clean my neck

[jhollon]

i just bought a vintage strat neck (from ebay of course). When i got it yesterday in the mail i was real happy except for one thing, it is kind of dirty especially around the frets from skin oils and such i would guess. Can anyone out there tell me the best way to scrub that puppy down to get rid of the dirt and clean up the frets themselves. I aint worried about it being "like-new", i just want it cleaned up so that it feels clean and looks the part if you know what i mean. Basically, i want to remove all of the dirt from around the frets and on the fingerboard itself without digging into the finish or the wood. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Runewalker]

jhollon said:

i just bought a vintage strat neck (from ebay of course). When i got it yesterday in the mail i was real happy except for one thing, it is kind of dirty especially around the frets from skin oils and such i would guess. Can anyone out there tell me the best way to scrub that puppy down to get rid of the dirt and clean up the frets themselves. I aint worried about it being "like-new", i just want it cleaned up so that it feels clean and looks the part if you know what i mean. Basically, i want to remove all of the dirt from around the frets and on the fingerboard itself without digging into the finish or the wood. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

Methods differ slightly depending on finished maple vs. unfinished wood (rosewood, ebony, etc). Least invasive method is to use toothpicks and go down the sides of the frets 'scraping' out the funk.

It is difficult to get everything without using some sort of fluid and soft rags. This is where disagreement between those with opinions occurs.

Assuming I have on hand a restorative fretboard oil, I am comfortable with using Naptha. It will cause some drying in open pore wood. but it will assist in pulling out the gunk adjacent to the frets and in the surface pores. The drying is in my opinion helpful then for restoring the oils with a fretboard oil. Stewmac and others have some. I think Erlewine advocates unboiled linseed oil, but that is hard to find at hardware stores. If you could find it at a hardware store it would be much less expensive than the Stewmac liquid gold. But you don't need much. Anyway, instructions are included with the guitar site sourced products.

Most advise against using grocery store lemon oil, as that has petroleum distillates.

Maple depends on the finish. Lacquer requires more care. I am not sure about Naptha and lacquer, but the modern polys seem to stand up to almost anything. After you clean you need a thorough drying with soft rags and buffing.

the normal steps for this procedure are:

• Soften the gunk with naptha (if you can use it)
  
• use the tooth picks (hard enough to clear the gunk, soft enough to avoid damage)
  
• more cleaning with naptha and rags
  
• Examine closely with magnifications
  
• Get the residual gunk
  
• Mask the board and trim to expose frets
  
• polish the frets
  
• remove masking
  
• oil the board and let sit a bit to soak the pores
  
• remove the surface oil
  
• apply another slick of oil
  
• wipe down with soft rags
  
• final soft rag buffing
  

If you do these things you will see and feel a demonstrable improvement. And get rid of other funky guitarist's coodies.

[jhollon]

it is maple. sorry, forgot to include it.

found this, do you think it will work, the before and after pics are incredible.

www.jemsite.com/tech/3other.htm#fbclean

[ccso8462]

Hey Rune,
I see you are reccomending against lemon oil due to the petroleum distillates. I remember seeing some discussion of the use of lemon oil in the forums before, but there are apparently different types of it. I used some on a rosewood fingerboard and it really made it look better. Can you enlighten me a little?

Also, I've used boiled linseed oil before on non-guitar projects, but I see you mention unboiled oil. Can you tell me a little about that, too?

Thanks in advance!
Carl

[darguitar]

As it's a maple board, as long as there are no bare spots, I would simply recommend some guitar polish, a cleaning cloth, and your longest nail!! It should be relatively easy to clean a laquered maple fingerboard. A little patience and elbow grease should get it clean in no time!

[sharpgt]

in my experiance the best and safest items to use in cleaning guitars, or anything else for that matter, are your fingernail (gently, it can dent softer woods), a 'q-tip', and your own saliva (sounds gross, but it works really well and it's safe. art-restoration workers in museums use spit because it is the strongest solvent/cleaner that won't damage woods, oil paints, or other important stuff)

[jefesq]

Soft toothbrush?

