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Location: Texas | This has probably been visited many times but I am lazy today and don't want to look back. What is the best thing to use to clean the fret board? Mineral oil, furniture polish, goose grease :)
Anybody....anybod? |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | I don't know about cleaning, but the last step should be to treat ebony or rosewood f/b's with mineral oil. I don't know what to use on walnut boards. Dave |
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Location: Germany | For cleaning I use warm water. For conditioning I use Dunlop 6554 lemon oil. This oil should not be used on maple fretboards but works great with ebony and walnut.
Karl |
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Location: Minden, Nebraska | Goose grease is a 'natural' version of a product called Finger Ease a lot of us used on strings back in the day. Use sparingly, it won't take much to make your strings 'slick as snot'.
:eek: |
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Location: NJ | I have a powerwasher with a 6 hp honda motor it works just fine. |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | Dunlop 6554 "ultimate lemon oil". |
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Location: Texas | All I have here is Old English oil polish - will that work? |
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Location: NJ | I wouldn't use it (at least repeatedly) as it's pretty much just petroleum with some LemmieSmell) . . . |
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Location: Illinois, U.S.A. | Next trip to the grocer's, get some lemon oil or walnut oil .... |
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Location: Minden, Nebraska | I've used Old English, but Cliff's right (which happens occasionally); it truly isn't a good product to use repeatedly. |
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Location: SoCal | This stuff works: Bore Doctor/Fret Doctor |
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Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Leslie: see my reply on the other post and I'll call later!
;) |
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Location: New South Wales, Australia | I recently used an old toothbrush and a slightly damp cloth...first time I'd done it in a couple of years and it came up great |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by ozwatto:
I recently used an old toothbrush and a slightly damp cloth...first time I'd done it in a couple of years and it came up great  |
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Location: Brisbane Australia | Interesting Ivory inlays :D :D |
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Location: Texas | Noah - I will never get that image out of my head. Thank you very much! :D :eek: |
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Location: SoCal | Lookin' a little long in the tooth? |
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Location: Texas | Long in the tooth? That is an insult to a horse :D :D :D |
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Location: SoCal | Leslie, sorry about the photo.
Try that bore oil. I've had great results with it.
Oz, email me your address and I'll get some NEW toothbrushes out to you! |
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Location: Texas | Cliff - I was just kidding - but I will have nightmares over those teeth. Wonder what finally got him/her to go the dentist. Oh, American Idol is about to start up again - needs new teeth. :o :D |
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Location: Omaha, NE | To clean a fretboard, I just give it a good scrub across the grain with 000 steel wool. This will polish up the frets a bit too. I'm not big on cleaning guitars, so I don't do this more than once a year or so.
Depending on the circumstances, you might want to mask off the body of the guitar to prevent scratches.
If you like, you can put a tiny, tiny amount of mineral oil on the wood to make it shiny. Be sure to thoroughly wipe off any excess. |
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Posts: 146
Location: Japan | Originally posted by vision:
All I have here is Old English oil polish - will that work? I just finished doing all my fingerboards using Old English lemon oil.
It's not very expensive and makes a nice companion for the regular Old English to put in the cupboard. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | OK, gotta put in my 20 pesos. I use the Old English (800) Lemon crap too.
I wipe it on, let it set for a minute or two, and then wipe it off... Digging my thumbnail into the cracks along the fret where all the dead skin and dust collect. Then wipe-off. Anything that sinks in was probably needed anyway.
But the Disclaimer is; Someone posted earlier that Lemon Oil is not good for guitar wood!?!
It hasn't hurt mine, and I don't really think that there is That Much lemon oil in that stuff.
They don't list the ingredients, but they do tell you to call Poison Control IMMEDIATELY if you drink the stuff. :p |
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Location: SoCal | don't see why baby oil wouldn't work as it is listed as "pure mineral oil". |
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Location: Central Massachusetts | At the Care and Feeding Tour Workshop, Kim Keller told us to make sure not to use anything with Lemon Oil in it. Lemon Oil = citric acid = bad. YMMV, as they say.
His recommendation was to use the pure mineral oil located in the pharmacy/medicine dept. at your favorite department store (Target, Walgreens, CVS, etc.) .. I picked up enough at Bimart to last me for years for less than two bucks. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | You don't want to use anything with citrus or solvents as those will dry out your fretboard. Dave |
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Location: Shotley Bridge, Northern England | I use a piece of Scotchbrite pan scourer (the kind with a shaped sponge back glued to it: just cut off a slice an inch wide). That's very good at removing the finger poo that can accumulate on the fingerboard, especially right up against the frets). Rub briskly across the fingerboard. I'm another lemon oil user too; wipe on; then wipe off.
HW |
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Posts: 5567
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Scotchbrite That's my secret as well...it will also clean and polish the frets using a lite oil…fretboard oil available at Stew. Mac. works great; go across the fret board parallel to the frets; and light pressure, not heavy! It works like magic! |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Y'know how guys are with new tools? You look for ways to use it everywhere?
Well, I just got this high pressure water cleaner....
man does it take off the gunk! |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I thought this topic was a euphemism... |
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Location: Bluffton, SC | Wrong channel and don't you hate that?
It was years before I could watch "Three Men and a Baby". (And then I regretted it anyway) |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Are you wanting to clean, or oil the fretboard?
If you want to clean it, use naptha, and use a tooth brush to get out gunk from the frets, (take the strings off first!), and be gentil, then apply mineral oil (the kind you get at the drug store) and wipe up the excess.
Simple, and you probably already have the stuff in your house and it's cheap. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I wouldn't use baby oil, because it's got scent put in it and other stuff. You want the mineral oil that you can eat when you're constipated. |
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Location: Bluffton, SC | "You want the mineral oil that you can eat when you're constipated."
Interesting. Wonder if my m-i-l's meatloaf would work. |
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Location: CT | I just ordered a bottle of the Fret Doctor stuff. Can't wait to see how it works. |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by dvd:
...His recommendation was to use the pure mineral oil located in the pharmacy/medicine dept...I picked up enough at Bimart to last me for years for less than two bucks. Fleet Laboratories has been the #1 provider of Pure Mineral Oil.
Musicians ask for it by name at their local pharmacy.
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November 2005
Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | Frank Ford has a great web site called Frets.com. This is the single best overall guitar repair and maintenance resource on the net (IMHO). He's covers about everything...including fingerboard cleaning . |
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Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | Originally posted by an4340:
I wouldn't use baby oil, because it's got scent put in it and other stuff. You want the mineral oil that you can eat when you're constipated. All mineral oil is not the same. What you want is heavy mineral oil. It's very cheap and can be taken internally as a laxative. Baby oil is light mineral oil. I've also used the Old English Lemon stuff and I've found that it works OK as a cleaner with very fine steel wool. Now I use mineral oil and I clean the fretboard with steel wool and a few drops of it. I do it each time that I change strings. |
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Posts: 4833
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by Weaser P:
It was years before I could watch "Three Men and a Baby". NOT to be confused with "Three Men & a Babe"... a completely different genre.
Though they do use a lot of mineral oil,
which is why I thought it was on topic.... |
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cleaning the fret board