Question on how to stop neck drag and how to clean an ebony fretboard

[JMD]

Okay i have a two part question, i have done a search but not finding much, so...

Question #1. I just bought a new old stock wild card 6. The back of the neck feels kinda dry and makes my hand drag a bit while playing. What can i put on it in order for my hands to move more smoothly around while playing?



Question #2. It has an ebony fretboard, and doesn't look dirty, but people in the store must have played this thing because it leaves grime all over my fingers. What can i safely use on an ebony fretboard? I keep hearing lemon oil then someone else will say no never do that.




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[txrob779]

Howdy JMD,

I just learned this board is at a crawl these days so here we go. You can use many fret board cleaners from like Guitar Center or even regular old house hold stuff. This is my opinion and what works for me. I took the strings off, bought some 000 synthetic steel wool....like from 3M at Home Depot. It looks like Scotch Brite. With very little pressure I dabbed some (whatever you want to use. Try Googling "fret board cleaner" and see what you see), then LIGHTLY work that cleaner over and into each fret. Then I use house hold furniture polish to soften the finger board.

For the back of the neck, I used some green Scotch Brite and rubbed rather hard to sand off that clean, sticky gloss finish to soften that feel up too. I did this on my 1993 American Standard Strat as well as my $450 Warmouth Charvel profile strat head neck as well with great results.

I hope this helps.

robbie



Look here,

https://www.google.com/search?q=fret+dressing+cleaner&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS596US596&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=585&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoA2oVChMIuMDO8LbsxwIVgo8NCh3C8QRl#tbm=isch&q=fretboard+cleaner

[paranoid]

oooo steel wool also does a good job on smoothing that tung oil, just don't get any steel wool stuck to the pickups. a damp rag will clean the fret board, there are many commercial items that will clean and treat the ebony we could list these for days.

[xenophobe]

For the back of the neck... 0000 steel wool with some caranuba wax will take some of that away. Or if you can afford it or have auto paint grade sandpaper... start with 800 or 1000 and work your way up as high as you want.

For the fretboard... I just use lemon oil and a toothbrush. Or lemon oil and 0000 steel wool.

For wood, any good furniture polish or oil is suitable for use on guitars. Stay away from penetrating stuff like WD40... if you want to clean the fretboard dry, Naptha is the preferred solvent because it will also condition the wood. Acetone could be used but not too often and you'll need to apply an oil or wax immediately after using it.

Just common sense really. Don't use draino and brillo pads and a drill with a sanding attachment probably wouldn't be very smart either. lol

[straycat]

0000 steel wool on the back of the neck works fine.
If the fingerboard is grimy take a credit card and lightly scrape at a 90 degree angle away from the fret and remove most of the grime before you oil the board.
Any fretboard cleaner or naptha works fine. Lemon oil is fine on ebony just use it sparingly and wipe the excess off.Lemon oil will tend to turn your fingers black if you don't buff the fingerboard down after oiling.
Household waxes will get sticky over time so I wouldn't suggest using that anywhere on a neck.
Once you get the nastyness off the back of the neck use Birchwood Casey gunstock oil in light coats. Thats what Jackson uses at the factory to seal the back of the necks.
A warning I will give is never use a damp cloth ever because moisture may get under your frets swell the wood and cause your frets to pop up.

[xenophobe]

Caranuba or beeswax combo waxes won't get sticky. Any good furniture wax or polish designed specifically for natural wood finishes won't get sticky either. Apply and then buff and you're good. Howard's or Warwick's or just some generic caranuba or beeswax is great for natural oil finishes. They're temporary and need to be reapplied somewhat occasionally... every month or three, or more often for heavy use. I'm not talking Pledge or anything like that.

Tru-oil or gunstock oil or boiled linseed would be my last choice for regular maintenance. They're not just treatments or conditioners, those are wood finishes and you may need to steel wool or sand after application, but you won't need to treat the wood after unless you want to caranuba.

[Newc]

The grimy black residue on your fingers may not be store-demo gunk, especially if the board looks clean. My CS WarAngel and WR-7 (ebony boards) and my recent EVH Star (rosewood) left my fingers that way, which are basically the only "new" guitars I can recall getting (hmmmm).

But I don't know what it is. Could be just a dry board or some after-effect of whatever they put on the board, like some temporary treatment.

[txrob779]

All great suggestions

[toejam]

For wood, any good furniture polish or oil is suitable for use on guitars.

I wouldn't use furniture polish like Pledge or Endust on an ebony or rosewood fingerboard. White gunk will get stuck in the pores of the wood and take forever to come out.

[txrob779]

Huh? WTH did I say....Opps

[xenophobe]

I wouldn't use furniture polish like Pledge or Endust on an ebony or rosewood fingerboard. White gunk will get stuck in the pores of the wood and take forever to come out.

I specifically said a "good" polish and I specifically said "not Pledge". I meant furniture polish designed for really expensive wood furniture with oil finishes, like Howards or something similar.

The only problem with caranuba/beeswax is that you could get a little sweating in higher temperatures. All you do is grab a microfiber and buff it out again. Caranuba is nice because when polished it's specifically not sticky and one of the reasons why they use it on auto finishes, because it does fairly well protecting the finish and keeping dust from collecting on it and it actually does well cleaning open grain wood too... if you've already treated your oil finished wood, it'll help remove dirt and grime the next time you apply it.