polishing fretboard?

[harrellab]

I have a Madagascar rosewood fretboard and it's definitely time to polish it again. I can't remember exactly how to do this, so I was hoping someone could help. I emailed Tom about this probably over a year ago and he gave me a really good answer...I should have saved the email, doh!!

I remember that I used lemon oil but I don't remember how much to use...a little or a lot, and are you supposed to let it air dry or wipe it off soon?

Thanks!

Adam

[harrellab]

...and what type of cloth? I think I used a cotton T-shirt last time.

[Suriel Zayas]

adam, you might want to check this out.

fret board cleaning and polishing (http://www.gibson.com/magazines/amplifier/1997/12/tip.html)

peace.

suriel

[harrellab]

Thanks Suriel, that helps a lot! I'm a little scared about the fret polishing part though...afraid I wouldn't do it right and mess them up. Maybe I'll just do the lemon oil on the fretboard part. Have any of you guys polished frets using that method?

[killerburst]

If you have stainless frets, don't touch them with any abrasives (sandpaper, steel wool, etc.) If you have nickel silver (guessing you do from your signature) you can get great results with just 0000 steel wool. I suggest taping off your pickups so you don't get stray steel fibers stuck to your pickups. Also be careful not to get steel fibers on your polishing cloth. One fiber stuck between your cloth and your finish can be heartbreaking.

[harrellab]

Cool, thanks for the help killerburst. I've always heard it's bad to remove all the strings at once...messes up neck or something? Would be much easier to polish frets and fretboard without the strings in the way though.

[killerburst]

Best not to leave the strings off for an extended period, that's true. But taking them off for half an hour to clean and polish the guitar once a quarter won't hurt anything.

[dkaplowitz]

Best not to leave the strings off for an extended period, that's true. But taking them off for half an hour to clean and polish the guitar once a quarter won't hurt anything.

So taking all the strings off more frequently than once every several months might not be good for the neck? Oddly enough I've only heard this recently after over 20 years owning guitars. Though I've never had any neck problems, I've always taken all the strings off to change them, which I seize as an opportunity to clean some of the funk off the fingerboard and from between the pickups, etc. I'd never do it though if there was a chance of some type of prolonged damage, or misalignment.

[tom]

taking them off to clean and change strings is no problem. i think what kb was saying is it's not a great idea to leave tension off the neck for extended periods, and i would agree with that.

[dkaplowitz]

Ahhh...cool. Thanks for clarifying, Tom. I was worried maybe I was doing something foolish unwittingly.

Cheers,

Dave

[Guitarded]

If you have stainless frets, don't touch them with any abrasives (sandpaper, steel wool, etc.)
I am familiar with the polishing technique referred to by Suriel's link... what is the deal with stainless frets, though?... enlighten me, please...

[killerburst]

I am familiar with the polishing technique referred to by Suriel's link... what is the deal with stainless frets, though?... enlighten me, please...

Anderson guitars use stainless steel frets (you probably knew that). The frets are much harder than nickel/silver and come highly polished from the factory. Since they don't corrode and take forever to show any wear, you don't really have to polish them anyway. But if you were to polish them, you would need a very fine abrasive polish, machine applied.