Clearly!

He actually used it to clean a maple fretboard with and was chuffed to bits with himself..... to begin with. Next time I saw him he said he'd done a gig with it and the strings were completely dead. I think, from what you've said, he was quite lucky it was a maple fretboard and got away with just a bit of a wipe-down and some fresh strings.

If we're talking about relic'd maple boards and the greyish stains in the wood fibres that occur where the varnish has rubbed away then, forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but isn't that the point?

I doubt very much there is a solution for that beyond sanding- If memory serves me correctly it's why Leo shifted to rosewood boards for a while.
Personally, I'd rather enjoy seeing the wear-and-tear of the fretboard and my only hope would be that the board was worn evenly from top-to-bottom - I dunno, there'd be something slightly embarrassing about it only showing wear around the open chord positions!

My old '58 didn't have much wear above the 5th fret after 10 years but then, the entire school of playing and the hard wear these guitars are seeing has changed since the early days of rock. Shredders under hot lights, ranging across the finger board, freely perspiring for long hours and across long multipe tour dates, at times for years, are creating what we call relic guitars. The gigs we played in the late '50's and early 60's were no where near that demanding on either the artist or the gear. Who the hell had a roadie or a guitar tech back then?

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"Another day in paradise!"

Fair point, ZZDoc.

After making that post I actually had a look at the fret wear on my guitar (it's got a rosewood board) and sure enough, the frets were most worn lower down the neck.... and around the E-minor pentatonic positions, 12th fret and above.
I ain't judging nobody!

You still got that old '58, Doc?

If we're talking of oiling a open grained maple neck. There is only one thing I recommend for instruments of the quality Alain buys.
Woodwind Bore Oil.
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk/HandyHints/oilingbore.htm

Good enough for a 500-year-old Clarinet good enough for an expensive Strat. At least the stuff will provide some kind of seal on the patches of maple that have no lacquer.

I can't for the life of me see how that would clean the fretboard though. All I can think is to use Naptha as previously mentioned and then oil the board sparingly.

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No no and no

That's a sad tale I've told several times on this forum. I get it to ya via PM.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Interesting article.
Thanks.
Indeed my main concern is dirt on bare maple which has to be treated differently from rosewood which is a more oily wood.

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