Fretboard

[4Hayden]

How often do you treat your fretboard and clean your frets ? and would you used a different oil on the new fretboard

 

[Riffster]

Fret Doctor all the way, pricey but a bottle lasts forever anyway.

 

I use it every time I change the strings every six months or so.

[lespaulj45]

When I bought my new Les Paul Std I bought a Gibson Reissue Restoration Kit and have used it for all my guitars-you get polishing creme,metal cleaner and fretboard restoration liquid,seems to work fine and I use it sparingly-depends on how hard and often you thrash your stuff. At first I was concerned about the nitrocellulose lacquer finishes that gibson uses and what chemicals were in your standard cleaners and polishes.Lots of people I know just use lemon oil on the fretboard and Dunlop products and I dont hear them say anything negative-I figured since the kit I bought was Gibsons' own product line I wouldnt have to worry about it.10 years later the stuff still looks great

[4Hayden]

Fret Doctor all the way, pricey but a bottle lasts forever anyway.

 

I use it every time I change the strings every six months or so.

 

 

Fret Dr. is what i bought and I did all my guitar's with it.Just wondering how often to use it.

[4Hayden]

When I bought my new Les Paul Std I bought a Gibson Reissue Restoration Kit and have used it for all my guitars-you get polishing creme,metal cleaner and fretboard restoration liquid,seems to work fine and I use it sparingly-depends on how hard and often you thrash your stuff. At first I was concerned about the nitrocellulose lacquer finishes that gibson uses and what chemicals were in your standard cleaners and polishes.Lots of people I know just use lemon oil on the fretboard and Dunlop products and I dont hear them say anything negative-I figured since the kit I bought was Gibsons' own product line I wouldnt have to worry about it.10 years later the stuff still looks great

 

 

I bought the Gibson Reissue Restoration Kit also,wondering how often to use it.

[Lazerface]

Damp cloth, lemon pledge, damp cloth. repeat as neccessary

[L5Larry]

I must have greasy little hands, in 45 years of playing guitar, and instruments up to 60 & 70 years old, I've never treated a fretboard.

 

I wonder what your supposed to use to treat the new "baked maple", maybe Aunt Jemimah's maple syrup.

[Zeppelinguy]

Sparingly. I know people that lather their fretboards in that lemon crap every string change, and frankly I think it ruins the instrument.

[Tim Plains]

I use it every time I change the strings every six months or so.

Maybe it depends on where you live and how dry it is but a luthier up here told me that every 9 - 12 months is more then enough. Any more frequent and you may harm the board over time. You may not notice anything, yourself, but the guy replacing the frets will hate you.

[1998StandardSG]

I must have greasy little hands, in 45 years of playing guitar, and instruments up to 60 & 70 years old, I've never treated a fretboard.

 

I wonder what your supposed to use to treat the new "baked maple", maybe Aunt Jemimah's maple syrup.

Don't forget the brown sugar abrasive compound to polish the frets hahah

 

I will treat mine during the dry winter months because during the summer we alway have 90%-100% humidity. So yeah I think it would all depend on your region of the globe. We mostly have to dehumidify rather than humidify.

[jdgm]

I would oil the rosewood fretboard of a new guitar, probably only once. Ebony doesn't need it so much, and because the grain is closer doesn't absorb it in the same way. I have an old bottle of Kodachrome camera/projector oil which is thin and 'white'. Or you could use sewing machine oil but not anything like regular 3-in-1 (or whatever they sell now) as it's far too thick. Once will do. Much more than that and the wood will soften slightly which may complicate any future refret, as R9 notes in his post.

 

For fret polish, maybe once a year I use Duraglit Silvo wadding polish, slightly abrasive but very good.

You then have to clean the residue off the fretboard and for that there's elbow grease, followed by a light application of a good non-silicon beeswax polish, which I'd also use very sparingly on the body finish.

[Riffster]

Maybe it depends on where you live and how dry it is but a luthier up here told me that every 9 - 12 months is more then enough. Any more frequent and you may harm the board over time. You may not notice anything, yourself, but the guy replacing the frets will hate you.

 

Every luthier seems to have a different theory, my luthier cringed when I told him I use Fret Doctor only twice a year.

 

Bottom line you have to look at the wood and see how it is doing, as there are to many other variables.

 

Too much of the stuff and the fretboard will swell, too little and the fretboard will shrink.

 

The Gretsch I just bought used had never had any maintenance or cleaning since '05, it was filthy and played to death, the frets were actually separating from the fretboard from what I assume was shrinkage, three good passes with Fret Doctor solved that.

[Whitehall]

Yep, fret Dr. at about every string change.

[Dennis G]

Maybe it depends on where you live and how dry it is but a luthier up here told me that every 9 - 12 months is more then enough. Any more frequent and you may harm the board over time. You may not notice anything, yourself, but the guy replacing the frets will hate you.

I've also heard similar time frames. I do mine 1-2 times per year tops, & I'm currently using Guitar Honey.

[lespaulj45]

I bought the Gibson Reissue Restoration Kit also,wondering how often to use it.

 

I live in the part of the country with lots of moisture.plus my house is heated with wood-dry heat.I treat the fretboard once a year and clean and polish the desert burst finish when I feel the need. I am a car collector and my hands are always in motor oil and automotive chemicals so I try to retain the beauty of this burst when I need to.

[badbluesplayer]

I like regular mineral oil, which is what they make all the premium products from. It doesn't smell and it's inexpensive.

 

I use it if the fretboard looks dry and not shiny at all. Maybe once or twice a year.