Echo Takes a Bath

I had to give Echo a bath for the first time one week ago for my second Guitar Lesson from Mr. dataDyne, 1 week ago, April the 9th. I was tired of the fingerprints and oil all over him. Plus, as I hang him up on my wall with a standard wall hanger, the head of the guitar gathers dust quite efficiently. See picture, below.



The fur-looking stuff is the neckstrap I was forced to make from a clothing line. Echo doesn't have a second strap holder.

I did a pretty intuitive cleaning. Got a cloth with some water and just a little bit of soap on it (because I don't know what soap does to guitars) and wiped him down, then got another soft cloth and dried him off, and washed any problem areas a second time. The head was particularly hard to clean, as there are still 1/8" pieces of string that haven't been cut sticking out of the winders.

The contours of the body are fun to clean. Up, down, up, down. Like I said, very simple process, just wipe down and dry off. Be careful not to get the fretwood very wet, it seems to soak up water and soapy water probably isn't good for wood. I then turned my efforts to the pickguard.

It's starting to get bubbles in it and get fogged. You see...

The plastic was still on it! So I proceeded to peel it off.

All done! Then I was ready to head to church and my guitar lesson. Echo's pickguard could finally breath. Today, I cleaned him a second time, minus the peeling off of the fogged pickguard cover. The pickguard looks great. I don't expect a lesson tonight, but I'll bring him anyways, just in case.




While it works fine to clean him with water and some soap and a towel, I think I really need to get an actual guitar cleaning system. I have my eyes on the Dunlop Formula 65 Guitar Polish Kit- it comes with cleaner and polisher solution and a wax. It's $13, plus shipping.

I also have both my eyes on this GHS Fast-Fret String Cleaner ($5), which has 6 grooves to clean all the strings and comes with cleaner. Seeing's how it comes with the string cleaning solution, the above-mentioned Formula 65 kit will work for me. If I wasn't buying the Fast-Fret string cleaner, I would get the System 65 Guitar Maintenance Kit which includes "string saver." Industry buzz-words, I'll tell ya.

They have many combinations of solutions and waxes. I will eventually need to buy a fretboard conditioner that isn't made for tables- maybe it would be better to just buy the $25 System 65 kit right off the bat and not worry about it. I'll consider that when I have time. So you know, this is the alternative to the System 65 kit: Fender Instrument Kit by Meguiar's.






Also on my list- something I need desperately- is a string winder/cutter. They're only $5, but necessary none-the-less.

Also, I want to check out the Dunlop Tortex picks, specifically the .88 and 1.0's. I started out with a pocketfull of .71's, but those are just too light. I love the .88's, and I want to see if I'll love the 1.0 even more. Mr. dataDyne says that he prefers the .88's, and that's why he gave me an .88 to try. It would probably be best to buy a pack of picks with all the gauges so I can get a feel for all of them.


On the subject of picks, I'm officially starting to wear down my second. The first one just got its surface smoothed so it was hard to grip...this second one is actually having wear from hitting the strings!