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Location: Cicero, NY | Yeah, I know - it's been done to death but, in a search, I've found that a lot of you use Butcher's Wax for glossy necks. I was going to shine my 1537 up a little before next weekends Jersey soiree and ran up to the local Lowe's. No Butcher's Wax wax but did have a Butcher's Wax (brand) oil (for cutting boards, wooden salad bowls, etc.). Looking more for a wax than an oil, I picked up MinWax Paste Finishing Wax instead. However, now that I'm home, I'm thinking twice before I slap it on.
Any thoughts from the Board...? |
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Location: SoCal | Just spray a little Pledge on a cloth and wipe it down. You don't need to do more than that. The wax is more for the necks that aren't glossed.... |
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Location: Cicero, NY | That's what I usually do and the gloss has no wear on it at all but I was just going to try to add a little protection to what's there - but maybe if it's not broke...thanks. |
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Location: Flahdaw | Wow, so much I wanted to say on this one (must maintain control....) |
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Location: Cicero, NY | I'm so proud of you. |
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Location: Sydney, Australia | So, for those with non-shiny necks (as opposed to red necks) how often would you put wax on the neck? |
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Location: Tennessee | For me ... never. I've heard many people say that the natural oils in your hand are plenty good of the neck. But I help out the process.
I have a couple of nice cotton rags that I use to clean my fretboards. Since they have been in action for well over a decade now, the rags are totally infused with fretboard oil (I use Fret Doctor bore oil). They are not sloppy wet in the least, just a bit moist to the touch, so when I rub the necks with them they put a light coat of oil into the wood. I never add any oils to the rags for the neck (only one gets oil added for the fretboard ... the other rag is used for the wipe off and buff). About once I year, I take off the tuners make make sure I get a good rub on the entire neck, including the back of the headstock and especially on the front of the headstocks that have the natural walnut overlay.
I love these natural necks more than any other neck on any other guitar. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | I've never waxed a guitar neck. |
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Location: Steeler Nation, Hudson Valley Contingent | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
I've never waxed a guitar neck. Just glossed one now and again. 
Which brings up something I've been wondering. Is it possible to DIY a glossed neck. I'm having one done at the factory now, but it's pricey. I own at least two other guitars that I would like to have it done. What say all ye? |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Sure you can DIY. All you need is:
- compressor and spray gun
- filtered dust free spray booth
- buffing wheel |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | Good thing I found this thread. :) Can someone give me some easy-to-follow instructions on cleaning and caressing the FUD?
This is what I THINK, I'd have to do:
Cleaning should be done with Lemon-Oil. Rubbing it on the Neck, Fretboard and body and then use a clean rag to rub it dry.
How about waxing? Can I use any wax? I have a couple of scars on the body (due to excessive strumming in the first days ^^) (EDIT: I'm talking about the FUD'S body :D )
Can the body be waxed? Does it make sense at all?
I'd appreciate any good tips :) |
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| All the following is from a woodworker's perspective:
The problem with most wax products is their melting temperature. The heat from your hand alone, plus friction on the neck as you play, is enough to start to melt it. That'll make it feel sticky and slow your hand down.
Gloss necks - and guitar tops - don't need any surface application of oil or wax. The surface finish is a hard, impenetrable polymer, much harder and more durable than anything you'd put on top of it.
"Unfinished" necks aren't raw wood, either. Instead of a surface finish that acts as a barrier, they're given multiple applications of a penetrating oil (urethane, I believe, but there are others such as tung oil, etc.) that are hand-rubbed in. Natural oils from your hand will "condition" such necks, but if you don't play it daily or live in a really dry climate, you might need to apply a conditioning oil periodically. Some good conditioners are the nut oils (almond oil, walnut oil, etc.) I'm with Bobbo on Fret Doctor, great product.
You can clean a grungy fretboard with naptha and 0000 steel wool. That will dry out the surface and you'll need to condition it afterward.
I've said this before, but it bears repeating: most so-called "lemon oil" products are actually only about 10% lemon oil in a soup of organic solvents. Those solvents will actually suck up the natural oils in ebony and rosewood fretboards and take them along as they evaporate, drying out your fretboard even more. If you use "lemon oil" make sure it's 100% pure lemon oil. Mineral oil is just OK; it doesn't penetrate deeply into wood, most of it just sits on the surface and gets wiped away. Mineral oil is a poor choice for truly conditioning a dry fretboard.
