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Vaccuming a guitar?!

Q: While reading up about guitar care, I came across some information about vacuuming the inside of a guitar. They said this removes dust that collects around the glue of the bracing, which supposedly can trap moisture and loosen the bracing.
Is this true? It seems very dangerous/ strange to stick a vacuum tube in a guitar, but if it's safe and needed to keep from shaky/ buzzing bracing, I may do so. I thought I'd ask a professional.
Hypothetically, if bracing were to come loose on a guitar, would it be possible to repair and how much would it run for such a repair (i have a phantom buzz coming from the guitar sometimes, seems to be the inside... what i get for buying a lesser quality axe).
Thanks much.
- Doby

A: The connection between dust in the guitar and loose braces would be tenuous at best. Braces come loose because of glue failure, or someone sitting on the guitar. Braces can also crack and buzz. Vacuuming only tidies up and occasionally sucks up a string ball or wood chip or something big enough to actually make sound as you shake the guitar up and down. Many repair jobs will drop chips and sawdust inside the guitar. We use a Dirt Devil to clean up. It would take decades of normal use to gather enough dust inside a guitar to notice. We have lots of magic tools: clamps, jacks, mirrors, tubing for blowing glue etc. for fixing loose braces. One loose brace is about $35 to fix. You don't need to worry about vacuuming your guitar regularly. This does, however, remind me of a vacuuming story:
        A man brought in his old Martin to be planed and refretted. He said DON'T VACUUM THE INSIDE OF THIS GUITAR. He had been at a hobo convention and the ashes of a departed hobo had been distributed among his friends. He had dumped about a half cup of the dead hobo into his guitar. He said that another guy had done the same thing and had taken his guitar in for repair, but had forgotten to say anything about the ashes. When the work was done, the luthier vacuumed out the guitar and gave it back clean. They had a good laugh about the old hobo "riding the Hoover road to Hooverville."

Steve Mason

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