Tele Tuesday

Started early today as well. This is my fav Tele (in the mean time). One pickup, 21 frets - go!

But not before a quick re-string. Ernie Ball - not my preferred strings but this is what I have in the mean time; better than playing corroded strings.

Managed to insert felts for the strap buttons; one of them already fused with the finish. Darn 😕

I still wipe my strings down after each play despite whatever conspiracy theory suggesting the expendability of strings. Screw that.

Wipes

For those of us who actually bothered to set aside some money for our instrument's TLC, these wipes might be of interest. However. I'm the type who believes in drying everything up once some moisture or fluid is introduced to the instrument. The video clip below demonstrates how these were put to use. Note how the strings were cleaned- just merely wiping the top surface- FAIL. If you wish to clean your guitar strings, do it one by one. Pinch each string & move the cloth along at least twice. There's this belief that dirt & sweat do not settle themselves under the strings. Dirt & sweat settle on fretboards as well, these get transferred to the strings under side. Do take note.

Kyser: String cleaner

The Kyser brand name was the first string cleaner I tried (that was like more than a decade ago...). I still remember that strong camphor odour, very similar to our Axe Oil. It was a put off & the very fact that an elderly in my residence mistook it for medication so it was promptly discarded. The manufacturer revised the formula along the way & what we have today, the KDS 100 version, is an improvement in terms of odour (almost odourless) & feel (less oily). Regardless of these changes, the fluid picks up dirt well. This should be the foremost consideration & I give it a thumbs-up.

Accelerate cleaning & preservation

I've just coated a fresh set of strings in one of my guitars with PW's XLR8 formula (got mine from TYMC) . It's an alternative to GHS' Fast Fret which I don't fancy. The XLR8 it's NOT wax-based so that's the sheer attraction for me. As soon as you apply, it'll dry up after a few minutes. 

This is how you apply the XLR8- simple & it's not bulky either. I'll have a performance update in time to come. Please +1 this post if you've tried the XLR8 (never mind if you don't fancy its performance)- thanks in advance.

Have a great Monday, everyone :-) (well, try your best...).

The Roto grime buster

This, in my opinion, is a neat contraption; Rotosound's string-cleaning clamp. All we need to do is place our instrument strings between the lid & the base plate, move it across the fretboard & WALLAH! Clean strings.

The base plate also doubles up as a fretboard cleaner so no worries about scratch issues, no? Conflicting information online, to be confirmed.

I feel good playing with clean strings, not necessarily fresh but CLEAN. I deem this important because it affects feel & performance. Psychologically, we tend to give off our best when not worrying about dirt under our fingers during play.