Over the next couple days I’m going to be going into detail about how to take care of your guitar strings. This is something that you may want to be aware of because the lives of your strings are very important
If you can manage to keep your strings sounding better and lasting longer you will save money and effort because let’s face it, nobody likes changing strings on a guitar. It’s a long boring process and even worse if you own a Floyd Rose bridge. Then you will have more time to spend on learning how to play guitar.
However if you follow a few simple steps you should alright. I have noticed that by cleaning your guitar strings you can increase their life dramatically. Plus you don’t get that gross dirt that clumps up your fret board, and yes this is very much true.
Wash Your Hands Before You Play
The first thing you will want to do is make sure that you wash you hands before you play. This is because your hands just simply get dirty throughout the day and when you play your guitar you are passing that dirt onto your strings. This causes your strings to build up dirt really fast. If you let your fingers dirty your guitar you are not going about the right direction on keeping your guitar strings clean.
Just make sure you take a few minutes to wash your hands through some soap and water before you play. This may seem like a big chore at first but it will benefit you in the long run. You can also try washing your hands in warm water to loosen up before you play as well. This will get the blood flowing through your hands quicker.
Wash Your Strings After You Play
The second thing you will want to do is wash your strings right after you play. This will take off any excess filth that you put on while you were practicing. This keeps the strings nice and clean the next time you pick up your guitar.
I recommend you use a lint free cloth to clean your strings. You will also want to stick away from any cleaner with a high PH level. This will destroy your strings so something with mostly just water should do fine. I’ve been told that furniture cleaner does the trick if you don’t have any string cleaner available.
Keep that Freatboard Clean
You will need to practice this every time you play guitar though. If you don’t do it on a consistent basis it will not work for you. Just remember that your fingers are dirty and who knows where they have been so wash them before you touch your guitar. If you were a guitar you wouldn’t want people to play with you without washing their hands right? I didn’t think so.
After you finish playing just remember to wash your guitar and reflect back on how your session went. Was it one of those good ones that make you feel like a guitar god or one of those ones where you can’t even play a c major chord? We all have those days believe it or not.
If you follow these simple rules your strings will surely last longer. If you have anything else to add, let me know: how do you clean your guitar strings or do you even clean your strings?