EXCUSE ME? Keep Your Guitar Happy In Hot & Humid S'pore TEXT BY IVAN LIM Jan 6 2024 
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If taking your guitar on board is not possible, store it in an airtight flight case with a humidifier and make sure the guitar fits snugly in its case without any movement within. STORING YOUR GUITAR
Store your guitar where the relative humidity is between 40 percent and 60 percent. Anything too low and your guitar could crack. Prolonged exposure to too much humidity could cause the guitar’s body and neck to warp. Get a hygrometer and leave it in your guitar case so you can monitor the RH in the case. You can get one here. I actually use two – one inside the case and one for the room the case is in, or where I play the instrument. Use silica gel to remove moisture in the guitar case and to regulate the RH in there. Use a dehumidifier in your room if necessary. Air-conditioning the room while you are playing could lower the humidity. TRAVELLING WITH A GUITAR When travelling with a guitar, it is best to have the guitar in the cabin, whether it is in a car or in an aeroplane. If taking your guitar on board is not possible, store it in an airtight flight case with a humidifier and make sure the guitar fits snugly in its case without any movement within. Stick sponges or cloth inside your guitar case if necessary. CLEANING YOUR GUITAR If your guitar has a French polish shellac finish, clean it by simply wiping it down with a microfibre cloth. Do not use any polish as the chemicals in those could react with the finish and damage it. You could use a guitar polish on polyurethane finishes, but usually, just wiping it should do the job. Wipe every part that you come into contact with. I usually have a second piece of cloth for this. MACHINE HEADS Those contraptions at the head of your guitar which you use to tune your strings could use a bit of machine oil from time to time. I usually use molybdenum grease which is recommended by Japanese luthier Masaki Sakurai but Singer machine oil works just as well. STRINGS Wipe down your strings when you’re done with your guitar to remove dirt and grime from them. I change my strings once a month but I know of guitarists who go through a set in just a week or two. You can keep them on for up to three months if they retain their resonance, but classical guitar strings generally lose their tension after three months. I usually have a set of “scrubbed” strings – strings that I use for a week so that they are settled, which I then wash with soap and water and store in the guitar case so that I have strings that are already broken in if one of those on my guitar should snap. Many luthiers recommend changing one string at a time so you retain the tension at the nut and bridge. But once a year, I remove all the strings so I can oil the fretboard with this. If something breaks on your guitar and you need to send it to an expert for repair, I would recommend you contact Ngoh Thiam Meng, a luthier in Singapore who does all kinds of work on damaged classical guitars. YOUR GUITAR WANTS TO SERVE YOU It is great to take good care of your guitar, but I have seen guitarists who are so afraid of hurting their guitars that they don’t even dare to play too loudly on their instruments. Now that is sad because your guitar likes it best when it is played. Go ahead and play it as loudly as you like and the tone of your guitar would actually improve. |
