When it’s time to take care of your Boucher guitar, the heat and the humidity are the two most important things to consider.

Music is mercurial, often changing mood and atmosphere at a heartbeat –but your guitar is not really fond of change. A rapid change in temperature and humidity can produce damages on the guitar and can result as weakened glue, bridges which are detached and joint which split.

Boucher Guitar recommends you to keep your guitar with humidity from 45% to 55%.and at the ambient temperature (around 21-33 degrees Celsius, or 72-77 Fahrenheit). Minor temperature variation in these conditions is not as damaging as rapid changes, but long expositions to dry, humidity, heat or cold can cause many problems, like warping, cracks and open joints. You will notice that humidity and dry heat can also change the sound of your guitar –she will have a more muffled sound when she’s exposed to humidity and the frets can get off and it can cause a buzz if the ambient air is to dry or to humid.  

How come? Because your guitar is made of thin wood and carefully wrought that humidity can expand the guitar’s wood and dry heat can make it narrow. Extreme conditions and unevenness can increase these problems and it can lead to change on a guitar as another one will not be affected. That’s why you should always suspend your guitar on an interior wall –if you suspend to an exterior wall, the cold temperature coming from exterior can work in trough the wall and create a temperature contrast inside your guitar which will damage your guitar.

We recommend you to have a moisture meter and a thermometer to watch the environment of your guitar. Here is a investment that will help to keep your new treasure. Humidification systems for guitar are also available. , some of them can be placed in your guitar case or inside your guitar, but it’s not recommended to insert a humidifier inside your guitar when it’s in her case. In the worst-case scenario, a guitar having been exposed to extreme condition should never be leaved unprotected to another extreme condition. If your guitar underwent conditions of cold temperature, for example, it is preferable to let it reach the room temperature gradually rather than to try to heat it rapidly. Try to make it pass by an “intermediate environment like a garage semi-heated for some time before returning it in a hot environment like your house. If your guitar is softened (humidity…?), let dry it naturally rather than to sweep in hot air with a hair-drier.

Moisture is increasingly more constant in a restricted space than in a big space. For that raison, we recommend you to put away your guitar in its case when you don’t use it.

When you put away your guitar, remember that its case has been made for this purpose. The guitar case has only one task, so it’s important to not put anything else on it, because it can affect the way the guitar fit into it and it can cause damage.  Treat your guitar like you treat yourself –would you go for a ride in a car trunk during winter time? You could freeze to death!

As far as repairing your guitar, we have one piece of advice: don't do yourself. We don't mean to sound harsh, but your guitar is as well-crafted and well-tuned as any other delicate piece of machinery, and any guitar repair is best left to professional luthiers. It may look straightforward, but think of your guitar as a masterpiece: if the paint on the Mona Lisa chipped, would you attack it with a brush yourself, or trust the job to trained restorers? 

Tuning is important, of course, but try not to over-tune. Loosening. the strings on a guitar for storage - unless you're storing it for months or more - just results in a lots of tightening and loosening, which will erode the strings' sound over time. 

While it's important to keep your guitar looking good, remember that polishing means removing a little bit of finish. Too much polishing can make an impact in the guitar's finish in the long run. Cleaning is also of the utmost important - wipe off your perspiration and fingerprints with a chamois or a dampened soft rag (like a baby's cloth diaper), then gently buff it with a dry cloth. Take it easy – if you clean your guitar after every use, you should never reach the point where you have to really scrub it.. There are lots of cleaning solutions on the market, many of them very effictive, but you can never go wrong with pure clean water.

After a guitar has been well-maintained for four or five years, it tends to have < matured > and becomes more resistant to mild in humidity, heat, etc. Mind you, if you've been taking good care of your Boucher guitar for that long, you've probably developed somme great life-long habits anyway!

Treat your guitar well, and it will be your companion for countless musical voyages for decades, and even generations. While there seem to mbe a lot of rules for guitar care, it all boils down to one simple thing: moderation is key. Avoid extremes like extreme heat, cold, humidity, dryness, changes of temperature, etc., and you're 90% of the way to perfect guitar maintenance. 

Happy playing!