[Arek]

How do you take care of your guitar?
What products are good and for what?
Oils? Chemicals? Rags?
How often?

 

[desolation_angel]

• Gibson pump polish
• Microfibre cloths
• Gorgomyte for fretboard
• Occasionally F-One for fretboard conditioning
• Set of Stewmac fret erasers to clean up frets
• Nomad All-in-One cleaning tool for hard to reach bits
• Electric air blower

 

[Parabola]

I use microfibre cloths and Gibson pump polish. have the vintage restoration kit, with the metal cleaner and fretboard conditioner, but I’ve only used the vintage restoration cream for the finish. There’s really not much available online about what that cream is, some say it has carnauba wax, others say it has nitro. I have no idea, but it really did restore the finish on two 70’s Gibsons that were probably not cleaned in decades.

 

[BlueRocker]

Microfibre and Gibson pump here too. Not frequently (maybe twice a year). When I get a new (used) guitar I'll sometimes use D-Addario "Restore" and "Protect" (step one and two) to take care of fine scratches and such. Chrome and nickel hardware gets nevr-dull, gold hardare gets gently rubbed with a soft cloth.

 

[zztomato]

Nothing really. I make sure the humidity is right. That's about it. Anything else is purely cosmetic. When I change strings- every couple of years- I make sure to clean the fretboard and remove any other grime. I'm not hard on guitars though and my hands are quite dry so I don't tend to gum up my strings and fretboard.

 

[Fred Gifford]

old t-shirt and distilled water for body and neck .. light mineral oil once yearly for fretboard .. all these years and still haven't applied any gunk to the nitro finish

 

[BGood]

old t-shirt and distilled water for body and neck .. light mineral oil once yearly for fretboard .. all these years and still haven't applied any gunk to the nitro finish

Ditto but even cheaper ... I use tap water.

If frets need looked up at: Scotch Guard and then some generic compound to put a shine to them. This does the trick, it is a gentle abrasive after all and cheap, like me ... and it smells the same as expensive snake oil from the guitar industry.

 

[knight_yyz]

naptha and microfiber rags safe for nitro and poly.
The most abrasive thing I have ever used is Bar Keeper's friend liquid on poly guitars only.
if you have a super stubborn stain you can go with 2k grit wet dry and a polish afterward, but never on a nitro finish

Oiling the fretboard I used to use Bore Doctors bore oil, but I recently switched to the Terra Nova Circa 1850 and the results are amazing.

 

[GuitarT]

 

[zontar]

Microfibre cloths--like others.
Have Gibson & martin polish (ssoem guitars prefer one, some the other)
lemon oil/cloths for the fretboards.
I have a couple of old cotton t-shirts I use not he fretboards to wipe off excess oil.
I also have those fret polishing sheets--got them when they were cheap--keeps them smooth, etc.

And in all of this:
Don't over do it.

 

[Steadfastly]

Wipe the dust off it and wipe the strings with a lint free cloth after playing. It will remove oils from the strings that will shorten their life, especially on acoustic strings.

 

[Wardo]

Not much

Acoustics:

Dunlop 65 polish maybe once a year if I remember.
D'Addario Lemon Oil on the board about once a year.
Wipe the body with a wet rag if it gets sweaty.
Maintain humidity.
Use a sock between thumb and forefinger run it along each string if I dirt up the strings.
Lighter fluid to remove baked on scuzz if needed.

Electrics - pretty much the same thing.

Although I need to change the painter's tape on my HD28V.

 

[tdotrob]

Proper humidity and maybe a good wipe down when I change strings.

 

[knight_yyz]

I've also used diluted Murphy's oil soap. If it worked on my grandparents wood furniture it should be fine on a guitar.

 

[desolation_angel]

A friend very kindly loaned me a guitar, once, on a trip back home (so I didn’t have to bring one). I opened the case and the overwhelming smell of some furniture cleaner came out… After a few days I just stopped playing it and cased it, I couldn’t take it.

 

[slag banal]

Wash your hands with soap and hot water before playing.

 

[Oho]

I love setting up guitars, so aside from running a humidifier I like to polish and clean my guitars every 4-6 months. Maybe longer if I haven’t been playing them often. I always oil my fretboards in the fall as the air dries up. Then again in the spring after a dry winter if the fretboard looks dry. I like the feel of a polished neck, so I do mine more often than I probably should. Then I’ll clean the pots when they start to get scratchy. If I get a guitar with some fine scratches in it and I feel up to the task I’ll try to polish them out. Oh, and I’ll polish the frets with a 1000 grit fret eraser if the frets look dull.

 

[BMW-KTM]

On poly guitars I use Meguiar's Ultimate Polish and it works wonderfully . Microfibre cloths, obviously. For nitro I just use microfibre and water and on very rare occasions guitar polish after the water clean.

 

[zontar]

Oh, I was going to mention my fretless--no guitar polish on it as it is not a gloss type finish so, that wouldn't be a great idea.
But I do wipe it down and all that.

 

[_Azrael]

Someone gave me a 3 piece Fender kit for Christmas, Cleaner, Polish and Fretboard Conditioner. I've used the cleaner and polish on poly and it works really well.

I don't like using string cleaner as I find I don't get any more life out of the strings, and in some cases I get less. I think this is body chemistry dependant, and if you're the type that rusts your strings it'll be more useful.

I use microfibre cloths. Only thing I'll add is to use a separate applicator and buff cloth, and try to use different cloths for each product to keep them from cross contaminating. Don't be afraid to wash them either.

Music Nomad makes something called an All-In-One Cleaning Tool... wish I would've had that thing years ago.

I usually clean mine if they're going on stage. I think fingerprints look like shit under the lights.