Rosewood help, please.

[nonamemx]

Well, I bought an Ibeenhad 1990 RG560. Its really really slick, Made in Japan, has a unique H-S-S setup. Original Edge tremolo, Even the S1, S1, and V2 pickups are decent. There are a couple scratches on the body, but its almost mint condition. Its a bizarre purple color. Got it for $200 at Cash America Pawn. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

ANYWAYS, it has a Rosewood fretboard. I am a maple fretboard guy, but I didnt really care, since this guitar was so cool.

It was dirty, so I scrubbed it down with some Rubbing alcohol to get the grime off, and then I put Old English Lemon Oil on it.

In Sully's thread, it said that you have to wait an hour until it dries.

Its been 5 hours and it still feels greasy! Its very very annoying.

Ive been whiping it down with a dry rag, but its is always greasy!

I didnt use gobs of Lemon Oil, I thought I did a fair amount.

How long until it quits being greasy! Please help a Rosewood noob! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Deneb]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

You can put it on, and it be dry in an hour. Some people don't use any lemon oil at all, some people use loads of it.

This is the way I do it, it may not be the best for you.

I clean my fretboards either with denatured alcohol, OR windex (very very small amount). Then I take lemon oil, on a rag and rub it into the fretboard. I usually let it sit about 15-20 minutes (start working on another guitar, OR start something else around my house) then I come back, with the same rag, add just a little more if the fretboard is drinking it up, OR I don't add any if it's still sitting.

Then I take a clean rag, wipe up and down the fretboard and do it again with another clean rag to get the residual.

I take an L shaped pick, and just lightly take it along the fret edge, to get the gunk out. One last wipe with the clean rag. Then I take steel wool and clean the frets (0000) steel wool. If it has a finished maple board, you've got to mask off the board. If it's rosewood or ebony, you're fine, unless it has nice inlays, then mask them off too. Also, mask off your pickups, so they don't get steel wool on them. I then clean all the shavings off of the guitar. Another wipe down. String it up, tune it, wipe it off again, let it sit awhile, then tune it again in playing position.

I probably forgot a few things, but mine never feel greasy. Also, it may be a new feeling to you, and your fingers may be pulling some of the residual out.

[dg]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Rubbing alcohol contains water, sometimes as much as 30%. Not good for your fretboard. If you use alcohol, it should be denatured alcohol like Deneb (& Sully) said. Maybe some of the water in the rubbing alcohol didn't evaporate off & it's trapped in there & is keeping the wood from absorbing the oil. Just a theory. The other possibility is that you just used too much lemon oil & it's going to need more wiping off & time to soak in. Normally when I oil a fretboard you can see it soak right in within a few minutes after wiping off the excess. If wiping & waiting doesn't solve your problem, you might try re-cleaning with denatured alcohol. Any hardware store will have it, usually right by the paint thinner. This should get the oil off & help to dry any water out of the wood (if that is what the problem was). Give it some time to dry thoroughly, then you can re-apply the lemon oil or boiled linseed oil as some prefer. You don't need to lay it on thick at all.

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

DG's right about rubbing alcohol. You don't want anything that contains water anywhere near your fretboard as it'll likely raise the grain. I usually use naptha applied to an old rag to clean rosewood & maple boards. Works like a charm and won't absorb into the wood & raise the grain.

[nonamemx]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Alright, thanks.

naptha = lighter fluid? I got some of that somewhere. . .

The fretboard looks great, the alcohol burned off the crud on the frets, now they are silver and shiny. My hands just get greasy when I play.

Hopefully it will dry out thoroughly tonight.

Im so excited about this guitar. . .It was steal. I even like the stock pickups, the humbucker is very PAF pro-y.
Have you ever had an experience where your at the Pawn Shop or Music store, and at one moment, your checking out to see if it has any flaws, any cracks and such, and then the next moment, your getting out your wallet to pay for it?

Thats what this was like. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Naphtha is the main ingredient in lemon oil anyways. From what I remember, it's basically just lighter fluid mixed with some lemon scent.

My old 1990 RG560's rosewood board darkened up real nice and looked fantastic with lemon oil treatments. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Yep, naptha = lighter fluid. I've had great luck stripping heinous gunk off of fretboards using it.

I think lemon oil is quite different from naptha. If you use naptha to clean the gunk off of a rosewood fretboard, the board will be left looking much drier and more parched than when you started rather than looking shiny & oily the way it does after a lemon oil treatment. It'll also evaporate almost instantly w/o leaving a greasy feeling.

[SEEGERMANY]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Whether I'm using lemon oil or preferrably Hoppe Gun Oil, I never use more than one drop per fret. I use a Q-Tip to spread the oil and then leave it on for about 5 minutes. I then take a clean rag and wipe off the excess oil.

Personally, I think you might have used too much lemon oil. Keep it wiped down and hopefully you didn't saturate the wood.

[nonamemx]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

[ QUOTE ]
Naphtha is the main ingredient in lemon oil anyways. From what I remember, it's basically just lighter fluid mixed with some lemon scent.

My old 1990 RG560's rosewood board darkened up real nice and looked fantastic with lemon oil treatments. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

You have one too? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


Its getting less and less greasy, which is good, means its drying out and I DID use too much Lemon Oil. . .oh well.

I think it needed it though. Its abosolutely gorgeous and dark now. It has completely turned around since I bought, since Ive cleaned everything. There was CAT HAIR all over the tremolo recess, and all in the saddles of the tremolo, it was a huge mess, so I took the Edge apart, worked everything over with a damp rag, and now it glistens. (and learned exactly how tremolos work)

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

My black RG560 was my first electric guitar. I only just recently sold it to another JCFer. Very trusty guitar with a fantastic heavy-duty Edge trem. I learned a lot about guitar setups and general maintenance by fooling around with that guitar! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[toejam]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Lemon oil is all you really need for oiling and cleaning (and it's mostly mineral oil). If your frets are gunky and need cleaning, dig in with an old toothbush on the frets and fingerboard, then wipe off. You can also use vaseline, motor oil or baby oil for rosewood or ebony fingerboards... they're all mineral oil anyway.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

I apply Vaseline to my chapped lips during the dry winter months. Does that mean I can also use motor oil on my chapped lips? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Hmmm, I could also put at thin coat of baby oil onto the strings themselves to act as a "Fast Fret" lube and also to ward off climate fluctuations corroding the strings! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Mwahaahaha! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[nonamemx]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

I actually used an old toothbrush with alcohol to clean it, then I whiped the alcohol off with a rag, scrubbing the crud off, using a clean part of the rag for every fret.

Why did you sell your first electric guitar? no sentimental strings attatched to it?

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

At that time, I had six guitars and not enough time to play and maintain them all. Every guitar has sentimental value to me, but they were sitting useless in their cases most of the time and not being played like they deserved to be.

I then decided I just preferred to keep one electric and one acoustic, and that is what I have in my collection to this day, two nice guitars. It's much more manageable this way. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

It's nice how you like the pickups in yours. I had the same pickups but found the bridge hum too dark and the single coils a little too noisy, but man, that guitar was easy as sin to play (even though I eventually found the neck a little too thin for my tastes), and it stayed in tune like no other! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[nonamemx]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Ah, I see.

My other guitars have beefy necks, and are Strat copies (Charvel and Peavey), and I wanted an old Jap RG (because ive been watching too many Vai and Gilbert vids [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] )

The humbucker is nice enought that I probably wont change it. It is kinda dark, but thick and has a really nice midrange honk. The singles. . .well. . .not great, but better than some. They might get changed sometime...

Its nice to be able to get a guitar and not have to change anything on it.