Guitar & Ukulele Care
Instrument care is one of the most important and overlooked parts of being a musician. Your instruments condition can not only affect your sound and ease of playing but it can hinder the progress that you make or even discourage you to not want to practice your instrument. To avoid this and to have the best experience on your instrument, follow these pointers to take care of your instrument:
All of the important information and specifications about your instrument can be found here. This can tell you the radius of your fretboard, the width of your nut, the length of the instruments neck and much more. If you can’t find your instrument’s physical manual you can usually find it on the internet.
When it comes to DIY projects YouTube is the king. You can find 99% of what you need to know on YouTube and see how someone does it first-hand. Entire YouTube channels are devoted to showing you how to take care of your instrument. Look up any problem you are having and most likely a video for it will pop up. Gear forums are another great option, but I like YouTube because you can see what is being done first-hand.
If you own a used instrument or only have one instrument it might be hard to tell how it is supposed to feel. Getting your hands on a properly set up instrument should be able to tell you by feel/sound alone if it needs worked on.
If you sweat a lot, wipe down your strings and instrument to extend the life of your strings and other metal parts on your instrument. When strings do need to be changed just do it. Dirty strings sound dead, don’t play well and don’t stay in tune.Coated guitar strings are always a great option for those who sweat a lot and make their strings rust fast. They are usually a little more expensive but will save you money in the long run.
I encourage all guitar players to be able to do basic maintenance on their instrument. All guitar, bass and ukulele players should be able to change strings. However, there are some jobs that are too big for most people and that’s where a guitar tech comes in. Try to find a guitar tech that is recommended to you by a person you trust and has had their instrument worked on by them. A good guitar tech will save you time and make sure you are satisfied with their work.
