Clean A Guitar - Brighten Your Guitar"s Shine With Easy Tips

When you take the initiative to clean a guitar, you're actually stepping in the right direction to preserve your instrument's life. It's a known fact that as much as you might store it properly and prevent it from getting damaged, dirt and dust will still be waging a war on your guitar.

If you're planning on being real with yourself, cleaning your guitar should be a standard practice of yours at least once per month. To help you out, check out these quick and easy tips to clean a guitar and keep your instrument lasting longer.

1. Keep the back of your guitar neck clean.

One of the dirtiest places on the guitar is the back of the neck since you fly all over the fret board with your thumb clamped to the other side. If you want to get rid of those smudges and keep it looking good, just take a soft rag and some Windex back there every so often.

2. Get the dirt out of the cable inputs.

Cable inputs are bound to wear out and create some noise distortion at one time or another, but in the process to clean a guitar, you should be mindful of those quarter inch jacks. Take a q-tip or small brush into those inputs and give them a good once around and if you decide to wet them down, wait at least two days for them to dry.

3. If you sweat while you play, you'll need a towel.

Let's face it. You're going to play when it's hot out and you might end up sweating all over your poor guitar. When this happens, it's nice to know that you have a towel nearby to wipe it off and prevent smudges because you were rocking out so hard.

4. Store a rag in your guitar case.

Sometimes your guitar doesn't get dirty and grimy over time, but it happens all at once and you should be ready. When the time comes that a drunken fan spills beer all over your axe, it'll also be time to clean a guitar and grab that trusty rag.

5. Open guitar cases welcome dust.

It might sound like a really dumb thing to mention, but I've seen guitarists storing their guitars in their cases with the lids hanging wide open! Let's use our brains and keep that dirt and dust out of there by shutting our guitar lids.

6. Repair your damaged hardware.

You might wonder what repairing damaged hardware has to do with cleaning a guitar, but most of the repairmen are required to give a pretty thorough cleaning when they're finished. So if you have something going wrong on your axe, take it down and expect to hear it and see it in better condition too.

It might stink, but you don't have the choice between playing a guitar or cleaning a guitar. You just have to do both eventually. Try these tips out for yourself on keeping your guitar clean and hopefully you'll be playing that instrument for a few more years.