Finally, Adamas walnut fretboards are impregnated with a resin at high temperature and pressure. That makes them just about as hard and durable as ebony. The resin is also a pretty impermeable barrier, so any conditioning you do to an Adamas fretboard is just to the very shallowest depths of the wood. |
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Location: closely held secret | Nice summary, Serge! |
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Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Just spray a little Pledge on a cloth and wipe it down. +1 |
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Location: Utah | Originally posted by Meuti:
Good thing I found this thread. :) Can someone give me some easy-to-follow instructions on cleaning and caressing the FUD?
This is what I THINK, I'd have to do:
Cleaning should be done with Lemon-Oil. Rubbing it on the Neck, Fretboard and body and then use a clean rag to rub it dry.
How about waxing? Can I use any wax? I have a couple of scars on the body (due to excessive strumming in the first days ^^) (EDIT: I'm talking about the FUD'S body :D )
Can the body be waxed? Does it make sense at all?
I'd appreciate any good tips :) Meuti, I have seen a lot of references to a product called "Fret Doctor". I'm going to give it a try. It is a blend of plant oils which penetrates the fretboard. It looks like a superior product. In the past I've used a product which I believe is mostly a mineral oil.
Many lemon oil products are not real lemon oil, or contain other products which may not be helpful to the fingerboard.
For the other wood surfaces I like to use Dunlop 65 brand cleaner and wax. The cleaner strips the old wax and crud off of the surface. Their wax is a real Carnuba wax which protects the surface.
I have not experienced any stickiness on the neck using the Carnuba wax, but it isn't necessary on the back of the neck in my opinion.
Avoid any product with silicone in it. It isn't harmful to your guitar, but silicone will cause major problems in the future if any kind of refinish needs to be done. Silicone prevents paints and clearcoats from sticking to the wood properly. |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | Wow, guys! Thank you for all those informations.
The back of the neck and the fretboard of my FUD feel a bit... I don't know a word, "used up" or "dirty"... I will give it a shot with some nut oil. Fret Doctor sounds really great but I couldn't find it in Germany yet. I'll keep on searching though. What I have also found is Dr. Duck\'s Ax Wax . Has anyone ever tried that? The descripiton on the homepage sounds pretty good to me.
The Carnuba-Wax is what I should use for the body? Is it neccessary and will it be able to "remove" or at least "reduce" the scars in the wood a little? Or will it just avoid new scars, when the body is freshly waxed?
I had no idea how thin-skinned the cedar top of the FD-14 really is. I was pretty shocked when I realized I bumped all those little scars in her only by strumming a few songs. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Meuti, the Josh White, Folklore and FD-14 were made for fingerpicking and are delightful fingerstyle guitars. I doesn't mean you can't use a pick on them, but since you have one of the best Ovations for fingerstyle, go for it. |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | Mark,
:D I know. I mainly do play fingerstyle. From time to time I like a little strumming, too. However I never use a pick. The scars were all "handmade". That's what surprised me so much. The top is really really sensitive. I wish I had known this BEFORE I "ruined" it :( |
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Location: SW Washington | here is a tip for using 0000 steel wool to clean up the fingerboard....wrap the steel wool around a small but powerful magnet and it will leave almost no 'filings' behind. After you are done, wrap the magnet in plastic and go over the fretboard again to get any that did managed to get left and then just peel the plastic off the magnet and toss it. Also, I have been using a product for over a decade now called 'Guitar Honey' on my fingerboards and I love the stuff! I believe Damon said he uses it too. But I bought a small bottle of it 13 or 14 years ago and I am still using the original bottle... A little bit goes a long way. Personally, I don't even wipe it off... I just apply it with a Q-tip and leave it. |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | Probably a good tip Dave. Thanks. But I don't dare to use steel wool on my FUD. yikes :D |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | I just ordered a bottle of Dr. Duck's Ax Wax. I'll let you know how it worked out. |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | Meuti - 2009-11-03 4:22 AM
I just ordered a bottle of Dr. Duck's Ax Wax. I'll let you know how it worked out.
