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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When I was young, the bars I played in were hot, we were sweaty (literally dripping with sweat), and there was cigarette smoke everywhere. Now, everywhere I play has LED lights (nothing is hot, I don't sweat), I'm always playing with clean, dry hands, and there is no smoke. How often you have to clean your bass depends on the situations you play it in - I used to clean my bass a LOT (I had to). Now, it's not much of an issue - when I change strings (which is a lot less often, as I'm not sweating all over them), I will give everything a once over.
 
I can't believe how filthy my basses get at shows/band practice, especially when it's really hot outside. we work up a sweat either way though. You poll needs a "before church" option
 
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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?
It depends...
- A used bass that came to me? At the very least, a good wipedown with dilute Simple Green (body and neck). If it was covered with shmutz and some other creature's DNA? Full strength Simple Green and a surgical scrub brush, until all that :poop: is gone. Then, a wipe down with a clean soft cloth...
- A bass that's been in my possession for a while? A wipe down with a clean, soft cloth after I've played it, is all that's necessary.
TBH, it's easy to keep a clean bass clean. After a while, it gets to be a habit, and takes less than a minute. I own basses that cost me several thousand dollars; if you think I'm going to let them get covered in crud, and ruined - thru sheer neglect? Think again, Bunky... :whistle:
 
I wipe down the strings, neck and body with a cotton polishing cloth every time I play; practice, gig, 10 minutes of noodling, doesn't matter, the basses get wiped down with that cloth. I also ALWAYS wash my hands well before playing for any real amount of time.

In terms of actually cleaning them, I only do that when I change strings. I'll polish the body (all my basses are poly), oil the fretboard on my rosewood or ebony boards, and clean the bridge and tuning keys. If they are particularly grimy or have an excessive amount of smudges/sweat residue after a gig, I'll do a quick polish on the body to remove that gunk. Otherwise they just get wiped down after playing and put back in the rack.
 
I've never even oiled the fretboard :cool:

It's played thousands of shows all over the world and never failed. It doesn't look dirty, weirdly enough. I'm sure a blacklight would reveal some horrors.
 
ME? Never. That's what music store techs do, when I take it in for a set-up and new strings every six months!

I will, however, use a cloth and wipe the strings off with a rag, to try and minimize the amount of oil build-up from my grubby fingers.
 
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