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| Basic Instrument Care |
| First of all, the most important thing to have done when you purchase your guitar is to have it professionally setup. At this time, your guitar can be examined for any potential problems. Many new guitars have warped necks the day you buy them. Some have been taken out of the box and displayed without ever having been adjusted. A problem gutiar can be returned at this time as most stores give you some time to return it without a problem. A proper setup starts with adjusting the nut height, adjusting the neck with the truss rod and, finally, the saddle height and intonation. The setup varies depending on the player, whether they use a capo, whether they have a light or a heavy touch, and the gauge of strings used on the guitar.
Another important and little known aspects of instrument care is humidification. A guitar needs humidity, around 40% to stay healthy. Without the proper humidification, the neck will warp and shrink, and this will cause the fret ends to stick out. The easiest way to prevent this is to buy a humidifer from a local store and keep it humidified.
The number one cause of a warped neck is when a guitar is left in the heat for a long period of time, so one of the most important ways to care for your guitar is to keep it out of the heat! I am not refering to normal summer day playing in the park heat,I am refering to extreme heat such as in your parked car in the middle of summer.Touring musicians will often leave their instruments in the trailer in the summertime, the necks get hot, and under string tension, the neck develops a severe warp. A severely warped neck will never play properly again unless the neck is heat treated to remove the warp,then the guitar can be set up to play great!
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