How Often Should You Clean Your Guitar?

All the time. Never stop cleaning your guitar. Okay, that might be overkill. But really, if you want your guitar to last as long as possible, you've got to take consistent care of it. The better you treat it, the longer it'll last and the better condition it'll be in, just like your body, your marriage, your laptop, a paperback book, whatever. You should clean your guitar after each time you play it.

Sadly, there are plenty of guitar players who handwave the whole "cleanliness is king" statement and think, "Pssh, it's fine." But one time turns into two, two into three, and before you know it, your guitar is deteriorating faster than you realize, and you can't turn back the clock. Just get into the habit — it takes mere minutes. When you're done playing your guitar, take out your cloth and wipe down the body where your arm lay across it, the pickguard where your fingers pressed against it, the strings, fretboard, neck, and anywhere else your hands touched. Skin oil is way more corrosive than you might think, not only to wood but also to strings (which have a pretty short lifespan and need to be cleaned and changed regularly). You should also use a special, guitar-only cloth — they're available on the cheap from retailers like Amazon, but support your local music store if possible.

Think of your everyday, short-term guitar cleaning like giving your car a wash. Meanwhile, using guitar cleaner, polishing it with oil, etc., is more like changing the brake pads or windshield wipers — it can be done less frequently but still regularly. When you wipe down your guitar after playing it, you don't have to use cleaner. But depending on how often you play it, you should take out your guitar-only cleaner (often sold in a kit), spray the cloth, and then wipe. And do make sure to spray the cloth, not the guitar, to prevent tons of particulates falling onto your instrument. Then there's polish, which you should use to wipe the fretboard when changing your strings (this is important to do when they start to lose their new-string twang). 

Some kits, like the Dunlop 6500, are tried-and-true guitar cleaning mainstays that contain different cleaners for the fretboard and strings, as well as wax, polish, etc. You don't need to go this far, as one multipurpose cleaner is okay for everything, but you certainly can and arguably should. At the very least, fully wipe down the fretboard when there are no strings on it, whenever you change your strings.

And finally, we'd be remiss not to mention damage prevention. The primary way to shield your guitar from deterioration is to store it in a case when it's not being used, not on a stand. This will shield it from dust, light, humidity, bumps, and so forth, and dramatically prolong its life even before your skin oil touches it.