Care and Maintenance

The Magneto instruments are handmade by highly skilled luthiers with much love and respect of the tradition. We exclusively use the highest quality woods and parts. Proper care and service of this instrument will provide you with a lifetime of playing enjoyment. Please take a few moments to read through this page. In it, you will find answers to many of your questions and other information about care and maintenance for your Magneto guitar.

General Maintenance

We recommend to clean the instrument with a dry cloth after longer use such as concerts or rehearsals. Use a 100% cotton cloth (like an old old T-Shirt) or a 100% cotton flanel. If there is dirt from sweat (or beer!). the best for cleaning the instrument's body and neck is to use a damped cloth (can be damped in soap-water if necessary). Do avoid the use of automotive polish or any chemical or solvent based cleaner as it can seriously harm your finish.

We also recommend to clean the strings with a separate & dedicated cloth, this will extend the life of your strings and there will be less chance for dirt to build up on your fingerboard, along the edges and between the frets.

The fingerboards generally have no finish, and we recommend to keep them clean as dirt can slowly hurt the woods causing the frets to work loose. As a rule of thumb, a dirty fingerboard cannot produce clean music!

We recommend to clean and nourrish fingerboards with lemon Oil once every 6 months or 3 times a year,

(please, only proceed to the following if you feel confident enough with setting neck tension and such):

- First loosen all strings, then release the tension of your truss rod (to compensate for missing string tension)

- Keep the string on the instrument but away from the fingerboard

- Cover the pickup area with tape

- Apply a few drops of oil with a cloth so the fingerboard's surface is slightly wet and wipe off the excess after a few seconds. We recommend to wait about an hour before restringing.

For heavy dirt, you will need to use steel wool or/and a blade but we recommend to have this done by an experienced luthier or repair person, you want to avoid removing woods from the fingerboard.

Generally, it is recommended to have a set-up and maintenance-check done once a year at your Magneto dealer.

Protection from Temperature and Humidity

Temperature and humidity represent great threats to fine tone woods. While the Magneto guitars are built to travel and tour, we advise to keep your instrument in a medium tempered environement meaning a temperature of approximately 20 °C (70 Deg F) and ideal humidity is about 40% to 50%. Please keep this in mind especially during the winter season where humidity will be lower and heating adds to it.

Do not leave your guitar in the trunk of a car for long periods and keep it away from excessive heat and cold.

Beware of some rubbers on guitar stands

The Magneto guitar bodies are finished with Nitrocellulose finish (Lacquer). Some rubbers used on a variety of guitar stands will have a chemical reaction with this type of finish. Therefore, if you plan to keep your Magneto Guitar on a guitar stand, we recommend to cover the areas in contact with the body with cotton ( an old soft T-Shirt will do the job).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Damage caused to the instrument by the use of non-appropriate polishes, inappropriate guitar stands, cleaning materials or all excessive exposure to heat and cold will not be covered under the Magneto warranty.