care tips

[shibbyuk29]

hey, gettin a bit carried away with makin new threads today, (2nd one) what do u guys do for care of your guitar, i have a acoustic glossy black takamine that i used to use jim dunlop cleaning kit on, what do u guys do for your epi's. bought mine second hand and want to restore it a bit more, atm its a bit dusty in places and strings are old i think. how can i tell if strings need changing, not used to looking at electric strings. obviously i can tell when new ones are on but not sure just how old current ones are, any tips appreciated.

[Vic Flick]

hey' date=' gettin a bit carried away with makin new threads today, (2nd one) what do u guys do for care of your guitar, i have a acoustic glossy black takamine that i used to use jim dunlop cleaning kit on, what do u guys do for your epi's. bought mine second hand and want to restore it a bit more, atm its a bit dusty in places and strings are old i think. how can i tell if strings need changing, not used to looking at electric strings. obviously i can tell when new ones are on but not sure just how old current ones are, any tips appreciated.[/quote']

 

Well first of all, if you bought a used guitar, you should change the strings unless you know as fact that they just changed. Off with the old, on with the new. Especially on an acoustic.

 

If you're not that familiar with acoustic strings, I would start with 11s. I like Phosphor Bronze, others may prefer 80/20s, that's a matter of taste, you might want to experiment with different gauges and materials until you find the right ones for you. But don't make a snap decision, give each set a couple of weeks to work themselves in. They might sound brassy at first, but mellow out as they get worn in.

 

Other than the obvious tarnished, rusty, gritty feeling strings, you can tell dead strings by the sound. If the strings used to PING and now they go THUMP, time for new strings. If all of a sudden they don't want to stay in tune anymore, new strings.

 

Dunlop cleaning kit??? I bet you wash your car too. Turtle Wax, right??? I forgot that my 1964 VW Microbus has a big peace sign on the front of it until it rained the other day!!!