Cleaning your bass

How often do you clean your bass

  • Never

  • Once a year

  • After every gig

  • After every practice

  • Every time I play

  • Every day (I have OCD)


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Feb 18, 2024
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I saw something recently about cleaning one's bass. It had honestly never really occurred to me that this would be necessary. Tbf I've only played 3 gigs since I started playing again and taking more of a  proper interest. Generally practice every week.

what do you use to clean your bass(es), and how thorough?
 
Historically, pretty much after every gig, although, I'm much more more lax these days.

When I was younger and gigging regularly, my hands sweated a lot more (not as much these days ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ), and I liked BRIGHT strings back then.
So yeah, I'd always give it a quick wipe-down before it went in its case at the end of the night and take it back out in the morning to let everything "air out"
(remember those days?) and I'd go over it with Martin's Guitar Polish to get rid of the sweat and smoke residue.

Also, I got my '67 J in '83, and even back then, I understood what I had, so I was pretty meticulous about it.
(and because of that, it looks pretty good these days considering it was my #1 work-horse for almost 20 years.)
 
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I only clean a bass when I first buy it. Oil the fretboard, wipe it down, remove stickers, etc

Or when I sell it.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone to check out a used bass on Craigslist or FB and the thing is absolutely disgusting. I can handle my own funk but I don't expect potential buyers to. At least take a few minutes and get the obvious dust and grime off.
 
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Not often enough.

IMG_3178.jpeg
 
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