When I bought my first acoustic guitar around ten years ago I vowed to treat it well and really maintain it as well as possible. My guitar cost me a fair bit of money and it was probably my most treasured possession back then. So as the months went by I came up with various way of looking after my lovely guitar and keeping it looking well. One area that I made sure I kept well maintained was the strings. To be honest nowadays I don't look after my guitar quite as well and all I do is replace the strings when they are worn, but back then I found some that could help maintain the strings that little bit longer. That was Peavey Guitar String cleaner.

You may wonder why guitar strings need cleaning but the fact is that over time and continual use they do get very dirty. You are putting your fingers on the strings and your fingers pick up dirt and grease and this transfers onto the strings and they soon start to lose their colour and even their sound. So the idea behind guitar string cleaner is that it keeps them looking fresh and new and makes them last that little bit longer.

This guitar string cleaner is suitable for both electric and acoustic strings and will work equally well on both. When you buy this it comes is a little 4oz bottle. This is a decent size as you really don't need to use that much to get them clean. To use this you simply apply it to a lint free cloth and then wipe it on the strings. Peavey do actually make a special guitar cleaning cloth that you can buy along with the liquid. This is a decent cloth but you don't have to use this one, any lint free cloth will work equally well.

As to how well it works I must say I was quite impressed. When I bought this one I wasn't really convinced how effective it would be. But it does seem to dissolve the grease and dirt very well. After rubbing this into the strings and then wiping them down it really does seem to remove some pretty serious dirt. I was quite shocked at how much dirt comes off the guitar strings. Even if you think they are pretty clean you will find that dirt that comes off onto the cloth is quite a substantial amount. The strings come up very well and look almost new when you have finished cleaning them.

One thing I will say though is that the sound quality does not really seem to improve. Admittedly I don't have the best ear when it comes to discerning these things, maybe someone a little more professional would notice a slight difference. As to whether or not this improves the life of the strings and how long they last it's hard to say. But they do look nice and shiny and I would imagine that this does help them last that little but longer.

Price wise the Peavey guitar string cleaner is pretty cheap. You can buy a bottle online for around £3 which is nothing really. You do get a fair amount of value out of the little bottle as you don't need to use that much on your cloth. However, I have only bought this product once. There was nothing wrong with it and it was pretty good but it's just a bit of a faf using this. These days when my strings start to wear out or get dirty I just simply replace them. For people who play more often and take it all a little bit more serious than me then maybe this would be a very good product. It is cheap and it is good value so if you fancy giving this a try them go for it.