just wondering, how do u guys maintain your guitars? i'm sure some of us have our own "secret" methods of keeping our guitars in tip-top condition =)

i always wipe the strings with lint-free cloth every time after i play, then wipe away any fingerprints, smudges etc on the body and bridge. i keep both guitars in guitar bags, away from sunlight in a corner of my room...

my strings haven't turned too rusty yet, but the sound is kinda dull - should i change them? not that i mind the sound...

there was once i found white mould growing on my accoustic :shock
my mum told me to leave a small opening in the zip of the bag to allow air circulation and i've been doing that since *shrugs*

plus i've accumulated quite a few of chips here and there @@ anyone have any horror stories to tell?

The first week after I got my first electric the strap slipped while I was doing my best impression of John Mayer and the guitar had a big big crack below the input and the paint got chipped off T_T

btw, Dr. Stringfellow cleaning materials are wonders

I was trying out a stunt at home and ended up crashing the headstock of my Epi into my brother's cymbals. It has multiple dings on the headstock - rawk.

For cleaning, I use Dunlop 65 guitar polish to clean my guitars. It's primarily water-based, so it's like you're giving your guitar a bath so to speak. I spray it onto a microfiber cloth and then wipe it down. Wipe over the strings, the back of the neck, the body, and I even try to get to the body right under the strings =P.

If you feel that your strings are sounding dull, you don't have to wait until they turn rusty to change them.

My room ceiling fell onto my acoustics guitar's headstock.... Beat that....
But it's not cement or anything hehe.... I have sort of a cardboard type ceiling in my room. The roof leaked and water softened the ceiling. I was so in shock when I enter my room finding a section of my ceiling on the floor just next to my acoustic...... Fortunately it only scrapped the headstock and left white paint marks on it......

I just normally wipe my guitar with guitar polish. I have a Fender and an Ernie Ball guitar polish.

Did the accident affect the sound or something?

Nope. It just scrapped through the headstock. A light scratch.
No.. it's not even a scratch... It's the ceiling's paint stuck on it.

Tissue and blood. But just tissue really.

i use...er...wet cloth...not very very wet....just a little will do...
but i think this can spoil your guitar's wood.... xD not sure...will it?

Wow... I use Dunlop 65 too...

But I use it only for my electric as my acoustic is in such a bad shape for me to say anything about maintenance for it... :cry

The screws for the nuts have come off... There is a big crack under the guitar and many many more... Now i just use just some string cleaner to ensure there won't be too much rust on it... @@

Wipe with a damp cloth.. I'm currently using a guitar bag to carry it but considering to buy a case..it goes out of tune in the bag when u carry it because bag is soft.. :(

Maintain? I swipe my guitar strings every time I take it out and put it back into the hardshell case.

Hmm... and maybe give it a few hugs per day. It makes the guitar sound better... hehe. :)

Do you like kiss it good night? and er morning kiss and then ask him how is she doing?

I KISS MY GUITAR GOODNIGHT!! LOLL. no i dont, but pretty much like that, i'm so obsessed with my acoustic-electric lol.... but then my other three guitars are just sitting there neglected :(

for my acoustic, after i finish playing, i wipe strings with cloth, sometimes i use like the eyeglass wiping cloth thing. it actually works really really well. and often every now and then, clean out UNDERneath the strings, cuz it collects grime and rust there, and usually the cloth comes back with like rust colored lines on it haha. And i wipe the neck, and the top of hte guitiar. every now and then i wipe te whole thing.

I realize i need a humidifier, but i havent bought one yet, so everynow and then i stik my guitar in the shower room with the fan on, thers moisture to humidify it haha, i picked it up from like a website or something. probably like once a month or something

and i put my acoustic in it's hard case to protect it, sometimes i leave it standing tho, so i can see it just before i sleep LOL

Haha ... the bathroom trick. Alternatively you can use a sponge-in-a-ziplock-bag trick as well. Soak the sponge with water (but not too much that it leaks) and put it in a ziplock bag with holes (to let the moisture out).

oooh thats pretty cool,havent tried that. where do i put it?i've never actually seen a humidfier/humidipack in real life, bt i saw pics of it being put in the soundhole... is that where you put it?

Yeah in the soundhole. Natalie tried it with her dried out classical and it worked for her.

do you leave it in there when you need to travel/move around?

I don't think you should leave it in for too long, otherwise the wood might take in too much moisture. I'm not sure about traveling with it inside, but since it's a sponge (soft and light weight) so I think it will damage the guitar if it stays inside.

Mind you, I'm still a guitar newbie. :sry You're probably more a guitar pro comparing to me.

nah, i seriously have only just started researching about the technical aspects of guitar stuff haha, i've been playing like 6 years and i still didnt do ANY research whatsoever. lol i was just concerned bout playing

i dont even know how to use a humidipack LOL

i might just buy the planet waves humidipack which absorbs and humidifies and keeps the gutiar at a constant 45% humidity level... oO

Those packs are really guitar maintenance for dummies. Just set it and forget it (ala Ron Popeil ... aka the inventor of infomercials).

