Learning to handle small repairs and knowing what parts to look out for your guitar are a large part of keeping your guitar well-maintained. In this article, we will be focusing on an electric guitar’s washers and what you need to do to fix and maintain it. Continue reading below to learn more about this!
Guitar overuse and humidity are just a couple of factors that can cause the different parts of the electric guitar to become loose, cracked or worn out. Buttons, nuts, washers can be affected and will rattle while you are playing your guitar.
What Is a Washer and Are They Really Necessary?
A washer is easily identified as a circular piece of metal which is placed under a nut or head of a bolt. These are very important and serve two main purposes: these protect the electric guitar’s finish, and it allows the machine head to be screwed down tightly.
If there is no washer present, the machine head can come loose quite easily and this can affect the tuning stability of the electric guitar. This can damage the headstock or wear out the tuner quicker than usual. The frequent tuning of the machine nut can also cause damage to the headstock finish.
A washer can either be made from metal or plastic. It prevents over-tightening and it also acts as a bearing and seal. When the washer becomes loose or cracked, the tuning button and the housing of the tuner will wear away and this can result in the loosening of the button , which means that it can’t be tightened anymore.
As a result, the tuner can become inaccurate, making it difficult to tune and will affect your guitar’s performance negatively. A washer may seem like a tiny piece of unimportant material, but it can make a huge difference!
A loose or cracked washer can affect your performance in other ways as well, as it will end up rattling and the buttons can fall off and get lost in the middle of a performance. Always remember to regularly inspect your electric guitar for any issues or problems so you can stay on top of your guitar maintenance.
How to Fix and Replace an Electric Guitar Washer
- Before starting, make sure to remove the guitar’s strings so you can find any loose tuner problems easily.
- Check the washers and busing using a nut driver (you can use the 10 mm one) or if you have a small wrench that can be used to adjust anything. You can do adjustments if you find out they are loose.
After you have replaced the old and worn out washers, make sure not to over tighten the screws as it can exert too much pressure on the washer and cause it to break again! The screws must be screwed on securely but not too tightly. For owners of vintage or classic gears, you can use oil to make them smooth and prevent wear and tear.
It is important that you perform regular maintenance to keep your electric guitar working perfectly and without any issues. You can prevent incidents from happening and fix or replace any damaged parts before it becomes worse. You can enjoy playing your guitar for a long time!
Check out our catalogue of items on our website and if you do not find what you are looking for, please kindly message us and we will do our best to help you out. Save yourself from searching online stores, send us your questions about our products.
You can call us at 320-543-2194 or send us an email at . We will do our best to answer them as soon as possible!