How often should electric guitars be serviced?

Question

I have an electric guitar that I play from time to time. Should I be giving it 'maintenance services' or only if something goes wrong?

Answer 1

You should periodically inspect it and check the fingerboard and finish, because those are easily affected by humidity and temperature.

You should clean it periodically because sweat and skin oils can harden into gunk that is hard to remove later.

You should periodically check intonation because little bumps against the bridge can knock it out. Periodically check your pickup heights too, for the same reason.

Because you're not playing it a lot I don't think you need to check the nuts on the volume controls, switches and output jack regularly, but they can loosen from playing or temperature swings. They can also hide gunk so I used to pull mine off and clean under them, but that's just me.