In this section I'm going to try and outline how to care & look after your guitar, giving you hopefully a few useful tips here and there and also try to give a few guidelines as to what set-up is all about.
Care.
Good
Care of
your guitar,
if you want to take care of it, should ensure
that it will give you great service over
many years, and if you do
ever want to sell, it will be in good condition to get you a
good price, and the new owner will have a
very usable instrument with
which
they should be very pleased.
1.
Purchase.
Your good
care starts in the
shop when you buy it (if you buy it in a
shop),
and it doesn't matter if the instrument is new or
secondhand. If
you are going to part with you hard earned
cash (or just stick it on 'plastic'),
you need to make sure that the instrument is exactly what you want,
is playable -
has a
set up if it needs one, and has a
reasonably new set of strings on or a
new set as part of the 'deal'. If
you are not sure about what you need to do, for example if you have not
bought one before..... you must take along somebody who knows at least a
bit
more than you and can assist you to make the
right choice. If you don't
find the right
one..... go back another day
or try another
shop.
You
should have no problems auditioning a
classical or acoustic
guitar; and if you are trying out an electric guitar,
semi', electro-acoustic or
bass
you should be
able to try it without
an amp,
with at least one amp or
preferably more and be able to play it for some time and with volume
if required. Unless you can
do all these things, you are
not really in a position to buy anything as you don't know what you are
actually buying !
This may sound stupid, but this is very important.
If you do buy a guitar
in a shop,
there should always be some sort of
guarantee
even if buying secondhand.
Obviously if you are buying privately
your options will be more
limited, but the basic premise is the same.
2.
Transport.
A Case of
some description is essential..... you need to be able to
carry it around
- firstly of course to
get it home (in one piece
!), and to be able to
take it "to and fro" to a
friends house,
school,
out busking, a
rehearsal or a
gig and be able to "sling"
it in a car or van without damaging it. This is easier said than done
! A hard shell case is
preferable, or if not that, a "gig-bag"
is OK and could certainly prevent minor damage, but not recommended.
A
case of some description should be provided,
or at least available, if you are buying a new
guitar; if it's second-hand, you should be able to
'wheel and deal' a bit
to get a decent one.
NB - Kev...
" I will always remember one poor young lad who bought a
top of the range red Japanese Guitar, with a birds-eye veneered and banded top,
from us secondhand. It cost him £275 ($385) back then in
1987. He
didn't
want a case... took off up the road with it... and then promptly
fell over
! He had damaged the tremolo unit, the
jack socket
and the guitar front. He came back very upset. We did
manage to get him sorted out in the next couple of days... but these
things do happen so easily.
3.
Home.
When it's
'at home', your guitar can still be quite
vulnerable..... when
you're not actually playing it, your guitar should really be
in a
case or on
a stand in a safe place, or perhaps
hanging on
the wall from a decent bracket. It is very tempting to just lean it
against the nearest available object. (If this last option is your only one, you
should always lean the guitar with the strings 'in' - the
weight
of the guitar against the pull of the strings). Maple necked guitars, with a 'parallel' headstock are much more
resilient, but not invulnerable ( Click for
Pic ), to major damage than those with a mahogany 'angled'
headstock - and it is all too common that the latter type get just a
'gentle knock', fall over and..... Snap ! Broken Headstock..... which will
not only cost you money to repair (if possible),
but also,
seriously
affect the secondhand price if you ever decide to sell it. So
please, please, please, keep
your 'pride and joy' in a
safe place.....
it's worth it !
4. General
care.
a.
General care really starts
as soon as you get your instrument home.
If the guitar is new and has come from a shop, it has most likely
been in the shop for a while and the frets have 'dulled'
off a bit and it will also probably have finger
marks and smears
over it, so it is best to give it a bit of a clean
off all over straight away with some sort
of polish.
So..... when you get a chance, pop
down to your local Supermarket and pick up a can of
polish and a duster.
I've always used 'Pledge',
and personally have never found it a problem with any finish on a guitar or bass
I've come across, but of course I cannot
guarantee it will not
react
with any particular finish. Regarding
dusters, as long as it is clean
it doesn't really matter what type it is, but I have found that rags
from old
cotton
bed sheets are best of all.
b.
It's very important
to remember to wipe over
your guitar each time
you've finished playing
on it, because your sweat will
cause your strings to tarnish
and make them 'go off'
quite quickly. More seriously
it will, in time, corrode
the plating on the hardware.....
gold plating
is particularly susceptible. People
sweat at different rates, and some people have more corrosive sweat than
others, so it is always best to wipe
your instrument over.....
and make it a habit.
Observation - Over the years talking to many players, I
personally feel that if you are a person
that has excessively sweaty fingers,
you would probably be better off having
a guitar with a natural
rosewood or ebony fingerboard rather
than one that has been lacquered - maple or otherwise. The natural fingerboard
will absorb some moisture, whereas a lacquered one will leave all the moisture
on the surface and you will be effectively playing 'sloshing around'
on top, the moisture's only escape is to 'drip off'.
Ha !
c.