[pollyshero]

Naptha (also known as lighter fluid) and elbow grease will clean any neck, regardless of finish, safely and effectively. The key is to not saturate. Use two cloths - one clean and dry, the other DAMP with naptha. Take your naptha DAMPENED cloth and scrub a small area (no more than one or two fret spaces or two to three inches). Wipe the area with the dry cloth. Repeat until clean, then move on to the next dirty area. For seriously grungy spots, use a soft toothbrush. Use your fingernail as a scraper if need be. Use good old saliva on spots the naptha won't clean.

On unfinished surfaces (rosewood/ebony/maple where finish has worn through to wood), you'll want to apply an oil (linseed or your favorite polish) 'cause naptha will dry out unfinished wood. It'll also dry out your skin - WEAR POLY OR LATEX GLOVES. Eye protection would be a splendid idea as well (unless you're a blues player and want to be known as "Blind-Something-Or-Other" later in life.

Good luck.

[sumgai]

That would be Blind Melon Chitlin, no? ;D

[jkemmery]

I see you are reccomending against lemon oil due to the petroleum distillates. I remember seeing some discussion of the use of lemon oil in the forums before, but there are apparently different types of it. I used some on a rosewood fingerboard and it really made it look better. Can you enlighten me a little?

Also, I've used boiled linseed oil before on non-guitar projects, but I see you mention unboiled oil. Can you tell me a little about that, too?

I'll throw my $.02 for what it's worth with my experience. Some recommend against lemon oil, but I have always heard it was because of it's acidity. Many guitar restorers prefer teak oil, but, you need to beware of "teak oil finish", while this may be OK for the body of your guitar, it's basically like a varnish. If you are going to use teak oil on an unfinished fretboard, make sure it's 100% pure teak oil. I'm not a big fan of raw linseed oil because it turns gummy over time and repeated use will cause a buildup of said gum in the areas of the fingerboard between the edge of the frets and where your fingers normally fall, which will again require another cleaning and re-oiling. Boiled linseed oil is more akin to a varnish as it dries or cures to a semi-hard coat. Lemon oil based furniture polish is what I prefer to use, because it is cheap and leaves no residue like linseed oil. Here's a link to another guitarist with a similar opinion and explanations:

www.muzique.com/schem/fret.htm

Dunlop makes a lemon oil based compound for fretboard care, but since Fromby's and/or Old English are sold at Wal-Mart or similar stores, and really seems be be very, very similar, if not exactly the same stuff as the Dunlop, that's what I prefer to use. Basically, it's a petroleum based oil with a small amount of lemon oil added for scent. Avoid any spray on "lemon oil" furniture polish, as those contain waxes. Get the liquid polish. I've had very good luck with those.

Here's a discussion on a banjo forum:

www.desertrosebanjo.com/newsletter4.html

Note the section on linseed oil. I would personally avoid those for fingerboards. At the bottom of the page even WD-40 gets a nod as an acceptable finish, although I have my doubts, the author claims many factories use it. For what it's worth, he prefers to use sesame oil sold as cooking oil, which would be rather cheap, available and guaranteed to be natural. I may even try it sometime myself, I hadn't heard of that.

[sumgai]

If I had to use something meant for furniture, I'd pick on Scott's Liquid Gold. Seems to work for me, no buildup after some period of time, and doesn't need a lot of elbow grease to make the swirls go away.

For cleaning the neck's backside, where you want a bit of slippery, yet not completely frictionless, I use a two-part cleaning system meant for pool cues. One day I thought........ "Hmmmm, maple cue shaft, maple neck, both need to be slick, hmmmmm........" Made sense to me, so I tried it - I ain't ever goin' back!

The cleaner is called Sil Kleen, and the polish compound is called Cue Silk. I keep them in the case, along with two rags, one's a piece of an old t-shirt, and the other is piece of flannel, for buffing. I do this about every 4 or 5 hours of playing time, but as usual, YMMV.

If you don't have a good Pool/Billiards outlet near you, just google the two names, supply sources are abundant.

HTH



sumgai

[Ripper]

We search and try and find the "Just right" method for cleaning our beloved guitars, yet if the china cabinet needs a good rub-down...

ya, ya,...Ill get to it later. ;D