Those packs are kinda expensive though, and most likely only the humidifying side of the pack will be getting used (since we have a dryer climate, even for the summer, comparing to more tropical places).

YEP laziness at its best. actually no, u still need to replace the packages. XD i want something u dont even have to refill lol

oo i've never heard of humidifying my guitar before :what guess i'm also a newbie haha...

i'm wondering since i live in Singapore, i probably need a de-humidifyer right? it gets pretty humid here...

asuna, yeah in Singapore, you'll need a dehumidifier. Or you can get that planet waves humidipack which does both humidifying and dehumidifying. They are relatively more expensive and plus in an extreme humid region like yours, it may use up the pack quicker. Natalie (and Cross as well I think) uses the humidipack.

Well, we used to use Planetwaves Humidpak, but it was recalled.

Cross returned his.... but I didn't. I'm still using the humidpak for my guitar's headstock, haha. But I'm using Grover humidfier tube for the soundhole. And Cross is using Oasis humidifier for his Larrivee acoustic.

I always leave my guitars in the open and inside my room where the aircond is always on most of the time, IS this good? I mean like overexposure to the aircond..

Larrivee acoustic? those are quite expensive arent they?? lol made in vancouver?

why were they recalled?

and can u give me some links for those humidifiers? and humidying your headstock? u have to do that? lmao.... 6 years experience and i still duno these things, i need to research more lol

sirmanzy: depends where you are, but usually in a normal room it should be fine. but overexposure to any thing producing air, ac, or heat makes it dryer.. so i suggest get it humidified lol

Recalled? :shock I guess like many other products, this must be made in China as well. :X

Leaving in your air conditioned room should be ok, as long as you don't put the guitar directly in front of the vent where the cool air comes out.

I still haven't got a humidifier myself. I should get one soon as Winter is coming.

it's near the vent, because it's hanging on the wall, so my guitar gets it fairshare of cold air everyy night, but then in the afternoon its smoking hot in the room, so i guess it kinda balances everything right?

I don't know how extreme your case maybe, but for any wood product in general, a large fluctuation of temperate is never a good thing.

Wood will absorb the moisture and expand in the hot humid air, and it will dry up and shrink in dry cool air. In an extreme case, the wood absorbs too much moisture an expand out of shape, and then cool dry air will cause the wood the loose its moisture and cracks because of wood shrinkage.

Of course, that is an "extreme" case. For a normal home, make sure the guitar is stored somewhere that is not exposed to direct change in temperature and humidity, like a closet or a corner of the room that is away from direct sun light from the window and away from heat/air conditioning vent.

Oh, thanks..I'm really bad at all this mantainence stuff, I have a hardcase but I don't really use it because I like the look at my axes before i sleep LOL. so the case are only useful when I'm going out.

Yep. Larrivees are nice. They're really great acoustics with superb sound and quality. I thought about buying one, but I always wanted to get a Taylor, so I ended up buying the Taylor instead.

Cross received an e.mail from the guitar store that a few users experience leaks fomr the gel inside the paks were dripping from the paks to inside of the guitar. So, the humidipaks were recalled. I'm still using the headstock pak though. My paks haven't leaked yet, so I didn't bother returning it. Haha.

I really hope Planetwaves fixes the problem.. because I love the humidipak. It's so convienient and easy to use.

yea iuno, on the site, it seys it duznt leak, lol. so mayb they fixed it?

btw, natalie, wt model is ur taylor?

It's a GA4!! *runs*

Yessss... that's the model, but why are you running away?

:rolleyes:

I wanted to buy the Taylor 414ce, but it cost about $1000 bucks more and I didn't need the Expression System (the electronics-preamp) since I don't perform, and guitaring is really just a hobby. So, I went with the pure acoustic, GA4.

ooooh cool. when i get a taylor... which is a matter of saving up haha, it will probably b like a 314ce =P 2000 lol. i need hte electronics since i perform but grand auditoriums w/ C/A are sooo sick. withthat taylor tradmark pickguard AHHHH!!!! :suki haha

btw, do u guys knows u can get ur own taylor catalogue plus price list package, with ur own customized letter (dear _____) form taylor for FREE? lolll haha u just ask for it on their site and i got mine like over hte summer =P a few weeks i beleve

I actually didn't receive an e-mail, but a phone call.

Additionaly I also checked the PW website and there was nothing mentioning the leaking humidipacks. However I didn't really feel like taking any sort of risk with my acoustic, so I returned it. I've got about 3 Oasis humidifiers now, so I plan on using one for the soundhole and one to put under the headstock.

GA4!!!

loll, GA4 is like $1,698 in the catalogue, natalie, how much did u get it for?

She got it for 1600 i think? *runs*