Regarding the fingerboard,
wait until you are going to put on a new set of strings, and you can if
you wish take all the strings off and have a
close look at the fingerboard
and the frets to
see what sort of condition
they're in. Usually when changing strings it's best to take them off and
replace them one at a time so there is always tension
on the neck, but it will not do any damage taking them all
off together once in a while.
If your guitar has a dark-colour wood
fingerboard, it is most likely to be some sort of Rosewood or Ebony which does
need 'feeding'
once in a while (once
every six months to a year is good)
to stop it going dry. For this..... Olive
oil is brilliant.....
cheap
and easily available
down the road at the local Supermarket.
All you need is two or three 'dabs'
of Olive oil
on a cloth - enough to spread in a thin
film all over the fingerboard, and
then leave it for a while and you will see it, in patches, soak in.
After 5 minutes or so, wipe off
any excess and then put a little bit
of polish on the fingerboard and rub it over..... the fingerboard will not
only have a really nice 'lustre'
to it, but will feel really smooth
under your fingers. 'Feeding'
the fingerboard like this becomes quite important
in years to come when your guitar might need a refret.
Taking the frets out of a very dry
and cracked
fingerboard is very tricky,
and in many cases the wood breaks away in places, which needs to be
'sorted', and the 'job'
takes a lot longer,
and therefore will be much more expensive
than if the fingerboard had been taken care of and was in good condition.
If your guitar has a light-colour wood fingerboard it is most likely to be Maple or of the Maple family and will probably have some sort of lacquer on it. Lacquered fingerboards have the advantage of not needing much attention apart from a bit of polish every now and again - However have the disadvantage of staining when the lacquer eventually wears through with use, and also the fact that a refret will be more expensive than with a Rosewood fingerboard for example, as it will have to be re-lacquered.
( The only general exception to these two main styles of fingerboards are Rickenbackers - which in many cases have lacquered Rosewood fingerboards.)
More recently, some companies have produced guitars with oiled finishes. I'm not particularly keen on these types, and have never made a new guitars with am oiled finish. True, it is very quick and easy to apply, but they do wear off very quickly and can look pretty 'shabby' in a very short time. The finish needs to be reapplied quite often. The main problem is if the instrument is made of pale coloured woods - like Maple. An oiled Maple fingerboard will stain very quickly.
d.
Regarding the frets,
they should really be nice and shiny, but if they are dull and
tarnished you can give them a polish
with a little bit of 'colour
restorer' or 'cream
polish' available from your local Auto spares
shop
which will not do any harm to a natural
dark-wood fingerboard. If you have a lacquered
fingerboard you will need to be careful not
to rub the lacquer too much and stay
as much as possible on the frets.
e.
When you have done all this
you can give the guitar and fingerboard another quick polish all over and then
put your new strings on.
Please Note.....
You do
not need to spend a small fortune
on special substances -
'potions',
'special mixtures'
or 'witches
brews'
etc.....
you can manage quite adequately with products available cheaply
from local
stores.
5.
Maintenance.
Essentially this part is about looking
after your hardware
- the metal parts of
your guitar, not only to keep them clean,
but to lubricate
many of the moving parts
like springs,
screws
or bolts
that let you make adjustments if you so desire. If in time they do get tarnished,
corroded
or rusty,
it becomes an 'epic' just
to free them up, before
you can even get round to making the original adjustment you were attempting.
To achieve this, you can go to your local stores again and buy some Petroleum
Jelly (Vaseline) or some light
grease and some type of liquid
lubricant like
WD-40 with a fine spray-tube
adapter....................
.....we'll continue on with Part 5 as soon as possible.
Please...
pop back again.
The
Set-up.....
What is it and what does it mean ?
This
particular topic is probably the most controversial
, most talked about and
least
understood
area of guitars in general, probably because it is very
"subjective", and
is also the 'area' where you will 'See' and
'Hear' the most
'Amazing' things.....
I will be trying to
give you more of my views on the subject, which of course some may not agree
with, but
as the 'set-up' is in a three dimensional perspective
it is not always
easy to describe on a two dimensional page.
Some Basic Tips
( Hopefully, this will soon
be a link to a 'Tips' page.)
This is probably
going to be a long and controversial section..... !
( We'll try to continue this bit as soon as we can.)
Recommendations
Workshop Amps
For a little amp for 'the
workshop'..... just for setting up and a
quick 'blast', the little Orange Crush 15R
is a great little tool...
...in fact the newly introduced Orange
Crush 30R
is amazing for the 'dosh' !
However, I am currently looking out for a Laney
LC 15R valve amp, which does have a really
wonderful tone [ I will be changing the stock speaker to an American Weber
from Weber VST (see
links)
or a Jensen].
Having a good valve amp makes a world of difference when you're setting up and
especially when you're making critical adjustments to pickup height.
You really don't need much more than one
of those..... and I would wholeheartedly recommend either... you choose !
Remember to make sure that you have a cover
for it..... or the dust will **** it up rapidly !
DESIGNING & BUILDING A GUITAR FROM SCRATCH
PICTURES
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