You might know how to clean greasy guitar strings or dirty guitar pots, but do you know how to clean the rest of the electronics or the fretboard? Well, worry not because you’re about to learn how to clean a very dirty guitar or a really dusty guitar through simple, road-tested advice you can start working with right now.
How to Clean a Guitar in 5 Easy Steps
This is just a sneak peek at what comes ahead, but if you want a simple answer, here it is.
- Wash your hands before you start working on the guitar.
- Remove all the strings from the instrument.
- Clean the fretboard and each individual fret.
- Wipe clean and then polish your guitar’s body.
- Clean the hardware and electronics.
That was the simple answer. Read on and learn how to perform steps 1 to 5.
Everyday Maintenance Habits
Before talking about how to clean guitar electronics or how to clean an ebony fretboard, let’s talk about maintenance. Yes, a few easy steps after playing will give your instrument more playing hours and will save you from finding the time to clean a dirty electric guitar.
1. Wash Your Hands
I know it sounds like a no-brainer. Well, you’d be amazed at how much grease and dirt your fingers carry all day. So, before making time to clean your electric guitar fretboard, prevent grime from forming with a simple handwash.
You’ll see, it’ll become a habit, and you’ll forget about it soon.
2. Use A Cloth After You Play
When playing gigs, most of us tend to sweat profusely. Even if you don’t notice it on the rest of your body, your fingers usually sweat a lot. Well, every time you finish a gig, clean your guitar with a clean, dry cloth. Remove all the human debris you left on your instrument.
That means cleaning electric guitar pickups, bridge, and pots.
3. Keep Your Guitar in Its Case
I know, it’s much cooler to have your guitar around or hanging from the walls. It makes you play it more often because it’s a minimal effort to get it. Well, unless you want to learn how to clean a dirty guitar, you should avoid the dirt and dust in the atmosphere from sticking to your instrument. It can even affect your pots and electronics. Furthermore, your instrument is more exposed to humidity issues.
Keep your guitar in its case or gig bag as much as you can.
How to Clean a Guitar Neck
Let’s start by addressing how to clean a dirty guitar neck. The first thing you need to do is to take off the guitar’s strings. You can undo them and save them for later or you can simply cut them off and put some fresh ones in after you’re done cleaning your guitar.
Second, put your guitar in a safe place where it won’t get scratched, or hit, and the neck is easy to handle.
How to Clean Different Types of Fretboards
Now that your guitar is stringless and on a safe surface, let’s talk about how to clean a fretboard on an electric guitar. We’ll divide this into two categories.
• Ebony, rosewood, and pau ferro fingerboards – When you learn how to clean a rosewood guitar fretboard, you can do the same with pau ferro and ebony. Simply use some 0000 steel wool to remove the gunk next to the frets. Then, apply some lemon oil or any other fretboard-cleaning kit and use a dry cloth to rub it.
• Unfinished or lacquered maple fingerboards – Learning how to clean a maple fretboard on an electric guitar is even easier. You should never apply any chemicals to the fretboard. Use only the 0000 steel wool next to the frets and a dry or lightly moist cloth.
How to Clean Guitar Frets
Let’s talk about how to clean frets on a guitar but before, let me give you three pieces of advice I wish I was given when I first attempted this.
- Protect the fretboard with tape.
- Protect your pickups from metal debris.
- Do it often.
Now, after putting tape on the fretboard between the frets, take a 0000 steel wool, a micromesh, or a 3M polishing paper and polish them one by one.
How to Clean a Guitar Body
Let me divide this section again into two different groups. On one side, polyurethane and gloss, and on the other nitrocellulose and satin finishes.
Polyurethane and glossy finishes are the easiest to clean. Since the layer is so thick and resistant, you can use any cleaner you like on it. just use a dry cloth to polish it afterward.
Nitro and satin finishes are thinner, and therefore more fragile. For satin and matte guitars, use only a dry cloth to wipe away wet spots and sweat. For nitro, you can damp that cloth but don’t use any products on it.
How to Clean a Guitar Bridge
Guitar bridges often receive much sweat from the picking hand. Make sure you wipe that clean after every gig and use only a little guitar polish from time to time to bring its shine back.
How to Clean Electric Guitar Pickups
Electric guitar pickups follow the same rules as the bridge. This is especially true if your guitar’s pickup has exposed poles.
How to Clean Electric Guitar Pots
Electric guitar pots tend to get dirty, noisy and corroded. Moreover, they can develop rust with time. You can use a product such as WD-40 on them. Always make sure you don’t let the liquid touch your guitar since it could damage the finish.
How to Clean Guitar Electronics
Guitar electronics follow the same rule as pots. I’m talking about any toggles, pickup switches, and even the jack. Make sure you cover the guitar before applying WD-40 on them softly with a cloth.
The Bottom End
You’ve just learned how to clean guitar hardware, a gloss guitar body, and guitar frets, among others, but the most important piece of advice is at the beginning of this article.
Make sure you learn how to clean electric guitar strings and perform basic maintenance and cleaning to your instrument after every gig.
Prevention is your best method for keeping your guitar at its very best.
Happy (clean and shiny) guitar playing!
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