Acoustic Guitar Cleaning, Important Maintenance Task

Acoustic Guitar Needs Cleaning

Acoustic guitar cleaning is frequently overlooked, but it is a real important task to maintain acoustic guitar.

Why it is so important? In short words, regular cleaning of the acoustic guitar will not only maintain the quality of the guitar, but also help the guitar at the best condition of playing.

We all know that humidity and temperature have great impact on the maintenance of acoustic guitar and classical guitar. But dust is one the enemies, too. The dust will help the wood to crack because of the dust will take out the moisture inside the wood. And dust will damage the strings.

If you want to remain the playability of the guitar, no matter it is a laminated guitar, solid top or all solid wood guitar, regularly cleaning the guitar is very important.

In this article, we will try to explain and give some tips about the cleaning. Hope this can help you to remain your acoustic better.

Cleaning Procedure of Acoustic Guitar

Cleaning may look like a simple task, but there is still a procedure of cleaning that it is better to follow. Why? Because we all don’t want to make any problem like scratching during the process.

Firstly, you need to find a place for the acoustic guitar to rest. And remember to use neck rest to protect the neck.

Then, before any movement, remember to wash your hands. Because the sweat on your hands will cause serious damage, too.

After all that preparation, let’s move to clean the fretboard. No matter what wood that the acoustic guitar neck fretboard is made of, remove the strings firstly. Then, use soft tower which wet by warm water to gently wipe the surface of the fretboard. This can easily remove the dust, sweat, etc. on the surface of the fretboard.

However, there is grime on the fretboard that is difficult to remove. If you have found any, it is better to use proper solvent to help you.

Remember, after cleaning of fretboard, we need to polish the fret wires. Thus, we need to use fine-grade steel wool to remove the oxidized surface, dirty objects and to smooth the surface.

After all this, it is better to use conditioner oil to protect the fretboard.

Well, before cleaning of the acoustic guitar body, it is better to inspect the body very carefully.  Then, with a clean and dry soft cloth to wipe the body. Remember to wipe a small section of the body at the beginning, then you can move to another small section. Just one section by one section.

We don’t recommend to polish the body if you are not so skilled. But when you find there is grime that hard to be removed, a proper solvent will help the work.

After all this, we will go to clean hardware like tuning pegs with clean and dry cloth. The key part is to clean the gear inside. Because the dust or any dirty objects will surely damage the tooth and the cooperation between the tooth.

Only High-End Acoustic Guitar Worth the Cleaning?

No, definitely not.

We hope no one has such kind of discrimination to guitar instruments. No matter how much the acoustic guitar costs you, it deserves the right maintenance.

No matter it is a laminated acoustic guitar, or a solid top acoustic guitar, or an all solid guitar for concert performing. All of them deserves the right cleaning to maintain their playability.