Official Luthiers Forum!

Whats the best way to clean off a build up of finger grunge on a fingerboard? ...you know what I'm talkin' about... should it be scraped first and then followed up with some kind of solvent? ...or just hit with solvent and wiped off?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I usually use lemon oil. How bad is it? I once had a client bring in a guitar that had so much crud on the fingerboard, that it was above the frets! (he played a single in a dark club and never took it home)

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Same....lemon oil and for really bad grunge a light "with the grain" buff with 0000 steel wool.

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Blue Ring Acoustics
blueringacoustics.ca

I've used the linoleum knife blade scrape several times with great results. It leaves a nice smooth finish without any sanding. It was a bit intimidating at first, but it's easy and fast. No taping. A quick swab with some lemon oil, buff the frets with an old piece of leather and the FB looks new.

For ebony and rosewood boards +1 for OOOO steel wool first in the direction of the frets so you can get right next to them and then in the direction of the neck to remove any cross grain scratches. The steel wool does the heavy lifting of finger jam.... then I treat the board with Howard Feed-n-wax.

For Fender style maple necks and boards that have finish on them naphtha again in the direction of the frets on a quality, soft paper towel (Bounty "select-a-size") and then once the green cast is off the frets and the gunk is gone from the board I use a quality guitar polish on the finished board.

If I am dressing the frets or replacing some or all of them I skip the OOOO steel wool and go right to scraping with a single edged razor blade following up with 320 quad-folded paper used to floss/sand the sides of the frets getting the board at the same time and then off to the fret buffer.

Murphey's oil soap and 0000 steel wool, with the frets and then with the grain, followed by a light lemon oiling. Makes even the worst FB look like new.

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It will probably be alright.

I quit using steel wool back in the 70's. The little pieces would hurt my fingers, get under my fingernails, stick to all the pickups of every electric guitar on my bench, and rusted when you got a little water on them. Tried brasswool.... still hurt my fingers. Switched to Scotchbrite and never looked back.

Steel wool is so last century.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

If using steel wool it's important to tape off the pups AND use a quality vac to remove the excess. I also remove the tape from the bridge pup first since it rarely has any steel wool on it and put it down on top of the tape for the neck or center pup to help contain any steel wool particles that are sticking to the magnets through the tape. Easy peezy and what lots of Luthiers learned to do likely in the last century as well....

As mentioned before our volume of work likely exceeds most folks here and we have never had any issues with steel wool provided, just like with anything else, you take precautions and work smart. You don't stick your hand in a whirling saw blade, you wear safety glasses when using many tools and like wise when using steel wool with magnetic pups present taping them off does the trick.

Where I have had steel wool issues is with the "mag-safe" power jacks on Macs, they like to pick-up the steel wool and that can interfere with the connection come charging time. Masking tape can be your friend...

We use scotch bite too but not for cleaning boards for two reasons: First I have yet to find scotchbrite that leaves as few scratches as quality OOOO steel wool and second when I clean a board I want the thing really clean. With steel wool I can mash it right up close and personal to the fret sides, scotchbrite not so much. Scotchbrite is great stuff I simply prefer steel wool, precautions, working smart, etc.

Steel wool is fine but I don't use it. In '98, I bought the Guitar Finishing book from Stew Mac and after I read it, I tossed out all my steel wool and so far I have not really missed it at all. Instead, I use a variety of abrasives like the scotch bright abrasive pads which are made in 3 grits. Steel wool seems messy to me and there are so many new abrasives around that I like better. Has any one tried one of those magic erasures on a grungy fingerboard?

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http://www.cushmanguitars.com/.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

Never tried the erasers, Matt but it sound like it's worth a try. What ever works best AND is economical since I typically do 5 or so set-ups daily would work for me. Steel wool is messy that's for sure.

Well Hesh you're the man when it comes to these situations. So I have a question for you. I'm not what you'd call a luthier. I'm seventy years old in two months. Got my first guitar when I was four. Played my first paying job my first year of high school. Just a way to let you know I've been playing and working on my own guitars for awhile. I've used steel wool. I have the StewMac fret erasers. But wait for it...... Lately I've been squirting a little 409 on the fretboard wiping it off really fast. Guess what all that grunge comes off and I don't scratch nuttin no matter which way I wipe it off. Then I check the frets out. Apply Lemon oil on the fretboard. I do use steel wool with the grain #0000 of course. Am I destroying my fretboards with the 409? Please be gentle kind sir. BTW howya been?


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Don't know if 409 (great stuff by the way) could be problematic on the board especially when as you said you wipe it up pretty fast. I used distilled water to clean really dirty guitars but where there is finish not on bare wood and the water lifts most of the dirt and then I go to conventional guitar cleaners/polish.

My only experience with 409 was with sailboat racing. It leaves a very thin polymer type film that makes the hulls slicker than snot and has helped me win races in the past.

This is one of those questions where who knows, lots of folks have been doing things lots of ways for all of time and just because I'm ignorant.... to say 409 does not mean it's a bad thing. Just don't know bro but if it works for you maybe you are on to something.

Had a guy last week tell us to use Pledge... that awful furniture polish and he has been using it for decades on his $75,000 archtops. Didn't have the heart to tell him that the silicon in the stuff will make finish repairs/restoration a nightmare someday.... But it works for him and he's an old guy so I kind of sort of decided to stifle myself since he may not be around when or if this is an issue. Would hate to be the one to burst someone's bubble so-to-speak when at the end of the day what's it matter now.... Reminds me of a tune, Lemon Pledge and the Damage Done....

Yea I was a little concerned before I used the 409 but it was an old Kay arch top with problems. Least of which was a grungy fretboard Lol. So I said lets see. Cleaned it up. I dried it well and used Lemon pled....er I mean oil. Brought the fretboard back to pretty again. Yes I know about old guys I are one. I still own all the guitars I've used it on. I try to avoid customers if at all possible. I have a girl second cousin wanting an appraisal on an old Fender acoustic. Now she lives in California me in Tennessee. So it's going to be a long distance appraisal. She sent two pictures for me to look at and asked me how much might it be worth. Sigh!!!!! I'm sure you've been there jumped that. Anyway I told her what photos,what angles to photograph. Explained how she would have to draw attn: to any owies and such. So we'll see how it works out. Don't know if I'd squirt 409 on a customers guitar. But seeing as how I don't want no stinking customer I just might squirt any potential customers I see.
Last customer I had was a couple of years ago. He was 20 years older then me and kinda famous around Nashville and such. He brought an old Martin he'd bought over and wanted the first three frets replaced. I did so and had it playing very nicely. About 3 days later he calls me up and asked if I could work on the height of the string action. I asked what's wrong with the string action? He says it's really high. When it left here Thursday pm the action was perfect what did you do to it? He told me Billy T. another Tech in another small town told him he should make sure his guitar stays humidified. So he put some kind of gizmo down in it and the tension on the strings had tried to fold the guitar into half. I looked at it and sent him to Billy T I told him that he was lots better on these kind of things than I am. Goodbye old fella. I talked to Billy later as we're friends. He said he lowered the saddle some but the old man had kinda figured he screwed it up. You have a nice day my friend. Paul Verticchio says hi btw.


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