2018 J45 Stinks of tobacco

[Jazzmac69]

18 hours ago, Murph said:

The J-45 binding will yellow anyhow.

The smell WILL go away naturally.

Trust me.

I smoked for many decades, but I quit in 2008. My 2003 J-45 has ZERO smell of cigarettes today, although it played a LOT of gigs when smoking was still legal in bars and I smoked in my house, music room, wherever I was.

If I loved the guitar, I'd keep it.

This too will pass.

Thanks Murph, I do like the guitar,  it plays great. Ordered some Virtuoso cleaner/polish to see if that helps for now. 

[Dave F]

I don’t know if this would help and you may want to do a little research. 
A few years ago I had an old Martin with some mildew and mold issues. I poured some rice in it, taped up the sound hole and shook it. 

[RBSinTo]

3 hours ago, Dave F said:

I don’t know if this would help and you may want to do a little research. 
A few years ago I had an old Martin with some mildew and mold issues. I poured some rice in it, taped up the sound hole and shook it. 

Dave,

Is there a conclusion, or even a point to this story??????????

RBSinTo

[Dave F]

1 minute ago, RBSinTo said:

Dave,

Is there a conclusion, or even a point to this story??????????

RBSinTo

Like I said, do your own research.

[Murph]

56 minutes ago, RBSinTo said:

Is there a conclusion, or even a point to this story??????????

"If ya wanna be a monk, ya gotta cook a lotta rice."

David Lee Roth

[Jalex]

I had a similar problem with my 63' Hummingbird it was mingin. I got rid of the case it came with, lemon oiled the fretboard and gave the guitar a good clean. The smell went away eventually.  I have heard leaving a tumble dryer sheet in the empty case can help also. Best of luck.

[JWG4927]

1 hour ago, RBSinTo said:

Dave,

Is there a conclusion, or even a point to this story??????????

RBSinTo

Martins make good rice shakers?

[RBSinTo]

1 hour ago, JWG4927 said:

Martins make good rice shakers?

JWG4927,

Guitars make good maraccas? 

Large volumes of raw rice can be conveniently stored in guitars?

Guitars were invented in ancient China, and originally used to store rice?

RBSinTo

 

[j45nick]

I bought a 1947 L-7 a few years ago that stunk of tobacco. I mean, really stunk.

I had to throw away the original padded gig bag. My wife wouldn't have it in the house.

Took the strings  off, wiped the whole thing down with naphtha. Scraped all the residue of the fretboard with a razor blade, then wiped that down again. Kept cleaning everything until the rags came out clean. Then cleaned the whole thing with Virtuoso cleaner. Let it air for two weeks on a stand, then polished the body with Virtuoso polish. Oiled the fretboard.

It all worked out pretty well, but I was extraordinarily thorough in my cleaning.

[Dave F]

A couple references

moldy gibson - FRETS.NET (ning.com)

 

This s from frets.com

A classic old time technique
Cleaning "With the Grain"
© Frank Ford, 2004; Photos by FF

Better be careful if you try this trick on an instrument with a paper label!

In the years before vacuum cleaners and compressed air blow guns, a standard method of cleaning a stringed instrument was to pour in some grain such as rice or barley and shake it all around to knock down cobwebs, clinging dust and debris. Then, the grain was poured out, along with the loosened dirt.

The technique still works today, and can be used easily and to good effect when combined with compressed air and vacuum cleanup.

Here's all there is to it. The guitar in question is a 1960s Martin D-18 that had been infested with mildew and a lot of dust and dirt, so it looked dirty inside, and smelled really bad. To loosen the clinging dirt, dust and moldy stuff, I poured in about a cup and a half of brown rice:
http://frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Quickies/RiceClean/RiceCleanViews/riceclean02.jpg

Then, I taped over the soundhole to block it securely:

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Quickies/RiceClean/RiceCleanViews/riceclean03.jpg

Now, the hard part. I shook the body all around as violently as I could for a while, and when I got tired, I passed it around the shop so everyone could get a turn. Here you can see Ian really mixing it up:

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Quickies/RiceClean/RiceCleanViews/riceclean04.jpg

After a few minutes of staff aerobics, I removed the tape and alternately vacuumed the inside and blew on it with my compressed air blow gun to get all the rice and loose stuff out.

Usually that's all there is to it. This time, however, he guitar came out nice and clean, but still smelled really musty. So this time I decided to give it a heavy dose of baking soda to absorb some of the odors. Figuring it was really going to take a good intimate exposure to the chemical, I simply poured in half a pound of the stuff:

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Quickies/RiceClean/RiceCleanViews/riceclean05.jpg

I taped the soundhole as before, shook it up and set it aside for a couple of days for the baking soda to do its job. As you can see, there was quite a snowdrift inside there when I took the tape off the soundhole:

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Quickies/RiceClean/RiceCleanViews/riceclean01.jpg

After I vacuumed out the baking soda and repeated the rice technique, the inside of this guitar had lost most of its bad smell, and looked like new.

[Jazzmac69]

7 hours ago, Jalex said:

I had a similar problem with my 63' Hummingbird it was mingin. I got rid of the case it came with, lemon oiled the fretboard and gave the guitar a good clean. The smell went away eventually.  I have heard leaving a tumble dryer sheet in the empty case can help also. Best of luck.

