How To Clean Guitar Strings ?

Everything can get dirty after using a certain period, and the guitar strings also get if you don’t clean it regularly. As we know, guitar strings are one of the most important parts of the guitar, so you need to protect and keep it clean to produce great sound and make it become the best electric guitar strings.

It very easy to remove the dirt from your guitar, there are some methods that I want to show you. I believe that it can help you lots in cleaning your best guitar.

1.What do you need?

2.Hints and warning

First of all, you can feel uncomfortable with the oil on the strings so you can use the towel. Folding the sheet in half and remove the oil from the string.

This method can fit with almost kind of guitars. However, with the bass guitar, you should clean each string individually because of the thickness of strings

You also have to note that if you use too much pressure on your strings when cleaning, your guitar may be out of your tune.

Do not use WD-40 because it is the cleaner, not the lubricant. It can ruin your guitar then you will have to spend a lot of money to repair it.

3.How to clean your guitar

Remove the dirt from your guitar strings

Step 1

You have to place it in the particular location where is convenient for you to clean it. Then you must choose a cleaning solution. I really like using the paper towel, but you also can choose the microfiber cloth or rag if you feel nice.

Some people prefer using the clean cotton diaper. Thus, you can see a number kind of paper product that can work well. You just need to make sure that it is clean, dry and soft.

You can spray the cleaner solution onto your towel first instead of applying it directly on the strings’ guitar. This way can prevent the excess cleaning solution from collecting and being difficult to remove.

You will need the non-dampened towel or the dampened with water if you want to clean the nylon strings.

In a case of cleaning the steel string, you must see a lot of guitar string cleaners such as Dunlop or ultra glide. However, you if you can not afford them with 70 to 90% rubbing alcohol, you should not use these products.

 Step 2

Make your towel or rag wet with water then cover the string with this rag. You can slide a half of the rag underneath the string then fold the remaining half or the cloth over. You see the whole cloth covers both sides of the string.

Step 3

In this step, you have to slide the folded cloth along the string and make sure that you cover all the way from the saddle are up to the nut of your guitar.

Besides, you should concentrate on the portions of string on the fingerboard where you almost tough many times. After that, you apply the downward pressure to clean the top portion and upward to clean the bottom portion. You have to remember that it is very important to clean both sides of your strings.

You can always retune your guitar, so you do not worry if the head gets lifted off its mount, or even the tuning pegs have a little messed up.

You can see that the string of your guitar can change the color a little bit or the towel comes away with the gray streak. It means that your work is very effective.

4.Lubricate your guitar strings

Step 1

In case, your strings are nylon; it is not necessary to lubricate because the nylon string is already corrosion resistant. However, you have to use some lubricant for the steel string to keep them away from getting sticky, corroded and dirty.

The acoustic and flamenco guitar focus on the classical and folk music, so it usually makes by nylon while electric or bass guitar are related to the blues, rock and country music, so it is always steel.

Step 2

Apply some lubricant onto the towel; you also can use the same towel which you used to clean your strings. Especially, you should use the lubricant without a petroleum base when treating your guitar because it can have penetrating properties that cause damage to your guitar strings over time.

You also can use some oils such as olive, baby or vaseline oil for the low price and friendly to the environment. Do not apply directly the lubricant to the strings because it will be easy to get excess grease on the fretboard that makes you get difficult to clean up it.

Step 3

Slide the towel across the string. Place and fold the towel as the way you did when you take off the grime from the guitar string. Then run the cloth from the bridge to the nut, apply pressure onto both sides of the string by your fingers. Finally, you must find it shine and oily that make you feel smooth to touch.

In conclusion , it is really simple for you to clean your guitar strings. You totally can do it by yourself after reading my page. I hope that it is useful for your music!