2. Knowing Your Guitar Neck Body HeadBridge Frets Tuner PegsNut Jack Volume/Tune Knobs Waist Pick guard Pickups

3. What case should I use? Use a soft case that fits the guitar comfortably to make sure that the guitar does not move around too much in the case. Hard cases are more for electric guitars because they do not let water in which would be a disaster for the guitars’ health. Soft Case Hard Case

4. How To Keep Your Guitar Clean Your guitar will get dusty from time to time so you will need to give it a clean with a damp hand cloth. Do this every week or so. Make sure to clean all areas of the guitar, i.e under the neck and under the strings. Eventually, you will also get other things on your guitar like dirt etc. so you need to also clean that by using the same method. Use!

5. Strings? Strings will not last forever on your guitar and they will need to be replaced as they will eventually ware or even snap. Putting strings back on is quite difficult, buy new strings or get a professional to put them back on. Do NOT wait for the strings to snap to replace them. You should know when to replace them. 1. When they do not sound like they should (make sure they are not just un-tuned). 2. When they are starting to wear down, i.e. starting to get thinner. 3. When the strings have gone slightly out of place.

6. How To Change The Strings On your Guitar This tutorial is for acoustic guitars and not electric guitars so do not read/follow these instructions if you need to change the strings of your electric guitar.

7. Step 1. The Tools 1. You will need 3 tools. A pair of wire cutters, pliers, and a peg winder 2. Make sure that you have the correct string for your guitar. i.e. The right string thickness

8. Step 2. Removing The Broken String 1. Firstly, make sure that your guitar is on a soft, flat surface. Then, unwind the broken string from the tuning peg 2. Secondly, follow the broken string from the top of the neck to the bottom (at the bridge). Next, Pull out the peg that holds down the broken string 3. Once you have pulled this peg out, the whole string should come off

9. Step 3. Fixing On The New String Put the broken string in a safe place Next, take your new non-broken string and place it across the neck Then, with the peg winder, wind on the top of the string to the correct tuner peg Finally, with the peg that you pulled out of the bridge, use that to fix on the other end of the string to the bridge

10. How To Tune Your Guitar Is your guitar sounding odd? It is most likely because your guitar has gone out of tune. You have not done anything wrong as this happens to everyone. It is caused just by playing your guitar and it happens to acoustic and electric guitars. To tune your guitar, you can use a guitar tuner which you put on the head of the guitar. Optionally, you can tune your guitar by ear. To help you with this, grab a guitar that is in tune and pluck a string on that guitar, for example, the ‘D’ string and then by using that sound, tune your out of tune guitar by tuning the ‘D’ string first. This is what a guitar tuner looks like.

11. Where To Keep your Guitar Treat your guitar with care. Treat guitars how you would treat guitars at the store, or maybe your other valuable possessions. Never lay it down on the ground when you are not playing it or doing maintenance on it. The best place for your guitar is inside it's own fitted case or something that will hold it properly. You can choose between a hard case, or a gig bag, or hang it on a wall hanger or stand it up on a floor stand. Also, never expose your instrument to excessive heat or cold for prolonged periods of time. Heat and sunlight can cause premature finish checking, and can make the finely crafted woods in your guitar look old and faded almost overnight. Cold weather might not affect the finish so much, but it can cause damage to binding, inlays and the neck, often requiring unnecessary work with the truss rod. Guitars need a cool, dry environment, so try to keep your guitar in that type of setting.

12. Guitar Straps Having a guitar strap is essential when playing your guitar whilst standing up (especially if you play your guitar while standing up often) as it keeps your guitar around your shoulder and prevents the guitar from falling. Even if you only play your guitar while sitting down, it is still a good idea to get a guitar strap, just incase you drop it whilst sitting down. This is what a guitar strap looks like -

13. Guitar Strap Locks This is what a guitar strap lock looks like. Guitar strap locks are used to prevent the guitar strap from slipping out of the strap holders. You should buy a pair of strap locks for your guitar as they are only a couple of pound and could save your guitar from unexpectedly falling onto the ground and being damaged.

14. Don’t Get Electrocuted! ALWAYS make sure that when you plug your guitar into an amp, all of the electrical cables are securely in the amp and the guitar. Because worst comes to worst, you could get electrocuted, so this is a vital step for not just looking after your guitar but looking after yourself too whilst you play your guitar. Make sure that the guitar lead is securely in the amp!

15. Guitar Stands A guitar stand is a great way to position your guitar when you are not playing but you are going to play it in a short amount of time. This helps to not put your guitar in it’s case every time you are not playing it. Never lay your guitar on a flat surface as something could fall onto it and damage the guitar, or even worse (if it’s an electric guitar) a drink falls onto it and causes an electric shock. This is what a guitar stand looks like -

16. Truss Rod The truss rod is a long rod inside the neck of the guitar used to stabilize and adjust the lengthwise forward curvature of the. It should be taken care of seriously as without it, the neck would snap. Taking care of the truss rod is essential to caring for your guitar This is a diagram of where the truss rod is in the guitar:

17. Safety On Stage When you are playing your guitar to an audience by yourself or with others (in a band), you should make sure that all of your equipment is not near the edge of the stage or near any liquids. If your equipment is too far to the edge of the stage, it may fall over and hurt someone in the audience and damage the equipment. So, when you are performing on stage, all of your equipment should be in a safe place.

18. Look After Yourself Don’t turn the volume up on your guitar too much as it can damage your ears. Turn up/down the volume to a volume that is comfortable to listen too. Also, if the volume is too high on your amp, it may damage the amp or your guitar. You’re fingers may start to hurt or get blisters if you practice too much. Remember to take frequent breaks when playing you’re guitar for long periods of time. This Not this

19. Most Importantly… Play your guitar often. Have fun playing it!

20. Look After Your Instrument!