How To Clean A Guitar Case

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How to clean and care for a guitar case.

Thread starter BluntForceTrauma
Start date Mar 24, 2019

Bought a used Gibson USA Les Paul case off of craigslist yesterday. Got a decent deal although it was in a little worse shape than advertised. A few minor dings and some white paint specks on it. Tried to clean it up with some warm water and soap, but just not happy with that. I'm thinking some Goof Off and then some Armor-All to protect the tolex. What do you guys/gals use?

I bought a used Fender TSA guitar case a couple of weeks ago. I had to remove the stickers by using a heat gun & pocket knife, pulling up the stickers little by little. I used naptha (aka lighter fluid) to remove the sticker outline & residue. Afterwards, I put some Simple Green diluted in a small spray bottle, spray the case, use a small scrub brush to work it into the tolex, then wipe it down with a rag. You can see the dirty residue of the case come off on the rag. House paint can be scraped off with a toothbrush and a small jeweler's flat blade screwdriver.

On the interior of the case, I look for anything in the case, remove anything in it, and vacuum any dirt/lint/etc out of the case. I also check for any smells or odors like animal urine or cigarette smoke. If I smell any cigarette odor, I like to put dryer sheets in the case or I can spray it with Febreze, then use it to store the guitar. If there's a presence of animal urine odor, I will shampoo the case interior with a Tough Stuff, scrub with a scrub brush, and wipe out with a rag.

If the tolex of the guitar case has tears, I like to use 3M #80 Rubber & Vinyl spray adhesive (used for automotive interiors) to patch the tolex back on to the guitar case, applying it with rubber gloves, a popsicle stick to squeeze out excess glue, and a rag to wipe it up. I also use the same adhesive to reattach the torn tolex on my amps or cabinets as well.

Guitar George

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