Fingerboard care from Roger Sadowsky...

[allan grossman]

From: Roger Sadowsky
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 97 08:57:35 -0000
Subject: Re: The Bottom Line V1997 #101

>For the fingerboard, I have used lemon oil because it works well, isn't too
>messy and it smells...well...lemony. Mabye Roger Sadowsky has some other
>suggestions?? What about linseed oil?

Ah, the old fingerboard oil discussion again! I should probably just
save this posting as a file to reuse whenever necessary.

Here in the shop I clean fingerboards (except maple) with 0000 steel
wool. I do not recommend you do this at home as you will contaminate
your pickups with steel wool dust. Now don't laugh at this, but the best
fingerboard cleaner I have found (especially for cleaning built up skin
cell grunge) is the aerosol Windex (the spray can, not the pump). Cover
the body and the headstock with an old rag or towel and spray the
fingerboard with the aerosol Windex (it comes out as a white foam). Let
it sit for a few seconds and then scrub the fingerboard with an old
toothbrush until all the old grunge lifts. Then wipe down the entire
fingerboard with paper towels until it is clean and dry. You can safely
do this with rosewood, ebony and lacquered maple fingerboards.

Follow up the Windex with a coat of boiled linseed oil on the rosewood or
ebony boards. Wipe it on to coat the entire board and then wipe all the
excess right off. The lacquered maple boards could use a once over with
Martin guitar polish after the Windex.

You might have better luck finding the aerosol Windex at hardware stores
or office supply stores than at the supermarket.

Roger Sadowsky


Sadowsky Guitars Ltd.

[allan grossman]

:D

Hey, mods - wouldja please delete this post and move the thread over to the FAQ?

I don't know if BA told y'all but all the threads in the FAQ have to be made sticky or they get deleted when Scott prunes the forums.

[Ramanuman]

Good one!

[The Lurker]

did he say how often this should be done? like when you change strings or annually or just to taste/amount of playing time?

[Tony Renaud]

They say to do the BLO once a year for maintenance purposes on instruments without traditional satin or gloss poly finishes.

[Jazz Ad]

At least maybe people will listen if it comes from ol' Roger.
When I recommend Windex, they laugh and say I'm clueless.
We could start a "basic maintenance" thread.

[jefkay]

We use the Dunlop polishers in the store, they work fine too
And they're based on lemon oil..;)

[allan grossman]

From: Roger Sadowsky
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 08:30:28 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: oiling fingerboards

>FROM: Dalton L Tomlinson (K3-MO112)
> SUBJECT: Oiling fret boards question

> When I oil the fret board, I take off all strings, oil up and soak over

> night. I HAVE NOT loosened the truss rod. Do you see this as a problem?

The issue of adjusting the truss rod when oiling a fingeboard is not an
issue. The issue is what kind of oil you are using and how long you
are "soaking". I recommend linseed oil and DO NOT recommend soaking.
Just cover the entire fingerboard with enough oil to just "wet" the
board, let it stand no more than 5 minutes, and wipe off all the excess
with a dry paper towel. If you want to let it "air dry" overnight
before you restring--that's OK--but don't "wet-soak" the board for long
periods of time.

Oils that are sold for wood finishing like tung oil preparations get
too gummy feeling in my opinion. I have always found lemon oil (as in
Old English) to make boards dry out faster than if left alone. After
24 years of this, I still like linseed oil the best.

Roger Sadowsky

Sadowsky Guitars Ltd.

;)