In my pursuit to find out how those few guitarist get that top 5 percent edge I stumbled upon this. Have you ever had a guitar that you bought or inherited that sounded AMAZING but over time just does not sound the same as when you first bought it? This is completely normal. As a matter of fact there is an easy fix. All your guitar needs is a little fine tuning. Think of it this way. When someone has a piano every so often they have to get the piano tuned. If you do not it does not sound very good. The guitar is the same way. This process scares a lot of people but truthfully it is rather simple. If you do not want to invest in the tools, which can be a little expensive, all you have to do is take it to a Luthier. If you do not know what a Luthier is it is simply a person who can fix and tweak guitars. He is a professional. Much like a doctor but just for guitars. I would not recommend getting this done at at a business that is a major chain but someone who specifically deals with this kind of stuff unless its like one of the big guitar makers like taylor, martin, sweetwater etc….. It is very easy to get cheated. Once you find someone you can trust ask them to “set up your guitar”. Some might call it a”Standard Neck Setup” or a “Full Neck Set Up. It just depends on who you are talking to. If someone does not know what this is you do not want them working on your guitar Haha! What this does is it gets the intonation of your guitar back. It will sound like you when you first bought it. To keep that edge I am a personal believer you need it every two to three months but I can’t afford that. What many recommend is every six months. I normally do it once a year or right before I have a studio secession. You will not believe how much this helps!!!! You might be thinking why every two months Joe that is CRAZY. Well if you live in Texas you understand how often the weather can change like 90 degrees Fahrenheit to 40 degrees haha! Well…. it can feel like that sometimes here but you get my point. We have a saying her in Texas. If you do not like the weather just wait 5 minutes. Haha! It just depends where you live. I grew up in Brazil playing guitar. We were never worried about keeping our guitars wet. We got sooo much humidity we were trying to keep our guitars dry. haha! Different world.
Humidity is a really important factor. However, to be honest it is something that is really needed for older guitars. If you are O.C.D. about it you can do it every now and then and you will be totally fine. It is like giving your guitar a drink of water. You can do something as simple as putting a damp sponge in your case. Polishing your guitar, keeping your strings clean is also important. You can buy some stuff to clean your strings but just taking a rag and whipping it across your strings when you are done playing works GREAT! It makes your strings last so much longer The only time I really polish my guitar is when I take it to get set up. They will do it for me charging the same with or without it. To get your guitar set up it will cost around 50 dollars plus the cost of the strings you want. It is not that bad but if you have a lot of guitars it gets to be a problem. Here below is a list of products that I enjoy to use.
Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze Medium Gauge
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