How To Clean a Guitar – The Ultimate Guide

Keep Your Guitar In The Case

It feels great to show off your prized collection of Axes. However, the major downside of leaving your guitars out is that dust will easily accumulate on them. Dust isn’t necessarily as big of an issue as sweat, but it can build up in the crevices of your guitar and affect its electronics and their functionality over time.

You know that crackling noise you’ve heard when moving your guitar’s pickup selector or volume pot? Nine times out of ten, dust is causing that. This can be fairly easily resolved by removing the cavity plate on the back of your guitar and blowing the dust out. But if you own a Strat or a similar guitar where the electronics are attached to a scratchplate  — this is more of a headache.

So, putting your guitar back in its case (whether a hardcase or gig bag) is recommended. It will keep your guitar mostly dust-free and will ensure that it stays reliable and crackle-free.

Recommended Guitar Cases & Gig Bags

How To Prepare Your Guitar For Cleaning

1 – Setup

Ensure your hands are clean and find a stable surface to lay your guitar down on. Resting it on a neck cradle, soft cloth or guitar mat will help protect your finish. I’d highly recommend cleaning it in a well-lit space too so that you can easily spot all of the imperfections that require the most attention. Now you’re ready to get started!

Recommended Guitar Setup Products

2 – Remove Your Strings

Do you need to remove your strings to clean your guitar? Technically no, but removing the strings first makes the process a lot easier and lets you clean more thoroughly. You can do a quick clean every now and again without removing the strings, but as a general rule, it works best to schedule your clean for when a string change is needed.

Electric Guitar Strings

3 – How To Clean a Guitar Fretboard

This is probably the most important part of your guitar to clean frequently. The fretboard is the part of your guitar that gets subjected to the most wear and punishment, and excessive build-up of sweat and dust can cause permanent damage if you’re not careful.

The process is different for different types of fretboard wood, so make sure you’re following the right guide for your wood type. Below, we’ve detailed how to clean the most popular fretboard woods that you’ll find on most guitars.

Rosewood, Ebony & Pau Ferro Fretboards

Jim Dunlop make a number of products that are perfect for cleaning Rosewood/Ebony fretboards. But if you’ve been super lazy and a lot of gunk has built up, then steel wool might be essential to use. If you do, then make sure to only use 0000 steel wool. It’s fine steel fibres will remove any unwanted dirt without causing damage or wear to the frets. In fact, it will even polish them to an extent!

Before you use steel wool, make sure that you cover your guitar’s pickups with masking tape to prevent the small metal particles from sticking to their magnets. Once you’ve done that, put on some latex gloves and gently rub the wool into the fingerboard making a circular movement for ultimate effectiveness. After you’ve completed this, wipe or hoover away any debris and make sure the surface is clear.

Now you can move on to conditioning the fretboard, which rehydrates the wood and deeply cleanses it to look just like new. Products such as Jim Dunlop’s Guitar Fingerboard Kit or Lemon Oil are perfect for cleaning and conditioning. You can apply this with a damp cloth or toothbrush or combine this with the previous step and rub it onto the board with steel wool. However, be generous with the amount that you use. What you don’t want to do is completely drown the fretboard, as it will potentially cause it to warp. A little goes a long way!

It’s important to remember to only use products that are specifically designed for guitar fretboards – standard household soaps, detergents, oils or other cleaners can permanently damage your fretboard’s wood and finish!

Recommended Fretboard Cleaner Products

Maple Fretboards

Maple fingerboards are more susceptible to showing dirt and marks than Rosewood or Ebony boards, due to their lighter wood tone. Also, conditioner products cannot be used on Maple. So, what is the best way to clean a Maple board?

One of the best methods to clean an unfinished Maple fretboard is to use ultra-fine 0000 steel wool. This removes dirt without causing damage to the frets. A slightly damp cloth can also be used, especially on satin-finished maple, but generally avoid using anything other than this.

A Maple fingerboard that has been lacquered should be cleaned only with a damp (or dry) cloth. Using steel wool will take away the shine and leave a matte-like finish, while lemon oil will dull the finish and similarly take away the sheen. Strictly use a dry or lightly dampened cloth. You could even use a little bit of Jim Dunlop Formula 65 Guitar Polish if the lacquer is very thick.

4 – How To Clean a Guitar Body

It’s unavoidable for the body of your guitar to build-up some marks and grease over time, no matter how careful you are. Luckily for you, the body is easier and less intimidating to clean than the fretboard. However, the finish of your guitar’s body must be considered too. So, make sure to be aware of what type of finish it has before you go ahead and clean it.

For all of the finishes below, make sure to use a soft cloth when wiping down the body. The Jim Dunlop Polish Cloth is a great lightweight cotton cloth that you can easily store in your guitar case or gig bag.