...oooooops 
Erm...well, it worked out perfectly. I'm still using the very same bottle today and I just made two old *** guitars shine like new again. |
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Location: Cicero, NY | Well, thank GOD we can finally put THAT issue to rest. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Welcome back, Meuti. To borrow a phrase, with a name like Dr. Duck's Ax Wax, it better be good. Good thing I wasn't holding my breath for your report. We could have had so much fun with this back in the day. |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | :D It's nice to be back after 7 years and see some familiar faces or in that case user names! Makes you feel right at home. |
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Location: Flahdaw | I'm STILL waiting on your reviews of the Motorola Razr phone and the Pontiac Aztec. |
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Location: Colorado | Waiting for a review on the guitar strap amplifier |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | C'mon guys... all this off topic. Time to get back on the track here :D Darkbar, nice youtube you got there. The medley made me melt like WAX. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Cool old thread. Here's my thought on wax... Wax is designed to "seal and protect" A guitar's wood needs to breath. There is a reason we humidify instead of dry out. It's not a piece of furniture, unless you keep your dining room table in a case. Seriously wood furniture has mass, much more than the top of your guitar. And while the neck has some mass to it, it's generally several pieces of wood glued together, that flex. Sealed just doesn't sound like a good idea to me. There's not enough wood to hold the moisture you are "locking in" supposedly by sealing it. Was will cause it to dry out and crack.
I use Dunlop 65 on my guitars. It cleans and by it's nature encourages you to microfiber the stuff off so there is no residue. On fretboards I use Dunlop Neck Oil. I don't think it's a particularly magic formula, just a lemon oil based product. I always manage to score a little sample bottle at NAMM shows and that hold me over. It takes surprisingly little to breath life back into a neck. I have picked up guitars with dry fretboards. You can tell because the fretboard width actually shrank enough to where the frets stick out on each side. Not really visible, but you can feel it. Apply fret oil a few times and after a few weeks... neck is all rejuvenated again.
I don't know what the finish is on shiny necks, but it seems like it's polish more than wax. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I have a bottle of the Planet Waves spray cleaner that I've had forever, which shows that I don't use it enough. I also have the Dunlop 65 and I can't tell the difference between it and the Planet Waves stuff. Both work good and, like Miles says, take a little polishing. I think most, if not all, of my shiny necks are finished with urethane and I doubt that breathes much. I just use the same guitar polish on them. I use the Dunlop fretboard cleaner for those. I used a lot of it on my UKII recently. It was really dry and soaked a lot of it up. |
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Location: Flahdaw | No matter WHAT I use I can't get that weird slime/crud from my arm off the face of my guitars. I'm not even a slimy, sweaty person, but the inside of my forearm rests there the whole time I'm playing I guess, and over time skin oils are secreted. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Long sleeve shirt? Or a tube sock with the toes cut out?
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Location: Frozen Tundra of Minnesota | Darkbar - 2016-01-09 12:44 PM
No matter WHAT I use I can't get that weird slime/crud from my arm off the face of my guitars. I'm not even a slimy, sweaty person, but the inside of my forearm rests there the whole time I'm playing I guess, and over time skin oils are secreted.
Darkbar, try some Dawn dish soap (Blue)
It is what they use on the oil spilled animals, it is very, very gentle, and VERY good on oily/greasy substances.
I use it on everything.  |
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| Darkbar - 2016-01-09 10:44 AM
No matter WHAT I use I can't get that weird slime/crud from my arm off the face of my guitars. I'm not even a slimy, sweaty person, but the inside of my forearm rests there the whole time I'm playing I guess, and over time skin oils are secreted.
On coming back home from gigs and playing out in the summer, and finding that weird stuff on the edge of the soundboard, I just lay a damp rag on it for a bit while doing something else, and it then easily comes off. I don't time it, but 10-20 minutes should do it. if it only removes part of it, repeat the damp rag bit. It saves your guitar from unnecessary scrubbing.
I was told years ago that a lot of cleaning would be easier if people just used patience while waiting for plain old water to dissolve certain things. It's been good advice. |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany | Nice how this old thread got revived about the ax wax again: It does have a weird name and little is known what exactly it's made of, but it really worked it's magic for me. As I said, I recently had two really old and f'ded up guitars, that were hanging on my wall for ages. Especially the fretboards looked terrible. After rubbing the ax wax, letting it suck in for a while and polishing it out the fretboard came out like new. I wish I would have taken some before and after pics now... Anyways, I'm pretty sure it would have worked just as well with Dunlop 65 or any lemon oil. The point is though that actually a very small effort is needed to make our babies shine again. |
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Location: Utah | My Patriot has a well loved finish. No major issues but plenty of pick haze and similar small surface hazing. I don't dare polish it with abrasives any more than I already have, as the finish seems paper thin to begin with. A decent wax job really makes it shine like new. I don't wax the back of the neck or the headstock. |
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Wax