What are you using to clean and treat your fretboards?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bhuard75
  • Start date Start date
Skrapmetal":11s7vxaw said:
Jimmy R":11s7vxaw said:
The BEST thing you can use on Rosewood is pure mineral oil. It's the main ingredient in all of the other fretboard cleaners. You can get a whole bottle of it dirt cheap at CVS. Just apply to a cloth that won't shed, wax on, wax off.

Ron Kirn is an expert guitar builder on Strat-Talk and he's a firm advocate of it as well.
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There are a lot of experts, and they don't all agree.

Just shows that there really isn't concensus on what is "best"... but there is a variety of oils that all work very well.

And for the record, mineral oil is not the main ingredient of ALL fretboard cleaners. It isn't for Fret Doctor, anyway. There are people who say mineral oil is the best treatment for leather as well, and it absolutely is not. Infact it is bad for it in the long run.
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Okay, change "all", to "practically every". If it says anything like hydrotreated middle petroleum distillates, it's a 25 cent phrase for mineral oil. Distillates (petroleum) is the same thing in Lemon Oil, but Mineral Oil is undeniably better than any other cleaner that contains it because it does not have all of the other crap like thinners, dyes, alcohol, and perfumes. If you want something that will penetrate the grain of the wood use Fret Doctor. If you want something to clean the surface and leave it slick, just use Mineral Oil. I fail to see what leather has to do with wood...
 
Good call on the 0000 steal wool for the frets. Gave my pau ferro board a cleaning with murphy's oil soap/water mix. Treated the frets with the 0000-SW, I liked the way they turned out!

The neck is a 3 piece maple-wenge-maple finished with gun stock oil and wax. Gave that a cleaning with the murphy's as well, hit it with some 000 steal wool. Wiped the neck down and gave it a coat of gun stock wax.
 
That :

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Lemon oil nearly every string change and steel wool every few. Been doing that to one guitar for over 10 years and never had any issues with frets coming unglued or anything and the wood is still in great shape.
 
For years I have used 0000 steel to clean the fingerboard and polish the frets and lemon oil to condition the fingerboard. Shiny frets are so much nicer to bend on :rock:

Martin
 
I use a slightly damp cloth to clean the fretboard. If it is realy dirty, I will use a lemon oil cleaner forget the brand. I then use fret doctor to condition the fretboard.
 
Most of my guitars have unfinished necks... Endust + D'Andrea Lemon Oil is a winning combo.
 
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