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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
 Posted - 05/19/2007 : 01:11:31 AM
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Ha-ha-ha... I found these ma9ntenance tips on Musician's Friend's web site. Note the sentence I have underlined and put in red. I'll be yunz are ruining your guitars.
Basic Guitar Maintenance TIPS:
A good, quality guitar should last a lifetime. Following these tips will help ensure years of enjoyment from your instrument:
If you don't already own one, get a good quality case or gig bag for your guitar. It's the least expensive insurance you can buy for a guitar. Also, get a good guitar stand to keep it on between playing sessions.
Keep your guitar in its case when not in continuous use.
Keep your guitar away from extreme heat, cold, or humidity changes. Avoid placing your guitar on its stand near heat and air conditioning vents, windows, doors, outside, or in your car for long periods of time.
Use only quality guitar care and maintenance products - not furniture polish or abrasive dust cloths.
Never detune and remove all the strings at once. The truss rod is designed and adjusted to provide counter tension to the strings - removing that tension suddenly can damage or warp a neck.
Change your strings regularly, depending on how often you play. Remove, replace, and tune up one string at a time—constantly keeping the guitar in tune as you go.
Keep your guitar tuned to standard pitch. You should consider purchasing an electronic tuner if you don't already have one.
Invest in a quality guitar strap—especially if you stand while playing.
Find a reputable guitar repairman, and take your guitar in for annual checkups coinciding with weather changes. If you're not trained and experienced with truss rod adjustment - leave it alone and let the professionals do the tweaking. The same goes for fret filing and crowning, bridge and saddle work, nut adjustments, and so on. Many a guitar has been damaged by wannabe luthiers. Either leave it to the pros or get expert hands-on training if you're the do-it-yourself type.
Play your guitar often. A fine quality instrument made from solid woods just gets better and better the older it gets and the more it's played. It's a win-win for both you and your guitar—the more you enjoy it, the better it sounds—and the more you'll enjoy it in the future.
As an aside, every guitar sold at Musician's Friend goes through a complete 10-point quality check. This includes checking and adjusting the truss rod, neck, tuning keys, action, bridge/tremolo, finish, body, bracing, structural, pickups, electronics, intonation, and even the case.
This ensures you will receive a properly adjusted and inspected instrument—so you'll get off on the right start with your new guitar. Combine this with the tips above, and you'll be in guitar heaven for years to come.
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Lawrence
Ha`aha`a
USA
1597 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2007 : 10:11:56 AM
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quote:
Keep your guitar tuned to standard pitch.
Very funny!! (now who here is going to do that!!  )
Actually there are quite reputable luthiers (like the Taylor Guitar Company, Gryphon Stringed Instruments, Grimes Guitars, etc.) who leave the strings slacked, or a zero tension (off!) for extended periods of time!!
This has been discussed several times before, you might have to look in the archives, also it is discussed at length (several times a year) on the Acoustic Guitar Magazine forum.
If you relax your truss rod (loosen the truss nut), you can keep the guitar at zero tension nearly forever.
Assuming a standard steel string guitar: If you are playing at a lower tension than normal (lower than standard tuning) then you need to ajust the truss rod anyway to get the proper action, but you can get away with "slack tuning" for very long periods of time (years) even if you don't re-Adjust the truss rod as long as you are willing to play with lousy action! I have a quite accurate string tension calculator for determining the optimum guage of each string to have for any given tuning (at a precisely defined tension), but practically speaking, it does not make a heck of lot of difference if I just put on a "standard" set.
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Mahope Kākou...
...El Lorenzo de Ondas Sonoras |
Edited by - Lawrence on 05/19/2007 10:12:44 AM |
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