Review: Gibson Guitars

Here at Review: Gibson Guitars we have talked plenty about how to buy Gibson guitars, but what do you do after you’ve had your guitar for a while?  Maintenance can be difficult at times, but doing little things to keep your guitar well maintained will increase the lifespan of your guitar significantly.  Below is a quick overview of what you should be doing to keep your guitar working well and sounding great for years. Although the title says this is for maintenance on Gibson guitars (since this is what I am most familiar with), all of these tips should apply to any brand/style of guitar you own.

Bowed Neck? A Little is OK

If you hold your guitar up to a light and see that the neck is a bit bowed, don’t be alarmed. Most guitars are expected to have a slight upward bow, but if it is bowed more than it should be, don’t worry. Get out a hex wrench so you can adjust the truss rod that is in the center of the neck. Look to the headstock and there should be a place to adjust the truss rod. Make sure not to stress the neck too much by making extreme adjustments to the truss rod, but straightening the guitar neck shouldn’t be a difficult task. You may have to remove the neck from the guitar, but this isn’t difficult either. Use a capo to save your strings if they do not need to be replaced, and slowly adjust the truss rod until you are happy with how the guitar looks and plays.

Cleaning Your Guitar is Maintenance Too

Cleaning your guitar will not only make it look better, but it will add years to the life of your guitar.  Always start by blowing excess dust off of the surface you are cleaning.  This includes the headstock, under the strings, and any major surfaces on the guitar itself.  Each section of the guitar takes a special kind of cleaning, but there are a few rules that you can stick to for almost all surfaces.  First, use a dry, soft cloth to wipe down and polish your guitar.  On my Gibson guitars, it generally takes a bit of elbow grease, but generally I can get a pretty good shine simply with a dry cloth, no cleaning solution required.  You can also pick up guitar cleaning solution and polish at your local music shop.  Be careful not to use anything but a dry cloth on the pickups and other metal & magnetic parts of the guitar, as these can be corrosive and damaging to these sensative parts.

Adjust & Tighten Your Tuners

If your tuners aren’t tight it can be difficult to keep the entire guitar tuned perfectly. Unfortunately it is best to tighten the tuners when you are changing the strings, so this may have to wait until your strings need to be replaced, or this could be a good excuse to restring your guitar. After you have removed the strings from the tuning nuts, take a small screwdriver and gently tighten the screws in the tuners. Be careful not to apply too much force here, as the tuners themselves (and everything in the headstock, generally) are fragile and expensive to fix or replace if broken. Don’t force the screws tight; if they are snug they are generally as tight as they need to be.

Other Guitar Maintenance Tips

There are a number of other things to keep in mind regarding storage and upkeep of your guitar. First, keep your guitar in a case when it is not in use. Not one of those soft cases, either. It is worth every penny to get a good quality hard case. This will not only keep the guitar safe, but it will help with temperature and humidity control as well. Speaking of which, you want to store your guitar out of direct sunlight, in a comfortably heated and humid environment. Generally, if you are comfortable in the room, your guitar will be too. I tend to keep my Gibson guitars stored in the center of my house since the temperature is pretty stable there.

There is plenty more you can do to keep your guitar well maintained, but this list will get you started in the right direction.  I spend a good chunk of time keeping my Gibson guitars well maintained since I would hate to have to replace any of them for avoidable wear and tear.  Have any other great tips?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.