Keep It Clean: The Roadie Rag Helps Players Keep Their Gear Looking and Playing Like New

Proper hygiene is important.

So, brush your teeth and clean your guitar.

At TheToneKing.com, we’re always on the look out for new ideas. So, when we heard about the Roadie Rag, we had to check it out. The Roadie Rag is an innovative new type of polishing cloth that ensures that the oils from your fingers or your hands never need to come in contact with the cloth that gets used to wipe down your guitar. It’s that simple. TheToneKing.com had a chance to talk to LueRed. and get the low down on his invention, the Roadie Rag.

Screen Shot 2014-02-26 at 9.17.08 PM “I noticed it was taking longer to clean and put away my guitars using the old-style polishing cloths. The strings were rusting quicker and the smudges on the finish took longer to wipe off.”

The notion is simple: If you use a conventional polishing cloth, the dirt and oils that are on your hands will end up on your guitar. What the hell’s the point of polishing off those fingerprints and sweat with a polishing cloth that just has the same gunk all over it? Unless you feel like buying a new polishing cloth every week, you’re going to have a hell of a time keeping that guitar clean.

The Roadie Rag is the answer: It fits like a glove. Your hand stays on the inside, keeping your funky finger grime away from the surface that touches your guitar. The result? A cleaner guitar with less strain.

“I wanted something that was going to make it easier to clean my guitars and be able to handle them while I was putting them away without the worry of dirtying them again.”

There are dudes out there who never clean their guitars. Then they’re surprised when the finish starts to look funky or the metal corrodes. I hate to be the one to tell you, but if you’re eating a greasy cheeseburger before every show, your guitar’s going to start to look like ass unless you clean it properly. Which is why every player should keep at least three Roadie Rags in each guitar case.

Why three?

Because your guitar looking like ass is not your only problem.

As grime and funk accumulate on the fretboard, it clogs up the naturally porous rosewood. Since your fingerboard can’t pull in moisture, it starts to dry and crack. A cracked fretboard is not something that can be easily fixed. Unless you’re looking to buy a new neck, if your neck cracks, you’re pretty much screwed.

Then, there’s all that metal on your guitar. All those pots, frets, bridges, saddles, and gears are susceptible to corrosion. And nothing says corrosion like the salty sweat and oils from three hours of shredding. Keep it metal, and keep your metal clean!

One Roadie Rag for polishing the body, one for cleaning/conditioning the fretboard, and one for wiping down the hardware for every guitar. I know it might sound like a lot, but your guitar is your baby. And, you want to take care of your baby. Don’t you?Screen Shot 2014-02-26 at 9.18.10 PM

 “The Roadie Rag has two cleaning surfaces that are 100% cotton flannel. The best scenario would be to have separate Roadie Rags for different tasks that involve different cleaning products.  As well as keeping separate Roadie Rag in your instrument case for overall wipe down between cleanings.”

Dirty guitars equal expensive repairs. Aside from replacing necks, you can spend hundreds on bridges, saddles, gears, and pickup covers that have turned green simply because nobody bothered to wipe them down every once in a while. Not to mention all of those classic finishes that have been lost to the acidic sweat of neglectful players.

“I think cleaning is one of the most important things you can do for an instrument.  I have personally seen what poor hygiene does to a guitar.  I’ve seen bridges turn green, pit and rust. Strings rust and cause the frets to rust. Volume and tone pots stop working and lock all due to improper guitar hygiene.

The Roadie Rag is an inexpensive way to make sure that you’re not paying a larger bill for repairs later. Great for players, techs, roadies, or for anyone who wants to take care of their gear – Yes, you should probably get a couple to clean up your pedals and amps too.

Roadie Rags come in Yellow, Red, Black, and Smoke, which makes it easier for players to keep track of which rag they’re using for what. Yellow for the neck, red for the strings, black for the body, smoke for beer spills, and so on.

We here at TheToneKing.com notice that some players will spend thousands on an expensive guitar and then go cheap when it comes to taking care of it. The cleaner your guitar is kept, the longer it will last. And nothing is going to keep your guitar clean like the Roadie Rag.

You can buy your Roadie Rag through theroadierag.com or Amazon.com

 

 

 

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About the Author: Marc published his first novel Becoming in 2010. It’s a kick-ass book with monsters and dreams and stuff, and you should buy it. Since then, he’s written thousands of articles for TheToneKing.com, many of which have been picked up for circulation by manufacturers and other news outlets. His next book, Drugs and Pancakes, should be available early 2014 if his alcoholic editor can find time to work on it in-between destroying his liver and screaming about punctuation. He graduated from Roosevelt University with honors, which means that he’s not as dumb as he looks. He’s been playing guitar for over 25 years, which is almost twice as long as most of his students have been alive.

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