Cleaning the inside of old guitar.

[Bax Burgess]

It's a 60's Yamaha 110, bought five years ago, that I had transitioned to a bolt-on neck, new fingerboard and bridge, though, how/why does it suddenly have more volume with vibrations felt through the neck?

A look inside (hadn't bothered to thoroughly check before) revealed what looked to be a swatch of mildew around the lower portion of the endblock and spreading out to either side for four inches along the body's lower edge - didn't know if it was there when I bought it or if it had appeared over successive humid summers. I poured in some dry grain to shake around and scrape the crud away. When I tipped out the bits, I didn't notice evidence of dust or dirt, so ok, at least it had to be marginally cleaner, and there was less dust around the back's bracing, so the top braces were probably just as cleared. Playing it afterwards, I felt initially that I was deluding myself as to increased volume, the usual story of expectation becoming reality. I put it aside, played a few other guitars in the meanwhile, but two days later it's still glowing impressively, and I just noticed vibrations through the neck, hadn't felt those before.

I've always paid close attention to this guitar, and I had been perfectly happy with the sound from the beginning, enough to sink three times into it what I paid for it, and there was no hope/expectation that cleaning the insides would change its sound one iota, which it did, and it's not coming back down to earth, so to speak.

[maxtheaxe]

Originally Posted by Bax Burgess

It's a 60's Yamaha 110, bought five years ago, that I had transitioned to a bolt-on neck, new fingerboard and bridge, though, how/why does it suddenly have more volume with vibrations felt through the neck?

A look inside (hadn't bothered to thoroughly check before) revealed what looked to be a swatch of mildew around the lower portion of the endblock and spreading out to either side for four inches along the body's lower edge - didn't know if it was there when I bought it or if it had appeared over successive humid summers. I poured in some dry grain to shake around and scrape the crud away. When I tipped out the bits, I didn't notice evidence of dust or dirt, so ok, at least it had to be marginally cleaner, and there was less dust around the back's bracing, so the top braces were probably just as cleared. Playing it afterwards, I felt initially that I was deluding myself as to increased volume, the usual story of expectation becoming reality. I put it aside, played a few other guitars in the meanwhile, but two days later it's still glowing impressively, and I just noticed vibrations through the neck, hadn't felt those before.

I've always paid close attention to this guitar, and I had been perfectly happy with the sound from the beginning, enough to sink three times into it what I paid for it, and there was no hope/expectation that cleaning the insides would change its sound one iota, which it did, and it's not coming back down to earth, so to speak.

This would actually make sense to me. Guitars have a lot of tiny spaces inside them for dust/grime to accumulate, which in turn would tend to absorb moisture from the atmosphere and hold it next to the wood. Seems to me that blasting the dust out of the interior, bracing, kerfing, tiny crevices should be a regular practice, not only to keep the guitar sounding good but also to prevent growth of organisms/mildew spores.

A small shop compressor or maybe some of that canned air that computer techs use would be handy for this.

[TNO]

I've heard a handful of rice shaken inside the guitar with the soundhole covered is an easy way to clean out the crud.

[Carey]

Jose Oribe said in his book (I think) that a thorough cleaning of the inside improved the sound, so you're not alone.
I think I'll give it a try.