets before because the wood warped to an extent where I didn’t have the slack necessary to do this technique. So, moral of the story, monitor your room’s climate.

Be gentle with your guitar

This is another simple but helpful tip, be gentle with your guitar. Unless you’re a big rockstar and have money to spend on multiple guitars, be gentle with the one you have. I’ve seen too many people simply let their guitar fall to the ground, prop them up in weird positions, or get careless about how they’re moving around with their guitar and bump hard into people, objects and walls. The best way to not have to fix your guitar is not to break it in the first place.

So these are our top guitar maintenance tips. Follow them, and your guitar should stay looking and playing great for many years to come. And while we’re at it, why not take a look at how we can improve our practice routines as well?

Got any tips we missed? Be sure to comment and let us know.