Acoustic Guitar Care

Storage

When you are not playing your guitar the best place to keep it is in its case. A guitars case protects it from many things. The obvious protection is from physical harm, it falling or worse someone falling on it. The second is that it protects the finish from light than can fade the finish and colors. The other less obvious protection is from humidity. Humidity can cause a guitar to swell or shrink, a case slows major changes in humidy and also keeps moisture out, not all but some.

Humidity

The most important thing to consider when owning an acoustic guitar is temperature and humidity. Wood is made of small fibers than can come apart and warm when exposed to humid climates. In fact, one way to make guitars is called steam bending where the wood is steamed so that it can be bent. Have your guitar in a hot humid place could destroy it.

To much moisture can cause your guitar to swell and to little moisture can cause your guitar to shrink, dry out and crack. This is especially dangerous to the health of your guitar. To avoid this dry spell you can put a humidifier inside the sound hole of your guitar. You wet the humidifier and then put it in your guitar. If you live in a cold or dry area this is highly recommended for your guitar.

To know if your guitar is dry or humid you can look at the top of the body, hold the guitar up and see if the area behind the bridge looks normal. What is normal? Normal is what your used to seeing it look like after looking at it for a while. If it is swollen your guitar may be in a humidy area, if it is flat then It may be dry. There will be some swelling behind the bridge because of the string tension on the bridge.

Cleaning and Maintenance

Guitars require a little bit of maitnence and cleaning. The best thing to keep clean is your strings. Wipe them off after your done playing. There are a few string cleaning products but for the most part a simple wipe down when you are finished will help a lot. The oils from your hands can help corrode your strings along with oxygen and moisture from the air. Keeping the oils off can only slow the corrosion process. This may help to reduce the frequency that you have to change strings.

For more Acoustic Guitar Lessons, please visit our site for Free Online Guitar Lessons

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David Coates has been playing guitar his whole life, and is presently a team member of a Free Online Guitar Lessons site. The site features free tools, lessons and resources for guitarists of all ages and stages. So if you are interested in learning to play guitar there will be an enormous variety of tip, tools and tutorials for you.

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