Dahlia

Another update on the situation, as it turns out ozone wasn't the end all solution to my problem. The odor ended up returning after a few hours, the ozone just masked the smell. Something I didn't consider hard enough was the fact that it also has an oxidizing effect on metals, so the small screws that hold the scratch plate in place ended up going from a shiny silver to a dark grey, same with the tuning pegs and frets, had to toss out the strings as well since they basically felt like playing with barbed wire. Luckily I was able to polish the frets down to their original condition using one of those fret rubbers, still, not a process I recommend you put your guitar through. Removing smells from wood is a fools errand and outside of using really aggressive cleaning agents, bleach, ammonia or strong lacquers, your best bet is just to let it air out and hope for the best. Ozone doesn't penetrate wood so it can only work on smells that would originate on the surface, but the trade off simply isn't worth it. The entire process ended up being a learning experience. I was afraid it would have the opposite effect and that the smell from the guitar would end up transferring onto the case.

A little update on the situation I used sodium bicarbonate, liberally sprinkling it inside the case and letting it sit overnight, hardly any effect. Next up I got a small container and filled it to the brim with coffee grounds letting it ferment for an entire day, the stink remained. In a boneheaded move I ended up spraying some of the guitar polish inside the case thinking it would at least mask the stench a little bit, it ended up making it even worse, before it was unpleasant, now it's nauseating. Sadly I couldn't find an online retailer that had the stain remover posted above. As luck would have it, a colleague at work offered to lend me his ozone generator and I one of the plastic containers I use to store patio furniture cushions ended up being a perfect fit for the guitar (sadly the case is a bit too large, so I need to figure out a workaround) . Closed the container and let the generator do its thing for ~15 minutes, unplugged it and let the box air our for an hour or so before retrieving the guitar. The funky smell is completely gone although the ozone generator does leave behind an unpleasant odor of its own but that should dissipate after a day or so, I hope.

Hopefully this is the right place to ask, I've recently come into possession of a Gibson Flying V (2009 model) and while the guitar is in near mint condition with all stock hardware, it emits a very strong odor that is nothing I've ever smelled before. Google search has led me to believe that this is due to the glue used in the construction of the guitar case (the case smells ten times worse than the guitar itself). So far I've tried a complete rub-down of the guitar, generously applying Gibson's pump polish, removed the strings and cleaned the fingerboard with lemon oil which seemed to remedy the problem a bit, but that only lasted about a day before the smell returned in full force (mind you the whole thing stinks, not just the fingerboard). Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated