Fingerboard maintance

[Tom Mc1]

I have guitars with eboney and rosewood finger boards. Do you oil them? Will this effect the strings?

[isaac42]

I recently oiled the fingerboard on my Epiphone Casino. I don't think it affects the strings. In my experience, strings rarely actually touch the fretboard. If you're worried, wipe down the strings after playing, which you should probably do anyway.

[WRGKMC]

Pledge Lemon oil is 99% mineral oil with a little lemon scent. Mineral oil doesn't hurt a fretboard and will clean it quite well. I usually give mine a quick clean between string changes or when I do fret work to polish my frets. I cant imagine some people neglecting a fretboard so long where dirt actually builds up. I wouldn't want to visit their house because they are likely the same kind of people who let an inch of crud build up on door knobs and toilet seats.

 

The oil wont hurt the string if you got it on them and can actually serve to protect them. I often use a little on a paper towel to remove dirt on old strings. It helps lubricate them so you don't get so much fret wear bending strings

 

It can dull the sound if you leave a lot behind however, especially on the wrapped strings where the oil wicks up in the wraps. This can attract even more dirt, so I don't suggest treating new strings with it. With old strings you can get a little rejuvenation. A better thing for them is WD40 which is a moisture inhibitor. You can use a 50/50 solution of alcohol and WD40 to clean and protect strings. Just be sure you have no gold hardware on the guitar because it will remove gold plating right off the metal.

 

In all cases I do suggest you do the fretboard between string changes. Mineral soaks in and dries very quickly after you wipe off the excess cleaning. I creates a protective barrier after it dries and prevents dirt from collecting for a matter of months. You can also get the expensive stuff but most contain a good deal of mineral oil so you aren't going to get much more benefit from using them.

[isaac42]

I'm sure there's no more than a centimeter of crud built up on my door knobs and toilet seats!

[Tom Mc1]

This is a really good question. What do you use a product on rosewood or ebony finger boards? I haven't used anything on my guitars lately but in the past I used a Martin fretboard conditioner. I don't know whats in it.

[Idunno]

Nothing. Never have, never will. It's the fact that people think they need to do something that gets them in trouble. Being a maid to the fretboard is admirable, yes, needful, no. A tooth brush can be used to lightly remove built-up soil adjacent to the fret wires. Keep this in mind: When/if you introduce any kind of oil into the wood of the fretboard you're creating a sticky place for dirt to adhere to. Don't do that. Dead wood does not need to be oiled or otherwise mothered. It will not rot or become detrimentally affected if never tended to. There are trees in forests the world over, some going back 2-3000 years and still standing, and guess what? Nothing is wrong with them. Their deadwood is still as usefully dead as ever and structurally intact.

 

Structures still standing built with timbers hundreds of years ago don't need oiling. In the UK, destructive wood pests are not a problem and wooden framed structures date back hundreds of years. They're as sound now as when they were originally built. You won't find a resident oiling the timbers of their structures.

 

A light cleaning with a water-dampened rag and a toothbrush is something you can do between string changes to remove built up dirt. I change my strings every 3 weeks and clean the board every 3rd change. If you go longer than that keep a rag handy and pass it under your strings at the sound hole. Wrap a portion of the rag over the top of the strings and then slide the rag up to the nut lightly wiping as you go. This will get much of the dirt off the strings. Best preventative measure is to thoroughly wash your hands before you play.

[WRGKMC]

I'll have to disagree. A dried fretboard can split and crack. It can lead to the fret wire or binding to come loose. The fretwire may start to feel jagged as you run your hand up or down the neck. This is a sure sign that your guitar is drying out. Plus it looks so much better when a fretboard is clean and conditioned, unless you are into the old, dirty, cracked and broken look. A healthy fretboard will extend the life of your guitar and lower the need of repair and also raising the value of vintage instruments.

 

Mineral oil dries and does not collect additional dirt. It in fact it waterproofs the fretboard and prevents sweat from the hands from penetrating the wood and staining it. It also keeps the wood from drying out which preserves how long that fretboard will last. If you've ever done Luthier work for a living and seen the difference in vintage instruments, its easy to spot the guitars that were maintained and those that weren't. You can have two guitars of the same type, wood and age and the ones that had the fret boards maintained have far fewer issues then ones that were left to the elements. I've done enough re-frets in my time to know which ones are likely to chip pulling frets because the owner neglected to treat the fretboard.

[ewizard]

Ebony is a tricky one. It is such a hard wood, that I don't think many oils will really absorb into it anyway. I would say that cleaning it every once and a while is a better regimen than not cleaning it at all. If you do clean it, use mineral oil or any other fretboard cleaner that says it's safe for use on ebony. Ebony it'self is naturally oily and when you play your fingers get oil onto the wood as well. The gunk you see on your fretboards is oil and dirt. I prefer to clean it off cause I think it looks better. I don't clean the neck so much for maintenance sake as much as knowing it needs to be cleaned. Unfinished necks will probably be better suited with oil baths more often than that of a finished neck. I say clean it regularly with mineral oil or boiled linseed oil, but you probably don't have to do it but a few times a year.

