For guitar lovers, it doesn't stop with the purchase. Then it starts. If you have a passion for guitars you play a lot. Maintenance of your guitar is then important. With over thirty years of experience in repairing guitars, your great love is in safe hands with us. Several internationally renowned guitarists entrust their precious instrument to our expert hands. But you can certainly do a number of things yourself to keep your instrument in good condition.
Cleaning
Before you start cleaning the guitar, first remove the strings. For this you use a winder to loosen the voting buttons. When you have removed the strings, cleaning can start. As you may already know, most guitars have a lacquer coating (outside of the sound box). Fingerprints and dirt are often visible on this layer of paint, making your guitar less attractive, as it were. In addition, a layer of dirt and grease can function as a kind of silencer.
Painted parts
You can use various cleaning products to remove any grease and dirt. Which cleaning agent you should use for which guitar parts depends on the finish. There is a special guitar polish (eg Dunlop 6501) for the painted parts. In this case, you apply the polish indirectly to the sound box, for example, by means of a cleaning cloth. Then rub the cloth with the cloth until it is clean. Cleaning the sound box should in principle take little time if you do this regularly.
Metal parts
Finally, it is important to clean the metal parts of your guitar. Think of the frets, metal strings or tuners. For this you only use a dry cloth. However, the maintenance of the belts will be different, because they have a limited life. For example, you can wash your hands before playing the guitar.
Extend the life of your strings
Pick your strings after playing (pull them off the neck and release), causing the dirt to flap off. By taking these two measures every time you will automatically extend the life of the strings. All in all, regularly changing the strings just remains important.
Adjust the guitar
You could also count the adjustment to the guitar maintenance. The fact is that when you play the guitar a lot the strings can become weaker. To solve this problem, adjust the comb again. In some cases, the guitar neck itself is also adjusted.
Now the question: "Can you just do the adjustment yourself?". You can basically just adjust the comb yourself if you have some experience. However, incorrectly adjusting your guitar can have consequences, so that you will no longer be able to play the guitar at all. That is why in some cases it is better to just visit us. We are happy to do this for you.
Adjust comb
In this case, we describe how to adjust an electric guitar comb. Most electric guitars have a height-adjustable comb. Often such a comb is equipped with so-called adjusting screws (2 pieces) with springs. In addition, some models also have wheels instead of springs.
With a comb you can often adjust all strings separately. This means that a comb consists of six parts (saddles), all of which are equipped with tuning screws. The parts can be moved forwards or backwards using the tuning screws. In addition, it is also simply possible to raise or lower the parts. When adjusting you have to take into account that the comb can move when the strings are no longer under tension.
Adjust neck
The adjustment of the guitar neck is done to set this right. In this case, the screw of the metal reinforcement (neck rod or tuss rod) is tightened in the neck. Simply use a screwdriver or Allen key to tighten. The screw itself is in most cases located on the front of the head. It is also possible that the screw is on the other side, where the neck turns into the sound box.
When you tighten the screw it is important that the strings are under tension. Is the neck hollow? Then you turn the screw a quarter turn clockwise. Is the neck bulging? Then you turn the screw counterclockwise a quarter turn. Then it is wise to wait a while (a few hours), because the neck has to settle first. But what are the causes of a curved neck? Well, the strings may already be wrong on the guitar neck or just be less elastic.