Guitar Lessons For Beginners – Guitar Maintenance, Guitar Repair, Guitar Setup

This is probably one of the most valuable Guitar Lessons For Beginners that I’ll post this month! Guitar Maintenance is as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. I put this little guide together so that if you follow it, you will not spend a ton of time and money or listening to the guys at the guitar shop when it comes to what you need to do and how much you need to spend when it comes to maintaining a guitar.

When I started playing guitar, I spent hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars on guitar maintenance. A few years into guitar playing I bought a bunch of guitars. I didn’t know anything about guitar maintenance really, I just thought that if you kept them on a stand and didn’t drop them and that was all you really needed to know. Boy was I wrong. After one hot summer in AZ, taking guitars camping & playing around a bon fire and then keeping them near AC vents during summer – I knew I had to change something. All my guitars were ruined! Tons of individual notes within the frets were sounding horrible and “twangy”. But why?! There’s a few things to know about this topic  and if there’s one thing that I wish you can take from this lesson, it’s this… “keep your guitars in a controlled and consistent environment!”. What I mean by that is that you should never take your guitars from one climate extreme to another. You should really avoid taking your guitars out in ANY extreme. When you take your guitar out to the beach or camping you definitely risk damaging that guitar. Not just from the sand, dirt, humidity, etc., but from the heat or cold. TV shows, movies and popular culture tell us that it’s ok to do this… if you do, you’ll find yourself paying tons in guitar setup fees. Why did these extremes or environments ruin or “mess up” your guitar? It’s all because of heat and cold.

Heat and Cold

You guitar is very picky. Heat makes the wood in your guitar expand while cold makes your guitar contract. This causes havoc on the fret board and ruins notes when you play them. The notes will sound “twangy”, dull or not at all. Its IDEAL environment is 75 degrees with 50% humidity. It’s a good idea to keep a little desk or wall thermometer with humidity gauge in the same room with your guitars. If the humidity is greater than 60%, then keep your guitar out of the case and don’t use a humidifier. If you environments humidity is less than 40%, then treat your guitar every now and then to putting it in the case and using a humidifier on it when you’re not using it. Using a humidifier is key! It’s easier to fix a guitar that’s too humid than a guitar that’s too dry. If you live in a very dry place, especially in the summer you should definitely use a humidifier whenever you can. DON’T LET YOUR GUITAR DRY OUT – THE REPAIRS AT THE GUITAR SHOP ARE PRICEY TO TREAT THIS CONDITION! Please watch my guitar lessons for beginners video below for my explanation of proper guitar maintenance and how to avoid high guitar setup fees.

When it comes to temperature, always keep your guitars in a mild place with a baseline of 75 degrees. You’ll find that if you put them to close to the AC or bring them to close to the campfire that this will also “mess up” your fret board. Remember, consistency and controlled environments are key!

Taking it to the guitar shop

When you fall behind the eight ball and let your guitar dry out, have your guitar get too humid or ruin your fret board by bringing your guitar to the beach or campfire, you got to get it fixed at the guitar shop. They’ll perform a “guitar setup” usually. They’ll file down frets, make a truss rod adjustment, lube your and usually lube your fret board. I know these shops got to make their money but it’s like taking your car to the mechanic… why not avoiding it altogether? Let’s prevent high priced guitar setups by following my advice from this post.

Overall, Keep your guitar in a 75 degree 50% humidity environment, don’t fall behind with letting your guitar get too dry or too moist and if you have to bring your guitar to the beach or campfire… bring a crappy, “beater” guitar that you don’t really care about.

Let’s break it down…

Don’t spend $80-120 for a guitar setup or guitar repair, all you need is the following and you’ll steer clear of the shop…

Humidifier

Thermometer

Hard Guitar Case

Tags: guitar lessons for beginners, guitar maintenance, guitar repair, guitar setup