How to Clean the Guitar Before Re-Stringing

When you've taken the strings off of your guitar, it's a prime time to clean up before re-stringing. There are areas of the guitar where dust and dirt build up that are hard to clean when the strings are on. Take advantage of re-stringing to give your guitar a good spring cleaning.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Soft cloth

1. Get a soft, non-abrasive cloth. A lot of good cleaning can be done with just a dry piece of cotton or other material.
2. Go simple with cleaning solutions. You may want to dampen the cloth a little, but not too much: excessive water could harm your finish. Also stay away from caustic home cleaners. You're mainly dusting, so keep chemicals to a minimum.
3. Wipe off the area between the sound hole and the bridge where dust really builds up under the strings.
4. Clean off the headstock, carefully cleaning around the winding pegs.
5. Do some in-depth cleaning around the sides of the bridge. These tiny lip areas can collect a lot of dust and dirt. Take an edge of the cloth and really get into these small areas.
6. Clean your fretboard. Another place to focus attention is the space just beside each fret, dust and dirt can build up there as well. With the strings off, you can really apply some elbow grease to the fretboard and get it looking nice.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose the best string types for re-stringing. The strings that were on your old guitar may not be the optimal type. Take a look at guitar string type guides online to see what kind of strings would sound best, or experiment with different types to see what you yourself prefer.