Thanks for the advice Jalex 👍

[Jazzmac69]

5 hours ago, j45nick said:

I bought a 1947 L-7 a few years ago that stunk of tobacco. I mean, really stunk.

I had to throw away the original padded gig bag. My wife wouldn't have it in the house.

Took the strings  off, wiped the whole thing down with naphtha. Scraped all the residue of the fretboard with a razor blade, then wiped that down again. Kept cleaning everything until the rags came out clean. Then cleaned the whole thing with Virtuoso cleaner. Let it air for two weeks on a stand, then polished the body with Virtuoso polish. Oiled the fretboard.

It all worked out pretty well, but I was extraordinarily thorough in my cleaning.

Thanks Nick, I’ve ordered the Virtuoso cleaner & polish so I’ll try that first, then move on to naphtha if need be 👍

[Jazzmac69]

Thanks for all your help and advice guys. I’ll let you know how I get on. 

[fortyearspickn]

I was planning on being buried with my favorite guitar.   Wonder if that'll affect the re-sale value?

[the other side]

1 hour ago, fortyearspickn said:

I was planning on being buried with my favorite guitar.   Wonder if that'll affect the re-sale value?

You may wanna check with the "Underground" first.

[DanvillRob]

In the old days we used to call this "Mojo".

Since I grew up in a time when people smoked everywhere, I guess everyone was just used to that smell.

I HATE cigarette smoke  and smell now...but my dad used to finish off his dinner with a cig, (he rolled his own) every night.... smoked in the car...people smoked on airplanes.....

I go with what Murph says....it'll fade....

[Jazzmac69]

7 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

In the old days we used to call this "Mojo".

Since I grew up in a time when people smoked everywhere, I guess everyone was just used to that smell.

I HATE cigarette smoke  and smell now...but my dad used to finish off his dinner with a cig, (he rolled his own) every night.... smoked in the car...people smoked on airplanes.....

I go with what Murph says....it'll fade....

👍

[j45nick]

8 hours ago, Jazzmac69 said:

Thanks Nick, I’ve ordered the Virtuoso cleaner & polish so I’ll try that first, then move on to naphtha if need be 👍

Consider starting with the naphtha, which is a cleaner/solvent that is reasonably safe on nitrocellulose lacquer, provided you don't really soak your rags with it.

You cannot use Virtuoso on bare wood like a fretboard, and you should keep it away from any dings in the lacquer surfaces. The Virtuoso cleaner leaves a white reside that is almost impossible to remove from dings or lacquer crazing.

I use soft white cotton rags for this type of cleaning to prevent scratches in the lacquer. You do have to exercise reasonable care, and keep throwing rags away as they get dirty.

This method will not help with the inside of the guitar. The bare wood there may have absorbed a lot of smoke, but with luck, most of it will be on the outside. 

If the guitar case smells, air it out for a week or so, but it you close it up with a smelly guitar in it, the case lining is likely to absorb the smell, and you're back to square one.

[J185cat]

As a previous boat owner (yes I have now achieved the second happiest day, sold it) there was often talk of using ozone generators to remove odors from the interiors of boats and to prevent mold and mildew.  I never needed to go that route so I can’t speak directly to the results but the other thing I was always told was not to use the ozone generator for too long because it would begin to attack any plastics. So just wanted to put that out there as a caution in case you get to that point.

[BK777]

Leave it on a guitar stand in the shed for a week, piff the case.

Then clean with Virtuoso as suggested above.

My ‘Old Stinky’ 1959 LG2 smelled like it had been buried with previous owner and dug up...then sold to me.

Cleaned, added a couple of drops of pure Sandalwood Oil, stronger than anything to mask the smell and then I put 2 Expresso Coffee bags in the guitar and the case.

All fine and dandy except on a warm day, I start to get a waft of something awful mixed with coffee and sandalwood drifting up to my nose....

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

[Murph]

Wait.

I just thought of another idea. I don't know why we didn't think of this earlier.

Simply start smoking......

[DanvillRob]

2 hours ago, Murph said:

Wait.

I just thought of another idea. I don't know why we didn't think of this earlier.

Simply start smoking......

We used to LOVE to go see "SMOKIN" Guitar Players" anyway!

[Dave F]

3 hours ago, Murph said:

Wait.

I just thought of another idea. I don't know why we didn't think of this earlier.

Simply start smoking......

I'm 71, never smoked. If I like the guitar enough, I guess I can start.

[RBSinTo]

3 hours ago, Dave F said:

I'm 71, never smoked. If I like the guitar enough, I guess I can start.

Dave,

As a recovering Smokeaholic (clean since 1990), please believe me when I say, that's a really bad idea.

Soak the guitar in Sulphuric, Acid, bury it for eight and a half days in Bat Guano or six and three-quarter Wednesday evenings in Pasta Primavera, fill it with Garbonzo Beans and shake it while doing the Hokey Pokey, or whatever, but do yourself a big favor and don't start smoking.

RBSinTo

Edited April 29, 2023 by RBSinTo

[E-minor7]

On 4/28/2023 at 1:59 AM, Dave F said:

A classic old time technique
Cleaning "With the Grain"
© Frank Ford, 2004; Photos by FF

Assume this isn't you - still a serious post. 👍