How to Clean a Guitar

[Music] cleaning your ATAR is just like getting an oil change in your car it's something that's really easy to do but it's totally crucial to the well-being of your guitar you just need a couple of simple things some cleaning supplies some polish and some elbow grease let's get started whether it's an acoustic or electric guitar you'd be so surprised how quickly it could build up dirt and grime so it's a good idea to establish regular upkeep habits in between deep cleans your fingers are a source of a lot of dirt and grease washing your hands

before you play guitar is a great habit to establish and also keep a rag in your guitar case you can use it to wipe down your guitar after you play especially the strings or in between sets when you're playing in smokey barons sweatin when you're rockin out keeping your strings regularly maintained not only extends the life of the strings it makes them easier to play when it comes time for a deep clean I always take off my strings it just makes it easier to get to the fretboard and harder to reach areas cleaning your guitar

is a top-down process you're using the least aggressive cleaner to work your way through the layers of dirt and grime that keep you from the finish I like to start by rubbing it dry with a clean cotton rag or even an old t-shirt because sometimes that's all you need to get off that first layer of dirt and once you've gotten all you can dry it's time to move down to that next layer of grime with a wet clip before you get started you want to make note of any places on the guitar where there's bear

wood cracks openings for electronics the sound hole these are all places where water and polish and cleaner can get on the guitar swell it and just make it harder to do two repairs in the future once you know where all the bare wood spots are now you can use a little bit of hot water or even some saliva to wipe down the dirt off of your guitar saliva is an age-old cleaning agent and I've used it when nothing else works on a guitar if it still hasn't come clean naphtha is your next choice it's a

degreaser that's a little bit more aggressive than the water or saliva but it's not gonna mess with your finish although you're gonna want to wear gloves because NAFTA is basically lighter fluid you just have to remember that less is best in that a little bit goes a long way in general you want to stay away from household cleaners things like pine-sol or Windex or furniture polish these things generally don't do well on the guitar finish [Music] when you come across hard-to-reach areas like around the tuners or the teal or the bridge you can use a

soft brush or personally I usually grab q-tips sometimes a fretboard can be really gunky for those the trick that I have is using an old credit card to scrape off the dirt then I'll use some steel wool to take the rest of it off you want to make sure that's fine steel wool not the regular stuff and then to give it a nice Sheen I like to use lemon oil or the fret board finishing oil or wipe it down with the gorga Mike cloth this technique though only applies to ebony or rosewood fingerboard if you

had a maple fingerboard and you'll know them because they're a lot lighter in color it probably has a finish on it and so you definitely would not want to use any abrasives you just want to wipe it down with some hot water and some naphtha if you have electronics that are kind of noisy and crackling you'll be so surprised about what a little bit of deoxy pot and switch cleaner will do you spray some of it in there and give the pot a good turn to work some in and then you might not have to

take it to a repair person for more work if you come across some rusty or corroded parts I like to use a toothbrush and put in some of that elbow grease and if it's really bad my go-to is a dremel tool with a brass wire brush once your guitar does come clean you can really make it shine with some polish before you can put on any kind of polish you have to know what finish your guitar has usually it's a gloss or a satin finish a gloss finish is really just how it sounds it has

a nice shimmer to it it reflects off the light it looks and feels smooth like glass whereas a satin finish it's more of a matte natural looking finish if your finish is satin I would definitely stay away from any polish or scratch remover that has an abrasive in it this is just gonna try and shine up your finish into something it's not it's a matte finish - supposed to look natural preservation polish is a great option for finishes it's a versatile polish that can be used on any finish because it's gentle it doesn't leave any

stickiness or residue or cloudy film just squirt a little bit into a clean cotton cloth and rub it in for a gloss finish like this guitar has you can either use preservation polish or a scratch remover the scratch remover is a little bit more aggressive because it has an abrasive in it and when you put a little bit on a rag and rub it in you're actually cutting into the finish I mean you're done wiping it on you can take a clean rag and just wipe it off and leave a nice Sheen I can't stress

enough to keep your polish off of the bare blue also you need to stay away from any polishes that have silicone or wax anything that you think is gonna leave a residue once you've done your polish you're ready to put on a new set of strings your guitars looking slick and squeaky clean and you're ready to rock out [Music]