Antimon
Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 4145 Location: Sweden
Audio files: 371
G2 patch files: 100
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Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:30 pm Post subject:
Keeping the finish on your guitar in good shape |
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Lately I've noticed that the body surface on my guitars have gotten a bit icky - the shiny finish has gone a bit matte and rough in places. I keep them in my bedroom pretty, and my guess it's humany stuff oozing around the room that sticks to them. Is that it, or is this how it usually is with guitars wherever they are?
Anyway, what's a good way to clean a guitar? Any kind of cleaning liquid that I can dare use? I have a microfiber cloth that I use to rub with gets rid of most of the stuff, but I need to rub for quite a while and it doesn't take away everything.
Is there some measure I can take to keep the surface from clogging up? Moving the instruments isn't practical though. Does the dirt affect the sound (silly question maybe, but I've read somewhere that the paint is important to the sound of an instrument, though maybe that's more of an issue with Stradivarius-level instruments). _________________ Antimon's Window
@soundcloud @Flattr home - you can't explain music |
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DES
Joined: Feb 28, 2003 Posts: 794 Location: New Jersey
Audio files: 8
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Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:10 pm Post subject:
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really depends on the finish of the instrument. Polyurethane finishes are pretty durable and most guitar instrument polishes will do fine. Lacquer on the other hand can be sensitive to the type of cleaner/polish used. Find out which finisf you have and then look for cleaning/polishing info specific to it. For fretboards I use lemon oil on rosewood, pauduk woods. For ebony I use Bore oil (used to clean/oil ebony clarinets). Works great!
A number of Years ago when I worked at a music store, Martin Guitar put out a notice that polishes that contained silicone should not be used on their instruments. It was ironic because the Martin Guitar Polish we sold had silicone in it! It wasn't long till the polish changed to silicone free.
Something else to avoid with lacquer...keep all rubber and vinyl away from the finish. We got a hard lesson about that...we had several Les Pauls hanging out for display on those wall mounted guitar hooks that had the hospital tubing on the forks to keep from scratching the guitar finish. Turns out that if left hanging there the rubber would cause the finish where it touched to almost melt. Also had an SG come in the store with a vinyl Bore's Head Meat lable on it....when we removed the lable there was a perfect imprint of the lable on the guitar.... _________________ Dave
www.davesneed.com |
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