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Maintenance and cleaning


MojoMike

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I ordered some Virtuoso cleaner and polish. When it arrives, I plan to remove as much as I can from the 335 and do a thorough cleaning and polishing. I also want to polish the nickel bridge, stop bar and Grover tuners. What do you guys use for that? How thin is the nickel plating? It still has the (relatively new) strings it came with but I'll be doing a re-string, set up and intonation as well. I'm really enjoying this guitar and can't wait to see how good it can look and play.

 

Mike

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Mike, here is what I do when it's time to clean, maintain, and polish:

 

 

First you remove the strings.

 

Then you polish the frets with Brasso. I like to use an old, soft terrycloth rag for this job.

 

Buff the neck really good afterwards, front and back, with a quality guitar polish like Virtuoso.

 

Next, remove the bridge and all metal bits, and polish them with a good chrome polish like Blue Magic.

 

Then, soak any spots that had stickers, or other areas with blemishes, with WD-40. Gently buff off any old sticker residue with the WD-40 and a soft terry cloth.

 

Polish the tuning keys and machine heads with the blue magic. Take your time, this is very detailed work.

 

Apply some electrical contact cleaner to a q-tip, and gently swab out the electrical jack where your guitar cord plugs in. This will help to improve contact when the guitar is plugged into your amplifier.

 

If you had previously heard a scratchy, crackling noise when turning your volume and tone knobs, figure out how to get to the \ electrical pots that the knobs are connected to.

 

Spritz some of the electrical contact cleaner/lubricant into the small apertures in the pots, and roll the knobs left and right for about a minute. This will remove the noise later on.

 

Re-attach the pick-guard and all the bridge bits.

 

Lastly, wax the entire guitar down from head to toe with Turtle Wax, or some other automotive carnuba wax. Buff all the wax off a bit later with a soft terry cloth towel or a cotton bandana.

 

Re-string her with brand-new strings, tune her up, and your guitar will look (and feel) like brand new!

 

[smile]

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The Virtuoso cleaner and polish is the best for your 335! It will remove old wax and sweat marks in the finish. You should only use the Virtuoso polish after doing the cleaning. If you have any satin finish on your 335 it will not be satin after using the wax!

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Well. I did a pretty thorough cleaning and polishing with the Virtuoso products and I'm very happy with the results. I removed the pick guard, bridge, tail piece and truss rod cover to get better access to the finish. I also oiled the fret board and used metal polish on the hard parts. I bought the guitar used a few weeks ago and wanted to tidy it up. I also change to my string gauge (9 to 42's) and had to intonate. It was necessary to turn a couple of bridge saddles around to get it just right, but it's spot on now. I'm really enjoying this 335. I've wanted one for years. It was worth the wait.

 

Cheers,

Mike

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