Do you wash your hands before you play? - Poll
 

In the spirit of this sited thread, I created this poll.
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=389667

Always. Absolutely. I also wash my hands before handling my guitars, even if I wont be playing them.

some people like gunked guitar bodies and strings. they say...mojo! i don't believe it.

play music!

It's like running through mud!

I almost always do. I wear traditional style oil-based pomade in my hair, so my hands get greasy/waxy. It kills my strings and my speed if i don't wash up real well prior to playing.

I like to wash my feet before I play guitar, does that count?

If you play with your feet!

If I've been doing something like gardening or auto work I'll certainly wash my hands before playing. But if my hands are relatively clean, just day to day stuff I'll go ahead and play. Afterward I always wipe off the guitar strings and every so often the body. In fact, about once a week or so I'll polish a couple of them with a foam ball on a cordless driver, with Stew-Mac Preservation Polish then buff it out with another foam pad and finally an old tee shirt.

I like my guitars' finish to look as clean and shiny as possible. Much like my cars (always freshly washed and waxed), and what hair I have left (without the wax or other product, unless you count Rogaine).

I wash my hands before I play if they're dirty, oily, or otherwise fouled. I don't wash my hands before I play if they're not.

Now that I think about it, I wash my hands if they're dirty, oily, or otherwise fouled anyway.

Furthermore, I tend to pick up a guitar spontaneously throughout the day. Washing my hands as a rule before doing that would crimp that spontaneity.

Dirty hands have a cumulative effect on the surface of the guitar. After many sessions, the fretboard especially will get pretty gunky. I bought a used guitar once that I had to scrape the old congealed hand gunk off it with a putty knife. It was worst right up next to the frets. That was the first and only guitar I owned that got a thorough cleaning with bleach.

Unless I've used my fingers to eat with or played the handyman (ha!) ....... then the answer is no.

I dislike the feeling of greasy oir dirty hands, which may seem odd as at this time of the year, they are frequently up to my elbows in compost and soil, as we plant our crops out.

I like clean new strings, and clean instruments.

Further, due to a relatively recently diagnosed chronic lung disease, I have to do all I can to avoid infections - colds, flu etc., and so as playing seems to necessitate lots of hand shaking, kissy/huggy women etc., I wash as frequently as I can.

Of course. The guitar is an instrument, not a furniture :D

I put "Sometimes" because if my hands are already clean I won't wash them again. I'll never play a guitar with dirty hands though.

I've put 'always' because at the very least my hands have to be recently washed. They have to feel dry and clean, and that means I'll have washed them a relatively short time before I pick up a guitar.