how do you clean a guitar lol

[friendship]

I don't trust youtube or reddit or snob fora so i'm asking real ones. what is like the no-bullshit way to clean your guitars--body, neck, hardware--of gunk and blood and beer splatter without harming the finish? i never learned.

edit to add: my old boss had us use Naptha for this exclusively, but he was also an absolute nutcase so....

[dubkitty]

depends on how bad it is. i usually start with guitar polish on the painted bits ahd water via paper towels or swabs on other areas. for encrusted fingerboard crud i’ve used rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush. sometimes you need a blade or utiity knife to scrape solidified goo from around the frets.

[Phosphene Audio]

I think the Erlewine took says to use a lightly damp rag, or a rag and naphtha.

[Blackened Soul]

Don’t use naphtha or rubbing alcohol on the neck on a musicman USA sub, it will remove the finish.

For necks and lightly finished stuff I like the stuff Ken smith sells.

[dubkitty]

yeah, i'm not suggesting taking isopropyl alcohol to finished surfaces. i learned about that the hard way. non-finished fingerboards only! sometimes you need nuclear-level grease-cutting, though. really old fret scudge turns into a fairly solid greenish-black material composed, best as i can tell, of skin cells and oils, corrosion on the fret material, fingerboard dust, and general dirt. like a solidified version of the similarly-hued crud that gets into the nosepieces and hinges on spectacles. when i did my Epiphone acoustic, which hadn't been thoroughly cleaned in half a century, i literally had to chip crud off the joins between fret and board. yeah, eww.

[Ghost Hip]

For clearing out dust and what not from tight weird areas like underneath knobs and strings and such on guitars, synths, pedals, etc. I love this thingy-ma-brush.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... aning-tool

Other than that I have Dunlop guitar polish, lemon oil or whatever it is for the fretboard, and a bunch of cleaning cloths from when I worked at guitar center ages ago. I give a quick clean anytime I change strings typically.

[dubkitty]

i try to clean them before they go back in the case, but don't always make myself do it. i'm more likely to be responsible in the warm months when i sweat all over everything even with the AC on. i hate getting out a guitar i haven't played in months and having to clean it first thing.

[dubkitty]

that thing has potential for my plethora of guitars with tremolos/Bigsbys/etc., which often require gymnastics to clean between the bridge and tailpiece.

[Pepe]

For clearing out dust and what not from tight weird areas like underneath knobs and strings and such on guitars, synths, pedals, etc. I love this thingy-ma-brush.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... aning-tool

Aaaaah, yes! We had that in the music shop that I worked in from 2000 until my bosses had to close it (due to health and age reasons) in 2018. That was really a great tool and I have to order one for me next time. Thanks for that!

Other than that I have Dunlop guitar polish, lemon oil or whatever it is for the fretboard, and a bunch of cleaning cloths from when I worked at guitar center ages ago. I give a quick clean anytime I change strings typically.

Guitar polish by Dunlop or Fender is good stuff. I think that lemon oil has a bad stench and I don't like the feel of it. For rosewood fretboards we always used oil for woodwind instruments. Apart from that I used the "Fret Board Juice" by the American brand Big Bends when overhauling my uncle's original Höfner 400/1 violin bass from the early '60s. Also very good stuff!

i try to clean them before they go back in the case, but don't always make myself do it. i'm more likely to be responsible in the warm months when i sweat all over everything even with the AC on. i hate getting out a guitar i haven't played in months and having to clean it first thing.

It's also good to wipe the strings with a clean cloth. It will prolong their life significantly if you sweat a lot.

[coupleonapkins]

All of these are good suggestcions, but I must stress (STRESS) to recommend a quick wipe-down after a playing session. Like most things of prevention, it will not seem cool or hip or "necessary" in the heet ov the moment/cig break/what's on roku now, but an ounce of prevention, etc.

You could call your wipe-down device (rag) something cool, like The Forgiveness Towel, or the Bespoke Cleanser Of Future Woes, or "Gary". Whatever works? Your instrument & your future self are thanking you already, tomorrow.

[qersty]

I don't think alcohol is a good idea on an unfinished neck either as it can dry the wood out. I have used linseed oil for fretboards but im not sure how good that really is either. I just get nauseous thinking of doing anything to wood or a finish the more i learn. Though i think a damp microfibre cloth can get you a long way depending on how patient you are

[dub]

I've used saddle soap and a old toothbrush on fretboards before. No idea if that's a bad move, but I figured if it doesn't fuck up leather then it's probably okay on wood.

[Zork]

I usually use sensitive baby wipes. Make sure to use non-plastic wipes with as little additives as possible. Works really good.