Care & Maintenance – Guitars, Basses & Ukuleles
Your Haineswood Guitars, Basses and Kaila Ukuleles are skillfully built and will inherently last a lifetime! Material & component wear and tear are very marginal as we always strive to achieve superlative quality of these aspects. But a simple and regular ‘Care & Maintenance’ routine will set your instruments lasting for several decades without a hitch. Kindly familiarize the following Do’s & Don’ts!
- Always wash your hands and wipe them dry before playing your Guitar, Bass or Ukulele. Grease, dirt and sweat from your fingers will very quickly act on the strings and the body of the instrument and will drastically reduce its tone, appearance & health.
- Make sure you perform a thorough wipe on your instruments right after finished playing. Use only lint-free polishing clothes as other fabrics are likely to produce scratches on the finish. Use string cleaner solutions on your strings, if required.
- Always store your Guitars, Basses & Ukuleles in a good quality case/bag when not in use. This will ensure safety and also prevent possible dust accumulation on sensitive parts.
- Never expose your Guitars, Basses & Ukuleles to very drastic & quick temperature changes. Never leave them in a cold room or in a locked car for far too long.
- Try to maintain steady humidity at the storage room as much as possible. Do not store them in rooms which are very close to furnaces, fireplaces or cold storages.
- Periodic and regular cleaning of your Guitars, Basses or Ukuleles are very important. Cleaning keeps them glistening and fresh and will also lengthen the lifespan of your strings. Regular cleaning also helps your instruments’ metallic parts from tarnishing or aging too early. Only use good quality cleaning products on your priced instruments.
- Periodically maintaining your fretboard is of prime importance. Good quality fretboard cleaners, mineral oils & conditioners are available for this purpose. Do not use any other liquid on your fretboards than the ones made specifically for this task. (WARNING: Never use oil/ fretboard conditioner on fretboards made of Maple as it will stain the finish! All you need to do is to wipe it down with cleaning cloth with a tinge of polish)
- Regularly polish your instruments’ finish with a micro-fiber cloth. Always make sure to remove any dust or fingerprints before applying polish. (WARNING: Never use polish on a natural, matte or satin finished instrument)
- Dust, debris, sweat and carbon deposits are likely to accumulate in knobs and switches and cause noises over time. This can be easily rectified by rotating the knobs and switches to-and-fro till the noise is completely eliminated. You may use specialized cleaning solutions too for this purpose. If cleaning don’t help to kill the noises, check for loose input jacks or wires. You may tighten them yourself or in more complicated cases, contact your local music store technician. In either case, do not employ any sharp tools or objects.
- Change the strings as soon as they go bad and always try to change the entire set altogether.
