The Care and Feeding of a Goodall Guitar:
Caring for your Goodall guitar properly is very important. Controlling temperature and humidity are the main concerns. Always keep your guitar in its case when not in use. Treat it as you would yourself, keeping it from extreme temperatures. Try not to allow the instrument to get warm to the touch. Wood gets increasingly pliable as the temperature rises above 90 to 95 degrees. Don't allow the instrument to get too cold either, and especially don't allow it to get cold and then warm too quickly.
Strive to keep the instruments in a 40% to 70% humidity range. You may need to purchase a humidifier to keep it above 40% in the winter. This is quite important - even more so than too high a humidity. We build our guitars in a controlled 40% humidity environment but wood is hygroscopic and can shrink and crack across the grain if the humidity drops much below 35%. There are sound hole or case humidifiers and room humidifiers for use when the humidity is low. I strongly recommend using a hygrometer to monitor just how dry the atmosphere is where your guitar is kept.
When changing your guitar strings you may want to change one string at a time to keep the individually hand fitted bridge pins in order. Us a good string winder with a bridge pin notch included for removing the bridge pins and don't pry on the bridge just pull straight upward. If they are stubborn, loosen the strings and push upward from inside to help remove them. Don't force them in too tightly when replacing them with the new strings. We use Elixir brand 'Nano Web' light gauge strings on almost every new Goodall steel string guitar and find them to be an excellent choice for our instruments. The string choice can vary but Engelmann spruce, cedar and redwood instruments and our Parlor models are not suited for medium gauge strings.
When we first set up an instrument, the action (string height off the frets) is quite low, and the neck fairly straight. Within a few weeks or months the guitar 'breaks in' and depending upon the relative humidity and temperature, the action may rise up and necessitate a lowering of the saddle and sometimes also a slight tightening of the truss rod (a very slight forward bow on the neck is considered optimum). This adjustment is totally normal and necessary for all new instruments. A Goodall Guitar dealer or qualified repair person will be able to adjust this for you. For the average player I would recommend the distance under the bottom of the bass 'E' string to the top of the 12th fret be slightly over 3/32" and the treble 'E' slightly over 1/16" (this is considered low action). Your personal needs for action can vary depending upon your playing style. Have a qualified repair person evaluate the action occasionally. A once a year checkup should be adequate after the initial important break-in period adjustments.
For our Crossover nylon string model guitar the neck relief will be slightly more than our steel strings (we contour that at the factory). The action should be about 1/8" from the 12th fret from the bottom of the treble 'E' string graduating to 5/32" on the low 'E'. We use the excellent Hannabach 'Golden' trebles' (Super Carbon) treble strings mixed with their #7287 medium tension basses for our Crossover nylon string guitar.
The finish doesn't need much attention- just keep it reasonably clean. Use a 100% cotton cloth slightly moistened with water to wipe and clean the body and neck. I don't advise using too much wax or guitar polish - use sparingly if at all. A tiny bit of automotive paste wax such as Turtle Wax or Finish 2000 is okay occasionally. Once a year or so, depending on use, you may want to remove the strings and clean the fretboard and frets. Use #0000 steel wool and rub with the grain up and down the fretboard then apply a few drops of fret board and bridge with a paper towel. You may purchase fretboard oil at music stores or through mail order (we use Dr. Ducks brand).
