rosewood care

A

ahuimanu

New member
Hello,

I have a rosewood neck on two of my quitars and now on my new pride-and-joy, my Music Man StingRay bass. I've only recently begun to own rosewood-necked instruments. Is there any additional care this wood requires? I've heard about lemon oil, is that good to use? If so, how frequently? I am not a gigging player, so most of these instruments hang up on the wall.

Thanks,

J
 
I use a little drop of Old English on all my rosewood fretboards about once every 1-2 years. Just a little and rub it in all over. It cleans and treats it very nicely. Been doing this for 10 years and I always have the best looking and feeling fretboards.

H2H
 
It's my understanding that Martin says to just leave 'em alone, though there are all sorts of conflicting ideas on "proper" care of the fingerboards -- and a lot of money made selling repackaged cheap petroleum distillate with some fake color & scent as special pricey fingerboard-care balm. :p

If you feel that it helps, a number of "experts" seem to believe that vegetable oil is better than petroleum distillate, on the theory that rosewood is, well...vegetable, right?

Dan Erlewine claims that uncooked linseed oil is the ticket, though everyone else says it's like glue when it dries (that's my experience, also). This is what happens with most vegetable oils, which is why they're rarely used for this sort of stuff.

Purely theoretically, I think that light olive oil should make an excellent fretboard oil as it's about the only oil of its sort that I know of that doesn't gum up. I've used it and it works as expected. Anyway, any good kitchen should have some of this in qualtity, so you don't have to go out and spend five bucks on three tablespoons of some snakeoil in a little plastic squeezebottle with a guitar manufacturer's name on it.
 
Thanks for the replies so far - I should have correctly said "rosewood fingerboard" in my initial post, but I see that you've figured out that's what I meant by "neck."

Thanks,

J
 
I have always heard to use pure lemon oil on the fingerboard, and to make sure theres no additives, perhaps someone could back that up though because I have never oiled any of my fingerboards.
 
ibanezrocks said:
I have always heard to use pure lemon oil on the fingerboard, and to make sure theres no additives, perhaps someone could back that up though because I have never oiled any of my fingerboards.
Click to expand...


Yes, but not very often.

At most twice a year, a rosewood fingerboard should be cleaned with OOOO steel wool, and then oiled with lemon oil.

Anything else is causing damage to your guitar. Don't do it. And if you get your guitar setup twice a year (which is quite common), then you don't even need to think about it. It is part of any good repair shops SOP.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
i think i'll do this next time i change the strings on my C1+. i've had it for about a year and a half now and have never oiled the fingerboard.
 
Note that most so-called "lemon oil" isn't. It's actually lemon-scented petroleum distillate, possibly with a few drops of real lemon oil in it so they can say it contains it..

Check the fine print and poison warning on the label. "Contains petroleum distillates" is the operative legal phrase. If you see that, you can be assured that that's what's making up 99% of the contents.

The only significant differences among oils for this purpose is whether they are vegetable or mineral (and even that's debatable) and whether or not they leave a nasty residue. Beyond that, it doesn't matter. There's nothing magic about lemon oil, aside from being non-gluey, even if it's real lemon oil and not fake lemon oil, which it usually is. ;)

Curiously, since posting before, I've seen where other people are using olive oil for this, so perhaps my earlier posts about it here and elsewhere have made some effect. :)

Snazzy pro maintenance involves cleaning out the old filth from the rosewood's grain with naptha and a fine metal brush, dabbing it off with a paper towel. Naptha is VERY volatile, so be careful with it.

But none of this really matters except for looks and feel. As I say, Martin says don't do any of it, and properly cured and processed rosewood will never crack anyway.
 
Rosewoof is very "open grain" and therefore will absorb almost anything you put on it. The natural oils from your hands is likely to be sufficient to maintain it. A periododic cleaning to remove the gunk (a combination of oils, dirt, salts, and dead skin) will help keep your fingerboard looking and feeling better. For this a couple of drops of "pure" lemon oil does work quite well. Put 2 or 3 drops of the oil on a soft absorbent cloth and apply to the fingerboard, let it set for a few minutes, use a clean cloth to wipe away the excess and the gunk. Lemon oil has a minute amount of citric acid in it which helps to loosen particles so they can be removed easily. The real problem with using any type of oil on rosewood is that as the wood absorbs the oil it will cause the grain to swell (it's called raised grain BTW) and may feel like small ripples. Also excessive oiling will soften the wood and cause it to wear away faster creating little dips (known as scallops) between the frets. When cleaning rosewood avoid rubbing across the grain, this can push gunk into the open grain of the wood rather than remove it. Aviod solvents, they remove the natural oils and make the wood dry and brittle, as well as can possibly damage the finish if you happen to get any on the rest of the guitar.
 
Dani Pace said:
. Aviod solvents, they remove the natural oils and make the wood dry and brittle, as well as can possibly damage the finish if you happen to get any on the rest of the guitar.
Click to expand...
The point of using naptha is to dissolve the gummy oil and dirt residues that are left in the grain, and it DOES dry out the wood, which is the point. You replenish the filthy oil with new, clean oil minutes later (like changing the oil in your car). No damage is done to the wood whatsoever. Used sensibly, naptha also doesn't harm any new or vintage finish I know of and is professionally used to remove wax & filthy human grease buildup before rewaxing old instruments.
 
By solvents I was refering to products like laquer thinner or nail polish remover. Although these things will remove most gunk really fast they can do more damage than good. I simply ment to look at the ingredients lable of any product, if you see words like tolulene, acetone, zylene, benzene or other petrolium distilates avoid them.
 
You don't want to use any solvents (be it naptha, acetone, lacquer thinner, whatever) on you fingerboard. They will dry it out very badly.

OOOO oil free steel wool (which means, buy the expensive stuff. It is still not that expensive, but it is much better quality, and does not have anything in it to damage the fingerboard), and a little muscle power will get things clean. Then you need to remoisturise the fingerboard with lemon oil (you can use other vegtable oils, but lemon oil smells better). We use Kyser's Dr. Stringfellow Lem-oil, which is a very good product.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
bongolation said:
Anyway, any good kitchen should have some of this in qualtity, so you don't have to go out and spend five bucks on three tablespoons of some snakeoil in a little plastic squeezebottle with a guitar manufacturer's name on it.
Click to expand...

And then the three or four bucks GC tacks on brings it closer to ten.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top