Fretboard oil

ACEGuitar · Post by **ACEGuitar** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:26 pm

I'm building an electric guitar and the fretboard is made of Indian Rosewood. I read somewhere about putting wax on it but some forums disagree with this. I found that I should use lemon oil for it so I did a google search for some and found different 'grades' of the oil. What should I use? I can't remember what it does sorry

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:45 pm

[youtube]/watch?v=idNayrqL7XI[/youtube]
loads of info on youtube

but rule of thumb... never wax anything with a grain in it

ACEGuitar · Post by **ACEGuitar** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:45 pm

So I should oil it instead? What oil should I use? I've done some more reading and found that and oil containing petroleum distillates, no silicon and no wax should be used. Some people said use 3 in 1 oil or WD-40. Others said Dr. Duck's Axe Wax or some Fret Doctor. I can't any fret dr. Other suggestions were dunlop 65 lemon oil or skydd from Ikea. I have no idea which to go for!

crowhue · Post by **crowhue** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:53 pm

I think lemon oil is more of a cleaning / maintenance product. Smells and looks great though

ACEGuitar · Post by **ACEGuitar** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:03 pm

Referring to my original post. I think it's for sealing it. What's best for that?

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:43 pm

http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Articles/A ... 20oil.html

it seems you can use almost anything within reason..there is no one absolute
treatment

it seems like turps is a pro choice

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 5:59 pm

this is a response from a master guitar builder who is a good friend and superb guitarist
http://www.wilkesguitars.co.uk/index.htm

'Hi Al
There are lots of different ways to seal a fretboard depending on the wood so here goes .Nice to hear from you ;it's been a long time .
When my band were touring Germany in the early sixties we used to back "Billy Lorento" you may remember him from the old Framus Catalogues . He was basically the german Bert Weedon who we also backed .Who's rambling ,any way Billy used to swear by Lard and in a way he was not far off. If the wood is either Rosewood or Ebony I use a mixture of danish oil ,Boiled linseed oil and teak oil ,If its maple I use either clear or slightly tinted nitro cellulose or two pack melamine laquer .Rickenbacker fingerboards are usually Padauk although quite hard needs a good laquer;they use a two pack polyeurathane.
Any way Hope all my drunken ramblin helped
cheers Doug.
P.S. some people use Lemon oil ,it's ok for cleaning the fingerboard but I personally dont care for it'

jamesd74 · Post by **jamesd74** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:23 pm

I just lemon oil....

martinsmith99 · Post by **martinsmith99** » Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:27 am

I see this thread on ever guitar forum. There seems to be a lot of conflict.

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:20 pm

"I see this thread on every guitar forum. There seems to be a lot of conflict"
....change 'conflict' to preferences

there's more than on way to skin a cat

read post 7 he's been building , repairing , servicing , modifying , designing etc etc etc guitars for over 45 years ( visit his website ) and ask him for yourself .. let experience rule the day

one thing for sure though never use wax

martinsmith99 · Post by **martinsmith99** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 4:29 pm

Yes, I see one of the items is boiled linseed.....which I've heard mixed tales of.

Lard, being a food product, at some point, will become rancid. Although until it does, it'll make your fingers smell like fish and chips.

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:34 pm

dont shoot the messenger .. + its not compulsory to follow proven methods
perhaps billy whats his name likes smelling like a chip shop..who knows

martinsmith99 · Post by **martinsmith99** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:04 pm

Shooting messengers isn't my style.

What do you use? In the past I used lemon oil but stopped as it made my strings rust much quicker. I switched to simple furniture wax. The reason I'm interested is that I bought an old Epi Explorer that had a dry fretboard and trying to find something that does the job (I do have some bore oil on the way).

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:50 pm

ive never used anything to be quite honest i'm not much up on the subject
but in the past i have cleaned and lubricated the fingerboard with light mineral oil ( similar to bore oil i suppose )
didn't know it was a "done" thing

wax though should not be used on anything grained..it gets trapped
and causes rotting

Guitarman94 · Post by **Guitarman94** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:05 pm

In my view Fender Lemon Oil Works well to clean and put some moisture into the fret board and I found the Fender stuff is thicker than and other brands and gets right into the fret board. Depend on how dry the Rose wood is I'd use one coat of lemon oil and see how quick it soaks it up.

martinsmith99 · Post by **martinsmith99** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:20 pm

Does the Fender stuff rust the strings?

Guitarman94 · Post by **Guitarman94** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:23 pm

I've used it many of times and it hasn't. When applying to the fretboard when the strings are off make sure its all soaked in and wipe off any bits left over. Then leave it for a few minutes wipe again with clean cloth and should be fine. They tend to rust if you have lots of lemon oil left on the fretboard when the strings are on.

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 11:00 pm

how does any oil rust strings ( or anything else for that matter ).... the biggest contributor to contaminated strings
is sweat and dirt ...so wash your hand before any session....the most adverse effect of oil is
the ' de twang factor' ie it will soon sound like an old string if it gets impregnated with oil

martinsmith99 · Post by **martinsmith99** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 9:29 am

polyal wrote:how does any oil rust strings ( or anything else for that matter ).... the biggest contributor to contaminated strings
is sweat and dirt ...so wash your hand before any session....the most adverse effect of oil is
the ' de twang factor' ie it will soon sound like an old string if it gets impregnated with oil

It's acidic.

Guitarman94 · Post by **Guitarman94** » Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:22 pm

I heard that it can Rust the strings but personally I haven't had that issue. It depends on what type of oil I guess. Have you sorted the fret board yet?

scratch n sniff · Post by **scratch n sniff** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:27 am

If it's an older guitar, I use boiled Linseed oil twice a year, quite hard to get hold of nowadays. Newer guitars I use Lemon oil to clean every string change.