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Post subject: Tele Maple Fretboard
Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:23 pm
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I have a tele with a maple fretboard. On my other guitars with rosewood or ebony fretboard I use very fine steel wool to clean the frets and fretboard then apply some fretboard dressing on it. Was wondering if I can do the same with the maple fretboard. It has a gloss nitrocellulose finish on it.


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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 4:38 am
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Nah, just clean it like you would your guitar body, the fretboard dressing will just make a mess on the finish. Just a slightly damp rag (emphasis on slightly) should clean it just fine. You can still do the steel wool, just be careful not to scratch the finish >___>

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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:36 am
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I don`t even clean mine. I have maple on my Strat and Tele and its fine left alone. Wash your hands before you play and wipe the strings down as you play. I find that this works well.

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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:45 am
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Capo wrote:
You can still do the steel wool, just be careful not to scratch the finish >___>


I would never use steel wool on a maple fingerboard, especially one with a gloss finish.

If you must use steel wool on the frets, you'll want to tape a maple fingerboard to protect it. Don't use just any tape for this; you want low-tack painter's tape. Even with the low-tack tape, I stick each piece of tape to a clean cloth (I use my shirt) before applying it to the fingerboard. This will de-tack the tape even more so it's not very sticky and therefore won't pull chunks of the finish off the fingerboard when you remove it.

I learned this the hard way - I once used the regular tan colored masking tape on a '90s MIM Standard Strat maple fingerboard and when I removed it, big chunks of the satin finish flaked off. Ouch!

For those reading this who have never used steel wool on a guitar fingerboard, here some other tips:

Use 0000 steel wool. That's pretty fine and will polish the frets (and rosewood fingerboards) without damaging anything. Don't use 000 or 00 grit as those could remove too much fret material and probably scrape up the fingerboard too - I don't know; I've never tried it and never will.

As you use the steel wool, tiny bits of it will fall off and stick to your pickups and get into the holes and slots of the guitar. To prevent this, I tape a sheet of newspaper over the front of the guitar or bass. I also do this outdoors with the neck pointing down at the ground.


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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 1:51 pm
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Thanks to all for all the helpful info. This was quite useful!!!


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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:05 pm
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George just about said it all.But steel wool is a no no on maple unless the neck is unfinished.


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