Dreams do come true

[Hayabusa hooligan]

My search has ended today I bought a Charvel Flame Up I still cannot believe it the body is perfect but the fretboard is so dirty. No pictures until I figure out how to get it clean again. Any recommendations to get it clean are very much welcome.
thanks Rich

[Grandturk]

No no no! Maple fretboards on Charvels are supposed to be dirty. That's mojo!!!


Edit - congrats!!!

[straycat]

Dirty maple rocks!!
If you have to clean it just a swipe with lemon oil on a soft cloth should take a lot of the grime off.
You will never get it all off so don't even try.

[dannyr]

Naptha and a soft cloth will help clean the gunk off.

[shreddermon]

Dirty maple is nasty. Not mojo, that's just a reflection of someone with poor hygiene. LOL

Seriously, naptha does seem to work well. It won't get it all out, but may clean out the worst of the gunk. Don't go overboard with it, though. After cleaning, be sure to hit the board up with a light coating of lemon oil, to make sure it doesn't dry out too much.

[masterofsolos]

You'll not get ANY of that out unless you sand the fretboard. It's all inside the pores of the wood unfortunately.

I have a second hand Charvel USA myself and the fretboard is really darkly stained on it from the previous owner. It's not Mojo at all when *you're* not the one who did it... it's just some other fellas manky finger gunk

[lepard]

From a guitar tech website:

"The other type are raw maple boards. The same way that most rosewood or ebony boards are raw wood. These are a little trickier as maple stains really easily. You don’t want to end up with a dirtier board than when you started. Avoid using any kind of oils. Oils will take that grime and gunk on the fretboard and seep it into the grain, as well as stain the maple.A small amount of hand soap diluted in warm water is safe and works great. Use it sparingly on a clean cloth. You don’t want to soak the board, you want to use just enough to take off the grime. Use a second, dry cloth and a fair amount of elbow grease afterwards to clean off any residue."

I've also used some lightweight steel wool carefully on really gunked up maple boards. I'd start with the steel wool and move to the warm soapy water and/or naptha(lighter fluid).

[dg]

You'll not get ANY of that out unless you sand the fretboard. It's all inside the pores of the wood unfortunately.

I have a second hand Charvel USA myself and the fretboard is really darkly stained on it from the previous owner. It's not Mojo at all when *you're* not the one who did it... it's just some other fellas manky finger gunk

I've had a ton of success cleaning maple fretboards with naptha and a cloth, and it will lift gunk out of the grain. I like my boards to get darker as they age, like yellow then brown, but I don't like the grey/black crap from string corrosion & sweat, and I'm sure as hell not leaving a previous owner's nasty finger cheese on my guitar. Naptha gets the nasty stuff off without messing with the nice yellowing/browning.

[d4rin]

water + wood = ??? DON'T DO IT.

[Hayabusa hooligan]

Thanks for all the input and tricks guys it is coming along very slowly but it's coming along.
thank you for all of your time with a Newb.
Rich
ps when I post the pictures of this one I'll post more pictures 32 guitars in all so it will take a bit

[Hayabusa hooligan]

Next on the list will be a Kandy plum So Cal being that I am a purple nut lol
Rich

[masterofsolos]

Cool I guess i'll try clean my fingerboard again

[j2379]

Yep

water + wood = ??? Don't do it.

[sytharnia1560]

dude we need pic's ... other wise this thread sucks

[Hayabusa hooligan]

If all goes well I will have it back together this evening then I'll take some pictures
Rich