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View Poll Results: Do you wash your hands before you play?
Always 49 30.25%
Often 30 18.52%
Sometimes 35 21.60%
Rarely 26 16.05%
Never 22 13.58%
Voters: 162. You may not vote on this poll

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  #1  
Old 06-06-2015, 08:51 PM
d18 d18 is offline
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Default 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

Last edited by d18; 06-06-2015 at 09:00 PM.
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  #2  
Old 06-06-2015, 08:58 PM
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Ed-in-Ohio Ed-in-Ohio is offline
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Always. Absolutely. I also wash my hands before handling my guitars, even if I wont be playing them.
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Old 06-06-2015, 09:23 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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some people like gunked guitar bodies and strings. they say...mojo! i don't believe it.

play music!
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Old 06-06-2015, 09:50 PM
bluzfvr bluzfvr is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muscmp View Post
some people like gunked guitar bodies and strings. they say...mojo! i don't believe it.

play music!
It's like running through mud!
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Old 06-06-2015, 10:04 PM
bozz_2006 bozz_2006 is offline
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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.
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Old 06-06-2015, 10:09 PM
AndyFrank AndyFrank is offline
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I like to wash my feet before I play guitar, does that count?
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Old 06-06-2015, 10:14 PM
bluzfvr bluzfvr is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyFrank View Post
I like to wash my feet before I play guitar, does that count?
If you play with your feet!
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Old 06-06-2015, 10:17 PM
jaybones jaybones is offline
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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).
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Old 06-07-2015, 12:19 AM
email4eric email4eric is offline
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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.
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Old 06-07-2015, 12:28 AM
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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.
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Old 06-07-2015, 01:48 AM
Steel and wood Steel and wood is offline
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Unless I've used my fingers to eat with or played the handyman (ha!) ....... then the answer is no.
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Old 06-07-2015, 04:11 AM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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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.
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  #13  
Old 06-07-2015, 04:19 AM
nickyruskin nickyruskin is offline
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Of course. The guitar is an instrument, not a furniture
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  #14  
Old 06-07-2015, 05:45 AM
Dru Edwards Dru Edwards is offline
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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.
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Old 06-07-2015, 06:16 AM
ewalling ewalling is offline
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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.
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