Just like your other home accessories, you do need to take care of your acoustic guitar. Keeping the guitar open in your room for a long time may damage your guitar. So, you should keep playing the guitar on a regular basis and at the same time follow some maintenance tips. 

Temperature and Humidity

Most beginners, after getting their guitar, don’t take into consideration weather change and may find rust on their string at the same time, damage to the body. It is always recommended to keep your guitar inside the room at room temperature, and not to keep it for a long time under direct sun. The humidification of guitar is important because too much dried out body will turn into more fragile. Again over-humidification will cause the wood to absorb more moisture in the wood, will cause the body to expand and you may find the string level getting high from the fret. Considering both conditions, keeping the guitar humidified(40%-60%) is recommended. 

For humidification of your guitar, you may find different types of humidifiers which are solely made for guitars. However for common purposes, the room humidifier is also a good choice to be used. In addition, if both do not suit you, you can also use a DIY technique for this humidification. Just take a piece of sponge, make it soaked in water. Take a small poly bag and keep the soaked sponge in it. Attach a fiber ribbon one corner inside the polly bag and another corner out. Then keep the polly bag inside the sound hole of your guitar. Keep it for an hour or two, it will help to humidify your guitar.

Guitar strings are the most expensive purchase you will do for your guitar as this accessory you need to change frequently. To reduce that expense, if you follow some tips might help you to keep your strings safe and damage free for a long time. First of all, always tune the guitar strings in the correct note, in some cases, it’s advised to keep tuning one note below. Over tensioning the string will definitely make it torn early. 

In different guitar stores you will find varieties of guitar string cleaner, which will allow you to make a layer over the string to keep it safe from being rusted and also from dirt. But, the string cleaner is not necessary all the time. If you keep the string clean after each time you play, you will not need that. In general, the sweat or dirt from your have causes to increase moisture over your string, which may turn into rust. So, keeping your hands clean can be a primary method to safeguard the string. After each time you play the guitar, wipe over the string with a dry towel to remove all moisture and dust. However, it is advised to change your guitar strings every after 3-4 months

Cleaning Your Guitar

You should always keep your guitar dust free. If you plan to take a break for few days from playing, you must put the guitar in case and keep it stored in dry place. Blowing aways the dust from the guitar two days a week can be in your routine. You may find some small corners of your guitar where you might be unable to reach with any clothes, for that you may need to open strings from the guitar and clean it. Guitar cleaning is most appropriate while you change the strings. So, once you change the strings, take some more time on cleaning your guitar every part, before fixing a new one. To clean the bridge and frets, use an unused toothbrush and clean it. Do to rub the toothbrush over strings, as it might damage your strings. So, its better to clean the bridge and frets while no strings attached. 

Dampening the cloth in water, and wiping the guitar is a suitable and easy method but you have to ensure wring the cloth out well before touching over the wooden parts of guitar. Once you wipe the guitar, you should not see any visible water droplets over it. You can  keep a separate microfibre cloth in your guitar case, so you have it handy to clean your guitar. Or maybe an old tshirt or cloth diaper will also work fine.

Adjusting Neck of Guitar

With the passage of time, you may find the neck alignment is disturbed, which generally occurs due to the tension of strings and is common almost for all guitars. Once you play the guitar, you may feel the string is way up from the fretboard and it is difficult to press on the string. So, to determine the correct fret alignment look down the bridge from headstock and you will find the strings distance from the fret is higher at the middle of neck, and compare the straight line of strings with the fret line. You may find there is a slight bend on the fret or it is not in a straight line from head to bridge of the neck. 

Anytime you counter such changes, you need to adjust the truss rod to fix it. In general, most guitars have the fixing method located just at the end of the neck inside the sound hole of the guitar. Use an allen key to adjust. Never ever do too much tighten of the truss rod. Turn the key clockwise if the neck is bent upward and vice versa. 

Lowering the Action

Sometimes, you may find the string is too much up from the fret which is uncomfortable to play. In general the distance of the string on the 12th fret should be 2.5-2.75mm. So, if you find it’s more than that, you may need to lower the action. Before making adjustments to your guitar’s action, ensure the neck is properly aligned and the strings are loosened to allow access to the bridge saddle. Many acoustic guitars feature a slender plastic saddle that attaches to the bridge. With the strings loosened, removing the saddle becomes easier.

If extracting the saddle proves challenging, use a pair of pliers cautiously to extract it. Place the saddle on a table, and mark a line upto which you want to reduce the height. It’s just reducing the thickness of the saddle. You can sand it by using a brush paper of wood to adjust the  saddle height. If you remain dissatisfied with the action, remove the saddle and delicately sand small areas until the desired action height is achieved. Precision is key here—you only need to remove a small amount to lower the action correctly. Sanding too much may result in unwanted rattling and buzzing in your guitar.

Storing Guitar Properly

Storing an acoustic guitar properly is as important as cleaning it. We sometimes neglect to keep the guitar safe in terms of storing when it is almost after 5-6 months getting the guitar. But, practically the older things require more care, right? 

As it is already mentioned, guitars should be stored at room temperature, and if you plan to take a break from playing guitar, it is advised to keep it inside the case. In addition, you must check all the nuts and screws are tightened enough otherwise it will affect the sound of your guitar. Overtime, you can get a small guitar toolkit which might help you for this type of maintenance. 

Play often

The key to keeping your guitar in top condition? Play it regularly! Frequent playing helps you develop a sense of your instrument’s needs. It’s much easier to address minor issues through routine care than to let them worsen and require repairs. So, the best advice we can give is this: grab your guitar and make some music!