How do you clean a moldy, mildewy smelling old guitar case?

[Pig Vomit]

I have a cool old alligator skin looking strat/tele case from the early 60's. If smells very funky inside though- like it's been in a damp dungeon for 40 years.

It has a bad musty smell that fill the room when you open the case. I never leave my guitar in it, but I'd like to save the case. Ideas??

[BobbaFret]

Fire.

[GretschGuy]

maybe baking soda? Some relic lover would probably pay you for it though

[DaveAronow]

Good question. How do you get cat piss smell out of a guitar case?

[FUBTAG]

 

I have a cool old alligator skin looking strat/tele case from the early 60's. If smells very funky inside though- like it's been in a damp dungeon for 40 years. It has a bad musty smell that fill the room when you open the case. I never leave my guitar in it, but I'd like to save the case. Ideas??

 

 

Febreze

[Kid Klash]

Get yourself a can of spray Lysol. Take the case outside on a warm day, but put it in the shade someware and open it up. Spray the Lysol all over the interior and let it sit so that the Lysol evaporates. Do it again an hour later. Let it sit there in the shade to air out for as long as you can (multiple days would be good). When you're ready to move it inside, it'll still smell a bit like mildew, along with the Lysol smell... that's OK - the mildew should be dead because of the alcohol in the Lysol. Buy a new box of baking soda, and dump it into a clean glass or metal pie plate; put the pie plate into the case, close the case and put the case onto a shelf in a warm, dry room or garage. Leave it sit for a week. The smell should be gone. If ther is ANY stink remaining, buy a new box of baking soda and repeat for another week. his worked great for a 53 Les Paul case that was in the same shape.

 

[Kid Klash]

 

Good question. How do you get cat piss smell out of a guitar case?

 

 

Same as above.

[Mkoris]

I use something called Rodalon or Atamon for stuff like that. It also works for cat pee and essentially all kinds of fungi smells.

The active stuff in Rodalon is Benzalkonium Chloride and it kills all water based microorganisms.

The active stuff in Atamon is Natriumbenzoat and is used for conservating organic stuff.

[basschick22]

Get yourself a can of spray Lysol. Take the case outside on a warm day, but put it in the shade someware and open it up. Spray the Lysol all over the interior and let it sit so that the Lysol evaporates. Do it again an hour later. Let it sit there in the shade to air out for as long as you can (multiple days would be good). When you're ready to move it inside, it'll still smell a bit like mildew, along with the Lysol smell... that's OK - the mildew should be dead because of the alcohol in the Lysol. Buy a new box of baking soda, and dump it into a clean glass or metal pie plate; put the pie plate into the case, close the case and put the case onto a shelf in a warm, dry room or garage. Leave it sit for a week. The smell should be gone. If ther is ANY stink remaining, buy a new box of baking soda and repeat for another week. his worked great for a 53 Les Paul case that was in the same shape.

 

 

Do you have issues with any residual Lysol reacting with a guitar's finish when put in that case?

 

a smelly case is one thing, but a ruined finish is something quite worse.

[GodBlessTexas]

Get yourself a can of spray Lysol. Take the case outside on a warm day, but put it in the shade someware and open it up. Spray the Lysol all over the interior and let it sit so that the Lysol evaporates. Do it again an hour later. Let it sit there in the shade to air out for as long as you can (multiple days would be good). When you're ready to move it inside, it'll still smell a bit like mildew, along with the Lysol smell... that's OK - the mildew should be dead because of the alcohol in the Lysol. Buy a new box of baking soda, and dump it into a clean glass or metal pie plate; put the pie plate into the case, close the case and put the case onto a shelf in a warm, dry room or garage. Leave it sit for a week. The smell should be gone. If ther is ANY stink remaining, buy a new box of baking soda and repeat for another week. his worked great for a 53 Les Paul case that was in the same shape.

 

Yep, that method works well, and I've used it. If you need it faster or don't have time to wait, take it to a car detailing place and have them use an ozone generator on it. That's how they get cigarette smell out of cars.

[Kid Klash]

 

Do you have issues with any residual Lysol reacting with a guitar's finish when put in that case? a smelly case is one thing, but a ruined finish is something quite worse.

 

 

Didn't hurt the finish on my old goldtop.

 

As I mentioned, you've got to let the Lysol evaporate before putting your guitar into the case. If you follow the suggestions I posted above, you'll be fine. The Lysol kills the mold and mildew, and the baking soda kills the stink.

 

As a side note, I bought a bunch of the inexpensive black "tolexed" hardshell guitar cases from MF (the $40 ones) for a bunch of my oddball guitars. These cases are pretty decent for the money, and are perfect for storing guitars (MUCH safer than guitar bags). Anyway, these cases are Chinese-made, and reek something terrible when you first open them. My guess is that they spent at least a month in the hold of an ocean freighter, and the mildew/chemical smell just about knocked me over. So, I did the Lysol and baking soda routine on each one (which included time to make certain the alcohol-based Lysol evaporated completely), and it took care of the stink in every case. Not a bit of discoloration to the guitar's finish, or the case interiors (including very old cases and nitro lacquer-finished guitars).

[Nananine]

The other thread about case cleaning had some excellent advice. I used Tuff Stuff foam car interior cleaner on the inside fur. Follow the instructions exactly: spray the fur with an even coat and let it sit for 60 seconds. Scrub the foam with a damp cloth, then wipe clean with a dry cloth. Let it sit until it's dry and repeat as necessary. After that, Febreze it once or twice and let it air out.

 

I had a nasty, crust punked up case that cleaned up wonderfully after this.