Guitar Care
Treat it like
it's borrowed.
Even when it's yours. A guitar is a wooden box held together by glue and forty-plus pounds of string tension — it is tougher than it looks and more fragile than you think, usually in the opposite places. Here is everything a first-time owner needs to know.
Start here
Three things kill guitars.
Playing isn't one of them.
Guitars don't wear out from being played — they die from how they're stored, carried and forgotten. Dodge these three and you have dodged nearly everything.
Heat
The glue holding a guitar together starts to let go at temperatures a parked Texas car reaches before lunch. Heat lifts bridges, warps necks and cracks finishes. A hot car is the single most common way guitars die in this state.
Gravity
Guitars don't break from playing — they break from falling. Leaned against a wall, balanced on a couch, left on the floor next to feet: every one of those is a countdown. The headstock is the most fragile part, and it hits the ground first.
Dry air
Wood shrinks as it dries. Dry it out enough and fret ends poke out of the neck, the top sinks, and eventually it cracks. Air-conditioned and heated indoor air both count — this one moves slowly, which is why nobody notices until it's done.
The one rule that outranks the others
Never leave it in the car.
On a Fort Worth summer day, a parked car's interior climbs past 130 °F within an hour — hot enough to soften glue joints and ruin a finish. Winter does slower damage: cold wood shocked by warm air develops fine cracks across the finish. If you carry it in a car, it rides in the cabin, never the trunk, and it comes inside when you do.
Coming in from extreme heat or cold? Leave it in its case at least half an hour — longer after real cold — so it warms or cools slowly. The case is the airlock.
Where it lives
Give it one safe spot.
Most guitar damage happens in the two feet between where it should have been and where somebody left it. Pick its home on day one.
Best: a stand or a wall hanger. A ten-dollar A-frame stand ends the leaning problem forever, and a guitar you can see is a guitar you practice. Keep the stand away from doorways, foot traffic and pets.
Also good: the case, latched. The case is the safest place a guitar can be — but only latched. An unlatched case picked up by the handle opens like a book and drops the guitar at your feet. Latch it every time, even for a minute.
If you absolutely must lean it: into a corner, on its side edge, strings facing the wall, where nothing and nobody moves. A guitar leaned face-out by the headstock is already falling — it just hasn't picked its moment.
Never: on a couch, on a bed, flat on the floor, or anywhere a roommate navigates in the dark. Furniture is where guitars go to get sat on.
Texas weather, indoors
The 40–60 rule.
Guitars are happiest between 40 and 60 percent relative humidity and at ordinary room temperature. North Texas swings both ways: summer air conditioning and winter heating each dry indoor air well below that range for months at a time.
- A digital hygrometer costs about ten dollars. Put one where the guitar lives.
- Below 40% for weeks? Use a soundhole or in-case humidifier — a few dollars, refill with distilled water.
- Solid-wood guitars feel the weather most; laminates are more forgiving. When in doubt, humidify.
- Warning signs of a dry guitar: sharp fret ends, a sunken top, buzzing that wasn't there before. Bring it to a meeting.
Routine upkeep
Two minutes a day
beats an hour a month.
Hands and strings
Wash your hands before you play. Skin oil, sweat and salt are what corrode strings — clean hands dramatically extend string life all by themselves.
Wipe the strings after you play. Ten seconds with a dry cloth under and over the strings, nut to bridge. This is the single highest-value habit in guitar maintenance.
Change strings when they tell you. Dull sound, rust spots, rough feel, or won't stay in tune — any of those means it's time. For a guitar played regularly, expect every one to three months. Change one string at a time and you'll never have to rebuild the setup.
Keep it in tune, even in storage. The neck is built to carry full string tension; it does not need to be "rested." Tune up to pitch, not down past it and back — approaching from below holds better.
Cleaning
A dry or barely damp microfiber cloth does 95% of the job. Body, back of the neck, headstock — that's the whole routine.
Never use household cleaners. Glass cleaner, furniture polish and disinfectant wipes all attack guitar finishes. If a product doesn't say "guitar" on it, it doesn't touch the guitar.
Fretboards need almost nothing. A wipe when you change strings. Dark unfinished boards (rosewood, ebony) can take a tiny amount of dedicated fretboard conditioner once or twice a year — never on glossy maple.
Leave the truss rod alone. That's the metal rod inside the neck, adjusted through a small cover or the soundhole. It is a five-minute job for someone who knows how and an expensive mistake for someone who doesn't. Bring setup questions to a meeting instead.
Moving it
The headstock goes first.
Doorways, ceiling fans, car doors, other people: the headstock finds all of them. Carry the guitar upright by the neck, watch the top of it like you'd watch the roof of a moving truck, and go through doors body-first.
In the car: cabin, seatbelt through the case handle if it's on a seat, never the trunk, never under other cargo. Walking across campus in rain? Even a soft gig bag beats bare — but get it out of the wet bag when you arrive, don't store it damp.
Plugged in
Electrics and amps.
Turn the amp volume to zero before you plug in or unplug — the pop you hear otherwise is the speaker taking damage. Pull cables out by the plug, never by the cord. Coil cables loosely; a tightly-wrapped cable is a broken cable on layaway.
Keep drinks off amps and away from pedals. Electronics and open cups have a long history and it ends the same way every time.
Borrowing a club guitar?
It's yours to play,
ours to keep alive.
The loaner guitars exist because Dr. Sean Madison and the campus administration put real money into students who hadn't played a note yet. Every borrowed guitar that comes back healthy is another beginner's first instrument. Everything on this page applies double.
Dinged it? Say so — straight away, no trouble. Damage reported early is usually a small repair; damage discovered late is usually a big one. Nobody has ever been in trouble for honesty here.
The loaner checklist
- It lives in its case or on a stand — never leaned, never on furniture.
- Never left in a car. Not for an hour, not in the shade.
- Wipe the strings after playing; wash hands before.
- No stickers, tape or adhesives on any surface.
- No DIY repairs or adjustments — bring it to a meeting instead.
- Comes back with everything it left with: case, strap, picks, cable.
- Questions or problems: tell an adviser at a meeting, or email us.
The whole page in ten lines
Always
- Case latched or on a stand
- Cabin of the car, and out when you get out
- Hands washed, strings wiped
- In tune, at pitch
- Problems reported early
Never
- In a parked car, any season
- Leaned face-out against a wall
- On couches, beds or floors
- Household cleaners on the finish
- Truss rod, by you