1.
We often wonder how guitarists rock both the stage and audience but little think about their tedious daily practice and almost NEVER think of how they maintain their gears.
Back in 2004 I started playing guitar and senior guitarists advised me ‘don’t mess up with the standard tune and the bridge else your beloved gonna be transformed into a brick piece.’
Since then, like our 90s lab techies (in Bangladeshi context who believed if you touch a computer with dirty hands it will be affected by viruses and malwares), this was my invisible rigorous imprisonment to break the boundary of unearthing why my tonal quality is so dull, buzzy and full of dead notes. At one stage I myself lost confidence believing that my hands are not for creating good music.
In 2015-16 during a practice session with my friend Shohan Hossain, a prodigy popularly introduces himself Pishach, I was enlightened.
My old, cheap Signature 265 Topaz (2004 edition bought at BDT 2500) had some severe issues as I abandoned it for more than six years, Yes literally I gave up playing guitar while my wife and this guy Shohan made me picking up guitar again,
The guitar sounded dull, low, full of buzzes (that I used to thought being produced by my ‘problematic’ fingers), detuned and dusty.
He simply picked up a piece of cloth and my toolbox that I use to maintain my PCs and electronic devices. After an hour of arcane alchemical processes my dead guitar reincarnated with crystal clear tones. It was such a black magic !!!!
2.
Mastering the art of playing guitar a must while learning at least some basic concepts (coming with my list of basic concepts a bit later) are inevitable, in my opinion.
I’m not recommending to become someone like Rafique Bhai, the greatest guitar hacker we know from our childhood.
But knowing some basic maintenance would help a player improving tonal quality, stable tuning and above all more control over the guitar.
The basic concepts according to my experience are:
1. Screws under tuning keys
2. Bridge
3. Strings.
4. Body and fretboard wood
5. Frets
**A hardcore acoustic player am I. So most of the times the
effects I create by hands and/or using props. So my areas of maintaining mainly circles around the five points. Sometimes use little software effects when it’s a must.
My findings:
Well while Shohan was conducting his alchemical treatment on my ‘dead’ guitar, I was observing the process.
First of all the guitar had unstable tuning. The screws that stick tuning keys stuck to the head became loose after course of time.
On the other hand string height from fret was too low
that caused continuous buzzing sound on upper frets.
When he tightened the loose screws, re-oiled tuning keys with an injection syringe, and realigned the bridge with a screw driver, along with a set of new medium gauge strings- the effect was in a word magical. The cheap guitar revived with crystal clear tones and deeper, sustaining bass notes almost like that of concert level guitars !!!!
Conclusion:
So far this was my little experience with guitar maintenance. Last week I had to fix some issues with my old guitar with some new problems to be fixed later.
However, here are some tips to keep your guitar ever young-
1. Clean it up regularly with a piece of soft, dry cloth
2. Keep the guitar in a cover.
3. Re-oil tuning keys
4. Check for wood-borers on guitar body and take immediate protection if found.
And above all PLAY IT REGULARLY, do not give up.
Faquir Foysol
24 February, 2018 (Saturday)
We often wonder how guitarists rock both the stage and audience but little think about their tedious daily practice and almost NEVER think of how they maintain their gears.
Back in 2004 I started playing guitar and senior guitarists advised me ‘don’t mess up with the standard tune and the bridge else your beloved gonna be transformed into a brick piece.’
Since then, like our 90s lab techies (in Bangladeshi context who believed if you touch a computer with dirty hands it will be affected by viruses and malwares), this was my invisible rigorous imprisonment to break the boundary of unearthing why my tonal quality is so dull, buzzy and full of dead notes. At one stage I myself lost confidence believing that my hands are not for creating good music.
In 2015-16 during a practice session with my friend Shohan Hossain, a prodigy popularly introduces himself Pishach, I was enlightened.
My old, cheap Signature 265 Topaz (2004 edition bought at BDT 2500) had some severe issues as I abandoned it for more than six years, Yes literally I gave up playing guitar while my wife and this guy Shohan made me picking up guitar again,
The guitar sounded dull, low, full of buzzes (that I used to thought being produced by my ‘problematic’ fingers), detuned and dusty.
He simply picked up a piece of cloth and my toolbox that I use to maintain my PCs and electronic devices. After an hour of arcane alchemical processes my dead guitar reincarnated with crystal clear tones. It was such a black magic !!!!
2.
Mastering the art of playing guitar a must while learning at least some basic concepts (coming with my list of basic concepts a bit later) are inevitable, in my opinion.
I’m not recommending to become someone like Rafique Bhai, the greatest guitar hacker we know from our childhood.
But knowing some basic maintenance would help a player improving tonal quality, stable tuning and above all more control over the guitar.
The basic concepts according to my experience are:
1. Screws under tuning keys
2. Bridge
3. Strings.
4. Body and fretboard wood
5. Frets
**A hardcore acoustic player am I. So most of the times the
effects I create by hands and/or using props. So my areas of maintaining mainly circles around the five points. Sometimes use little software effects when it’s a must.
My findings:
Well while Shohan was conducting his alchemical treatment on my ‘dead’ guitar, I was observing the process.
First of all the guitar had unstable tuning. The screws that stick tuning keys stuck to the head became loose after course of time.
On the other hand string height from fret was too low
that caused continuous buzzing sound on upper frets.
When he tightened the loose screws, re-oiled tuning keys with an injection syringe, and realigned the bridge with a screw driver, along with a set of new medium gauge strings- the effect was in a word magical. The cheap guitar revived with crystal clear tones and deeper, sustaining bass notes almost like that of concert level guitars !!!!
Conclusion:
So far this was my little experience with guitar maintenance. Last week I had to fix some issues with my old guitar with some new problems to be fixed later.
However, here are some tips to keep your guitar ever young-
1. Clean it up regularly with a piece of soft, dry cloth
2. Keep the guitar in a cover.
3. Re-oil tuning keys
4. Check for wood-borers on guitar body and take immediate protection if found.
And above all PLAY IT REGULARLY, do not give up.
Faquir Foysol
24 February, 2018 (Saturday)
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