[WRGKMC]

My Paul has an Ebony Fretboard. It will absorb a little mineral oil but not much. Most of it evaporates without penetrating anyway. You don't need much for cleaning and it does protect the wood from dirt from getting into the wood in the first place.

 

I did two fret leveling jobs this week. Both were in really bad shape and needed allot of crowning afterwards. The one had allot of scratches on the wood so I used super fine sandpaper and mineral oil on the fret boards going with the grain. I also used some steel wool to polish out some spots. When I wiped off the excess oil you'd think then were brand new again. This guy is going to be super happy when he gets these back..

 

He'll actually be able to bend the strings without them getting caught is deep trenches cut into the frets. I noticed this guy never learned to install strings properly too. Its probably why all his guitars have Floyds and locking nuts. If he knew how to wrap the tuning posts properly he wouldn't need all that crap, and probably get much better tones too. He's into metal stuff and has the pickups adjusted so high you can barely get a piece of paper between the strings and the pickups. No wonder he was having intonation problems and string buzz with the magnets pulling the strings down like that.

 

 

[AMZ-FX]

Here is my page of fretboard maintenance:

 

http://www.muzique.com/schem/fret.htm

 

regards, Jack

[Joseph Smith]

I've used a little mineral oil to clean a fretboard when there are signs of dryness. If it only needs to be cleaned, I'll use naphtha.

 

I don't use either on a regular basis; only when needed.

 

I don't have any ebony fretboards, though, so I'm not sure if either is safe for use on that.

[Idunno]

Oil does not evaporate. It soaks in. Once there it does nothing to cure any woes a fretboard has because dead wood does not have any. It merely needs to be kept at a relative humidity level of around 47 %. Over years of repeated use oil will attack and dissolve the glues binding the board to the neck, and loosens inlays, once it finally penetrates that deep. Fretboard bindings will comes loose first.

 

Oil does not clean, either. It actually attracts dirt.

 

A soft cloth dampened in water is all that's needed to clean a board. Damp - not wet. A soft bristle toothbrush is great for cleaning off the smooge that can cake up adjacent to the fret wires.

 

This bit of conjuring up of untruths about the care-taking of guitars is typical forum ignorance. Call your guitar makers and give them a link to this thread. They'll get a good chuckle out of it and then maybe advise those who own their products that they're risking their warranties, or worse, risking irreparable damage to their guitars.

[Timfever]

I'm in the "definitely oil your fingerboard" camp too...I've had a Telecaster and one of my SGs since I was a teenager and the RW and ebony fingerboards (the SG's ebony more so than the Tele's RW...) were both starting to dry up and get gnarly after a while. I was chatting with a tech or sales guy (at one of the Musician's Friends stores that GC bought out...and where I worked a few years later) who told me to hit RW or Ebony boards with some Naphtha (being CAREFUL to avoid reenacting that scene in Carrie or whatever, of course) at least once a year when changing strings, then use some lemon oil (being careful not to douse the frets etc) to wipe the board down, let it sink in for 20-30 min, and wipe off any residue.

 

What do you guys think about the Naphtha? I always feel antiquated/medieval using it but haven't found anything that works better. and oh yeah, both of those guitars' fingerboards are immaculate these days.

[AMZ-FX]

What do you guys think about the Naphtha? I always feel antiquated/medieval using it but haven't found anything that works better. and oh yeah' date=' both of those guitars' fingerboards are immaculate these days. [/quote']

 

Naptha is too strong of a solvent to be used over the long term. The oils used in the furniture type products are less aggressive.

 

A little goes a long way so just use it sparingly to wipe down and then carefully clean off any excess.

 

I would never use a water-based product on raw wood. It will expand the fibers, then as it evaporates the fibers contract again. Too much (or too little) moisture is not good for guitar woods.

 

Taylor Guitars, for example, sell their own brand of fretboard oil: https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylorware/fretboard-oil

 

Best regards, Jack

 

[ewizard]

What's funny is that the Taylor made stuff is probably Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

 

Here are the brass tacks. Anything that is fluid in nature will release the dirt and grim from the fretboard. Anything that is fluid will absorb to some degree into the fretboard. I prefer using cleaners that are meant for fretboards, however linseed oil and other such cleaners have been around much longer than your common run of the mill fretboard cleaner stuff. It stands to reason that anything is better than nothing. Water would be the only real no-no on unfinished wood. If the goal is to keep the wood moist, then even motor oil could do the trick.

[Paully1]

Mineral/baby oil 'Nuff said