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Post subject: My CS strat stinks
Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:42 pm
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I've tried everything I and many other folks could think of doing but I can't get the bad smell out of my CS Page era strat.

One suspicion is that the tweed case that it came with is the problem. I actually think there are two distince bad smells that the guitar suffers from and one seems more nitro based to me.

I've given the guitar Naptha baths, it spent months out of it's case, while I let bleach fume inside- etc. etc. But nothing helps.

Does Fender have any magic ways to help a bad smelling guitar. My wife won't let me take it out of the case.

Help!


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Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 4:50 am
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If it is the adhesive that bonds the plush to the case there really isn't much you can do.
I would be careful using chemicals to deodorize your case and guitar, you might harm either the guitars finish or the inside lining of the case may desintegrate prematurely from the chemical reaction.

Good luck with Skunky

( speaking of skunks, there are eco friendly cleaning agents for removing skunk perfume, you may want to google that thought and see what could help. ) :idea:

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Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 7:53 am
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53magnatone wrote:
If it is the adhesive that bonds the plush to the case there really isn't much you can do.


Someone once said that there was a batch of cases that were made with hide glue that was bad. I contacted the case maker but they weren't much help.

Has anone eles had this problem?

John


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Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:02 pm
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Not sure if this is advisable or not, but have you thought about some Arm & Hammer baking soda?


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Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:07 pm
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M40A1 wrote:
Not sure if this is advisable or not, but have you thought about some Arm & Hammer baking soda?


+1

Or Fabreze?

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Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:14 am
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You could try leaving some drier sheets in the case for a while.


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:48 am
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Perhaps you could get rid of the case, then just focus on the guitar.

Sometimes, you just have to write off the lost causes (the case in this instance). There is an old investment truth that you need to sell your losers and let your winners run.

Some of the cleaning suggestions for the guitar sounded like good steps.

Alternatively, you could take the guitar to a good luthier and see what they can do. I don't know where you are located, but I would bet that Hugh at 13th Street Guitars in Huntington Beach, CA could fix it. If you are in a different area, there is probably someone of similar skills.

Worst case, you could have the guitar completely refinished, if the playing attributes outweigh the desire to stay original.

Best of luck.

Paul


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:03 am
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PaulSurf wrote:
Perhaps you could get rid of the case, then just focus on the guitar.

Sometimes, you just have to write off the lost causes (the case in this instance). There is an old investment truth that you need to sell your losers and let your winners run.

Some of the cleaning suggestions for the guitar sounded like good steps.

Alternatively, you could take the guitar to a good luthier and see what they can do. I don't know where you are located, but I would bet that Hugh at 13th Street Guitars in Huntington Beach, CA could fix it. If you are in a different area, there is probably someone of similar skills.

Worst case, you could have the guitar completely refinished, if the playing attributes outweigh the desire to stay original.

Best of luck.

Paul



The case may be a write off. The guitar and the case have spent months apart before but while I got the guitar to improve some I never got it smell free. Then I give up and put it back in it's case- I have other guitars that don't smell. It's hard to want to buy a new case and put a smelly guitar in it.

I can do any procedure myself, I'm hoping someone from Fender has some suggestion- it's hard to believe I'm the first person to have this problem.

I did try a new Fabreze on the case the other day, it seems to have something new in it, maybe that will help.

Here's a pic of the little stinker.

Image

John


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:49 am
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Hey John,

Do you think that the smell emanates from the entire guitar, the body, the neck or just the fingerboard?

In the past (different guitar tech), I noticed that the rosewood fretboard on my Strat was susceptible to absorbing odors from the oil treatment they employed.

Since your guitar has a rosewood fingerboard, if the odor is coming from that area, perhaps an orange oil treatment or something similar could help. Fender also has some pretty powerful cleaning agents in their kits.

Paul


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 2:56 pm
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Wow, those strings are dang near transparent! :wink:


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:55 pm
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Well until you kill the odor don't store the guitar in the case. Get a cheapo guitar bag for storage and if you have a garage or attic put the case there for as long as it takes to clean it out. Leaving it open, of course.

One last thought is bringing it to the dry-cleaners and asking them. I'm serious.

Fabreze does have some man-made odor absorbing compound so possibly with repeated attempts it will do the trick. Baking soda is another great odor absorbing chemical. Just not sure how thick the lining is and how much suction of a vacuum it would take to get up the baking soda after it does its trick. And if it would get it all out.

-T

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Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 7:07 am
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I decided that I would try repeated naphtha baths for the guitar. I'm doing the outside first,if that works I'll take the guitar apart and naphtha the rest.

So (after two pretty heavy sponge bath sessions) it doesn't seem to be working. It's hard to believe really, the naphtha smells so strong going on but after a while the namptha smell is gone and the guitar smell - at least one of the guitar smells, comes back. It still smells like something in the finish to me. Does anyone know exactly what finish was used on these guitars- that might tell me something.

I remember when I bought the guitar that the store said there was something special about the finish- the guitar had a tag that had nitro written on it. What was the custom shop using for finish in 96-97? It's a thick finish, nothing thin about it.

Is there anything stronger than naphtha that I could use on the guitar?

John


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:25 am
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johnjaypl wrote:
I decided that I would try repeated naphtha baths for the guitar. I'm doing the outside first,if that works I'll take the guitar apart and naphtha the rest.

So (after two pretty heavy sponge bath sessions) it doesn't seem to be working. It's hard to believe really, the naphtha smells so strong going on but after a while the namptha smell is gone and the guitar smell - at least one of the guitar smells, comes back. It still smells like something in the finish to me. Does anyone know exactly what finish was used on these guitars- that might tell me something.

I remember when I bought the guitar that the store said there was something special about the finish- the guitar had a tag that had nitro written on it. What was the custom shop using for finish in 96-97? It's a thick finish, nothing thin about it.

Is there anything stronger than naphtha that I could use on the guitar?

John


So maybe it isn't the guitar?? Unless there's a dead mouse under the pg...
-T

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:17 am
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Quote:
So maybe it isn't the guitar?? Unless there's a dead mouse under the pg...
-T


Why would you think it's not the guitar?

I think there are two smells I'm fighting. One is from the case, some kind of glue/mildew smell. I've heard that some old cases used hide glue that can go bad. Maybe it's that, although it smells more like mildew to me but I'm not a smell expert.

The other smell seems more chemical to me. I think it comes from the finish. It's hard to believe that this guitar is still out gassing after so many years- is that possible?

If I put my nose right up against the body finish I can smell this chemical smell. If the guitar was in a case, any case this odor would build up. Does anyone else have a guitar from this time period that smells?

If I can get the smell off the outside I'll clean-up the inside. I'd be willing to post pictures as I take it apart if there's any interest in checking out the inside of a page era guitar.

I can see what I'm thinking is buffing compound on the inside of the trem cavitiy. Is that common, or is it something else?

John


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:38 am
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If it were me, I would box up the guitar and case and send it to Fender to have the cause of the smell fixed.

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