It has been discussed before but I can't trace the thread.
How to clean a reliced maple neck, apart with soap and water ?
Lemon oil ? hum..Not sure
Thanks

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http://www.guitarmotel.com

I only use naptha and maybe a toothbrush if enough crud is built up around the frets.

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You dig?

(Bump.)

Hi Alain: been watching patiently to see if any other ideas arrive - though I don't have any suggestions. If the relicing includes exposed bare wood then the only way I know to clean naked timber is to sand dirt off. Which I am certain you don't want to do with this guitar!

I'm guessing this is no "mere" Road Worn guitar: do your friends in the Custom Shop have any cleaning advice?

Also, care to show us the instrument in question? Is it the Blackie replica, or the Andy Summers Tele...?

Good luck - C

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Hey Alain,

Don't use lemon oil on a maple neck! Go with Martian's advice: only use naptha!

HTH

Naptha is always safe, and works very well. Alot of elbow grease and a dry cotton cloth can bust up the crud though, but that's work lol. 0000 Steel wool will polish frets, and smooth out a fretboard....but do not use it on your maple board if you have a glossy fretboard finish, it will make it feel smoooooooooth, but it will dull the shine. If you have a satin type finish on your fretboard then the steel wool will be fine too. I wouldn't use steel wool though unless your frets are getting tarnished.

I used fine steel wool once and it got caught under the frets and started to rust never again it gets trapped in rosewood grain also

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Naptha. I bought a used guitar off ebay and I swear the guy who had been playing it must have either been a mechanic or never bathed becuase it was the filthiest fretboard I have ever seen. The naptha cleaned it up like new and didn't harm the finish.

Some guy at a Fender Roadshow event said he only ever uses Olive Oil and swears by it.
Makes sense to me because it's completely natural and safe enough to pour in your ear!

Thanks for the advices.

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http://www.guitarmotel.com

Wow! That's one I was sure he'd have the answer for us... not the other way around.
I for one would suggest that he consult 'the usual suspects' and then let us in on what they've suggested. Please don't ask me who they are because if I told you, I'd have to kill you.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Yes, that's what I would have thought!

BTW, to DIN0: I'm guessing your guy at the Fender roadshow who recommended olive oil was talking about rosewood fingerboards, is that right? I guess that's fair enough, used with moderation. The more commonly used lemon oil is essentially just mineral oil with a scent added: in fact many (but not by any means all) similar oils are doing the same job so it doesn't really matter which one you use. You could use walnut oil, rapeseed oil - whatever takes your fancy. Though obviously not something such as lubricating/penetrating oil, which will rot the timber over time.

However, Alain is talking about a maple fingerboard. In that case it has lacquer on the front so there is no point whatsoever in using oil - which is not a cleaner in any case.

And since this is Alain this is very unlikely to be a factory "relic" model we're talking about: we're very probably in the upper reaches of the Custom Shop here. I'm guessing we're looking at a guitar replicating nitro that has been worn through to bare timber by fingers on the fretboard. So if the desire is to clean that area oil is the last thing you should use, because that will seal dirt in rather than remove it.

None of that means I know what he should do. Getting dirt off bare pale timber is almost impossible, other than by sanding it. Which is why the dirty marks are still there on the front of Clapton's Blackie, even though that maple fingerboard has been relacquered twice. The dirt was un-shiftable and so was sealed in beneath the new nitro when the neck was refretted.

Martian's suggestion of naphtha near the beginning of the thread is the only thing I can imagine helping. Failing that... well, you've relic'd your relic!

Would be curious to know what the Custom Shop have to say, though...

Cheers - C

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I believe he meant for use with any fingerboard - the logic is that it's completely harmless, will help shift dried sweat and other detritus and has the added benefit, according to him, of preventing damage/corrosion around the frets and the frets themselves - he talked about that greenish oxidisation that occurs and how something inherent to olive oil was great for preventing it.
Remember, this is only what some guy I've never met before said - couldn't hurt to try, though.

A friend of mine who works at a local guitar shop tried using linseed oil - it didn't work out for him.

I'm hoping to take delivery of a maple fingerboarded Strat before Chirstmas and I'll be using whatever we have under the sink - Mr Sheen or Pledge!
Most guitars I've had have had a rosewood board and yeah, I've used lem-oil on those from time-to-time to rejuvenate the fingerboard; not so much for cleaning.

My bet is that Alain or one of his collector colleagues has acquired something which begs a tad sprucing up before it is unveiled. Stewart-McDonald should be a go to place for his question.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Believe it or not, when I had my Strat, I used lotion on both the neck and fretboard. Sounds weird, but it worked for me.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

No indeed: linseed oil would be very much the wrong thing. Linseed is what they call a "drying oil", which means it undergoes a one-way chemical change over time, hardening to form a film. It is used in oil paint for that very purpose - exactly what you don't want to feed a rosewood fingerboard with.

Experimentation is good - but not always.

Cheers - C

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