How to Properly Maintain Your Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic guitars are among the most grateful instruments you can play. Finding your first one might be tricky, and it requires a lot of research if you want the best results. If you haven't yet made your mind about which guitar you want to get, check out our article about acoustic guitars.

You might find something there that fits your needs. We have already spoken about the things you need to know when shopping for an acoustic guitar Acoustic Guitars – Making The Right Choice, but there is one more important issue that many new players, and those with some experience, tend to overlook.

Guitar maintenance is necessary, even more so when we're talking about acoustic guitars. This instrument is a lot more fragile than you would think and requires a certain amount of care if you want to preserve its performance and appearance. Today we are going to give you some tips on how to properly maintain your acoustic guitar and expand its lifetime immensely.

Issue Of Humidity

If you want to know just how dangerous humidity is to an acoustic guitar, get an untreated piece of wood from your local hardware store and place it in a very humid environment. Before you know it, that piece of wood will start to deform in a lot of ways. That is essentially the same thing that happens to guitars which are exposed to humidity, only the process is usually a lot slower.

Battling humidity is not that easy. For the most part, unless you live in a place that's close to a large body of water, you won't even have a problem with excessive humidity. However, just as too much is bad, so is not enough.

Dry environments also have a very negative impact on acoustic guitars. So how do you solve these problems? One way to do it is to get a humidifier. This is a device that regulates the levels of humidity in a certain space. Some are designed to cover entire rooms, while others are limited to a guitar case. Either way, a humidifier is the best way to keep your instrument healthy.

Storage

Storage is one of the most overlooked aspects of guitar maintenance. All of us have left our guitars propped against a wall at some point, without even realizing how bad that is for the instrument. There are several things that happen when you improperly store your acoustic guitar. First, you are exposing a certain part of the guitar to increased loads.

The neck is the one which gets this treatment most often. When you lean your guitar against a wall or piece of furniture, the neck is bearing the whole weight of the guitar. What can happen is gradual deformation and appearance of curvatures.

The best way to store your guitars, no matter the type, is in a guitar case. A decent case will protect the instrument from outside factors, all while positioning it in a way that doesn't affect the balance of the guitar. The next best thing are those guitar racks. These will allow you to safely store your guitars, and reduce the risk of damage caused by someone bumping into the guitar.

Action

The setup of the action can either make or break an acoustic guitar. Improper action can definitely lead to damage in certain elements of an acoustic guitar, and such guitars are numerous times harder to play. The action is something that needs to be checked periodically. This doesn't mean you have to visit your local luthier every Thursday, but a couple of times a year is a good place to start.

Preserving The Finish

On an acoustic guitar, the finish is the only thing that is preventing and slowing down the influence of the environment. This means that preserving your finish is one of the most efficient preventive maintenance actions you can take.

The best way to maintain the finish is to clean the guitar from time to time with a wet cloth that has been soaked in warm water. You should never use solvents or any other type of aggressive chemicals. Good old water will get the job done, and remove all of the stains from the finish.

Conclusion

Just like most things in life, acoustic guitars simply require maintenance if you want to have that instrument in a good shape for more than a year or so. Coincidentally, this is also one of the things most guitar players completely disregard. We strongly suggest that you take care of your instruments following the steps we have just mentioned.

However, it's always good to do more research on the topic, and find out what works best for your guitar. We say this because while most guitars can be kept in great condition using common methods, some will require a very specific set of actions to be taken during maintenance. Because of that, you should always check the preferred maintenance procedures for your specific guitar model.