Gloss & Poly-Finished Guitars

The majority of mass-produced guitars are finished in either a polyester or polyurethane finish, which gives a glossy protective layer to your instrument. This makes it the easiest finish to clean as it doesn’t leave the wood porous or absorbent. You can therefore use a variety of polishes or waxes to give your guitar a look worthy of being in a showroom.

The industry-standard Jim Dunlop Formula 65 Guitar Polish is a great cleaner that you can use to wipe away any dried sweat or grease. It’s best to avoid spraying it directly onto the guitar, so just spray a couple of times onto a cloth and then wipe down the guitar.

You can finish it off with some Jim Dunlop Platinum 65 Spray Wax for a professional “good-as-new” aesthetic if you want to. The great thing with the wax is that it provides a grime-resistant protective barrier for some time, meaning that your instrument will stay clean for longer.

Remember to avoid using lemon oil or typical household cleaning products on guitars, as they contain substances that will dull and degrade the finish. It’s almost always best to stick with specialist products when dealing with your pride and joy, so check out our full range of maintenance and cleaning products.

Recommended Guitar Cleaner Products

Matte & Satin-Finished Guitars

A matte guitar finish should only ever be cleaned with a dry cloth. If you have ever owned a matte-finished guitar, you’ll know that over time the finish will wear down and shiny spots may start to develop where your hands have made the most contact with the instrument (such as above the bridge where your picking hand rests). This means that using a polish or wax will only exacerbate the problem, so it’s best to wipe a dry cloth very gently onto the guitar’s surface and to avoid cleaning solutions.

Satin-finished guitars offer more of a semi-gloss look, but have a similarly smooth feel like matte-finished instruments. Regarding cleaning guitars with a satin finish, the same process applies and only a dry cloth should be used. A slightly dampened cloth would also be okay if a really thorough clean is necessary.

Nitrocellulose-Finished Guitars

Nitrocellulose-finished guitars are more uncommon these days, however Gibson and Fender use this old-school finish on many of their high-end models. A nitro finish is considered to be more “breathable” for the wood, as it leaves it slightly porous and open on the surface.

This finish wears easily over time, and generally you should try and avoid using strong polishes to clean it. If you really need to, dampen a cloth with some water but make sure that it is fully wrung out beforehand.

Recommended Guitar Polish Cloths

5 – How To Clean Guitar Hardware

Cleaning the hardware on your guitar is something you also have to be fairly careful with. Metals are prone to corrosion, and the salts in sweat and skin oils can cause rust to develop over time.

The most susceptible pieces of hardware on your guitar are the bridge, pickups and frets. Most guitarists rest their picking hand on the bridge, so dried sweat can develop on the saddles. The same applies with pickups that have open coils, and rust can start appearing if you don’t pay attention to these areas.

It’s best to clean hardware with a soft cloth using only a very light amount of guitar polish. The polish can help to remove any dirt, while the soft fibres in the cloth will bring the shine back. Just make sure to leave no polish residue on the hardware, as this could corrode the metal slightly. Hard to reach areas (like between string saddles on a tune-o-matic bridge) can be cleaned using a cotton bud — great for removing dust.

If the hardware on your guitar is very badly affected by corrosion or rust, then it might be best to remove those components and give them a more intense clean. WD-40 can be used to tackle thick grime and rust, applied using a toothbrush. If you do use this, then make sure that the pieces of hardware that you’re cleaning have been removed from the guitar first. Getting this substance on the instrument could ultimately damage its finish.

How To Clean An Acoustic Guitar

For the most part, cleaning an acoustic guitar is no different to cleaning an electric. You’re unlikely to find acoustic guitars with Maple fretboards – the majority of them will feature either Rosewood or Ebony boards like their electric counterparts. This means that lemon oil will suffice; not only cleaning the material but rehydrating it too — giving it a new lease of life!

Acoustic guitars can also be finished in protective polyester or polyurethane finishes too, but unlike electric guitars, you’ll mostly come across natural or satin-finished acoustics. A lot of modern acoustics will have this finish as it’s more porous, which lets the wood breathe. Tone-conscious acoustic aficionados believe that this results in a more resonant and open sound. Therefore, you should apply the same rules that I mentioned above for cleaning matte and satin-finished instruments. Generally, employ only a dry cloth and a little bit of water if you have to to remove stubborn marks. Job done!

Conclusion

A clean guitar simply looks and feels better than a dirty, grubby instrument and it will therefore inspire you to play it more often. Plus, a clean guitar sounds and plays better! Dirty strings or a grimy fretboard can dull your tone, and make your guitar feel harder to play. Keeping everything shiny and free from dirt gives you the best sound, responsiveness and overall playability.

If you want your guitar to last and keep playing as it should, it’s necessary to clean it properly. Remember this: look after your guitar, and your guitar will look after you!

Recommended Guitar Cleaning Kits

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