5 Cheap Tips To Improve Your Guitar

Here are 5 inexpensive tips to help you improve your guitar!

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[reallyreallyryan]

Awesome. Guitar Tech here:

ADVICE POST
Best tip there is? When buying tech gear, you can usually pickup a non 'luthier-specialised' tool that will do the job from Home Depot/ B&Q/Selco for less than a fifth of the price.

Luthier didn't create carpentry tools, or steel rules! Buy them from carpentry retailers!

Buy micro-mesh pads instead of steel wool/sandpaper for fingerboard/fretwire maintenance.

Use less Lem-oil than you think you need.


Want strings to last? Try coated. Clean down the strings on all sides after each session. Tentatively use a cloth with WD40 to slick them up for cheap. Stretch them more than you can emotionally take when you first restring. Every time you restring, clean the finger gunk from the fingerboard and crevices of the fretwire!

Improve playability? Polish the fretwires! Feels almost as drastic as new strings when done right.

Clunky machineheads? Take them apart, spray/dab with WD40!

Rusty hardware/screws? Soak in a tub of apple vinegar overnight, carefully scrub with an old toothbrush.

Sound sucks? Experiment with pickup height first! Then capacitors. Then new pups! Mike placement is everything, and that's what they are!

Noisy electronics? Compressed air to clean dust. Electrician's tape to cover over exposed wires. Purchase copper shielding tape to insulate all of the electronics cavities!

Grounding issue? Try clean solder. Suck at soldering? Buy solderless.

Truss rod stuck? Dab WD40 in with a q-tip/cotton bud, leave soak, repeat if necessary.

Polishing? Buy a microfiber pad for car polishing from Asda/Walmart for a buck/quid.


Over and out.

[lokboxx]

Hey fluff, wanna feel old? You've been playing guitar for longer than I've been alive, and I'm 20.

[stoneyvision]

An idea yes... CHANGE YOUR STRINGS MORE THAN ONCE A YEAR

[blessedjuggernaut]

I have a few tips of my own
1. Adjust string height on the bridge
2. Use a hard shell case as guitar work station
3. If your nut slots are too narrow for bigger strings make them wider with a finger nail file
4. Use car wax to get rid of surface scratches
5. Use head phones on your amp instead of playing electric unplugged if you don't wanna wake the neighbors
6. Use second hand carpet for acoustic panels if you can't afford them
7. Learn to wire an electric guitar and buy a soldering gun
8. Buy an audio recorder to remember riffs or songs you've created
9. Realize one of the biggest differences between cheap and expensive guitars is how well/long they stay in tune
10. Lastly buy a Stratocaster if it's your first or second guitar and customize it yourself

[jamescooper]

Very surprised that straplocks aren't on here. More of a performance piece but still an incredible bit of kit to prevent damage

[jerryx]

I found the nut sauce in my fathers guitar cabinet. I used it for other purposes. Thanks for showing me its real use now.

[markdancer]

Hey Fluff, when you're buying pencils for lubing nuts, you want the softest lead you can find (preferably a 9B) as they are almost pure graphite. Harder pencils have non-lubricating additives. It's likely you will have to buy from an art supplier to get the really soft leads.

[robertperez]

Polishing frets, and cleaning the fretboard is MAJOR, I've been using the same guitar cleaning kit that you use ever since I started playing, and it's only about 20 bucks, not much money to make a hell of a difference, as for the fret polishing, I use planet waves fret polishing system which is just a little polishing cloth like thing which is like 6 bucks, also buying a good set of saddles for guitars that have individual ones like Strats, Teles, ect. generally they're about 50ish bucks for a set

[bradreligion]

Check your pickup height! If you're not getting the tone you want, it can make a big difference. You may not even have to shell out the bucks for a new set.

[swissarmyknight]

Great list. I would add two things:
1. Learn to do your own setup (truss rod, intonation, pickup height, etc). Learning to do my own setup was the best idea ever. Once I got the pickup heights on my Epi Les Paul adjusted where I wanted them, got my intonation as close to perfect as it could get, and got my action just exactly where I wanted it, that guitar sounded and played better than I ever thought it could and it was all free.

2. Wash and dry your hands before you play or handle the guitar (got that from Tom Morello). It will keep your strings and neck clean. Also, don't neglect to change those crudded-up strings on the regular, because dirty strings murder your tone.

[BratislavMetulski]

Got a 300$ jackson warrior.
Put in:
SD Black Winter Pick Ups
Graph Tech nut
Schaller locking Tuners
Schaller roller bridge

All together guitar worth is 800$ but man.... beast

[Straightedge]

more tips please!! love these but i already knew a few. so please keep going with tips to improve guitars!

[yaniamamoto]

Shielding. I did in my guitar and now it sounds Perfect. And it's cheap. The coper tipe That I Used is 3 dollars a meter.

[makainwiginton]

Thank you so much Fluff! Probably the most useful and to the point video ive seen on this topic.

[lorez]

This is great man. Super useful. Thanks

[cabbycabby]

A lot of folks attribute an improperly cut nut(like you hit on) to tuners being shitty. If you're spending $500 bucks on a guitar your tuners are probably just fine. Get that nut set up and filed properly.

[EastKoastGhost]

I Picked up a DiMarzio Tone Zone and a DiMarzio Steve's Special for $40 each on Ebay. They are in perfect shape. There are a lot of great deals to be had. Good advice Fluff.

[johncenakiwi]

The Scotch Brite Tip has worked like a charm! Thanks Fluff

[brendanjones]

In terms of pickups, the stock Fender Blacktop humbuckers are beautiful pickups and you can get them cheap on reverb often pre-wired in a a pickguard.

[kingmafw]

Some great tips Fluff. I dig it and you should make another one.