Rosewood help, please.

[sully]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

i'm gonna redo that tacked thread one of these days. anyway, if it's still feeling greasy, you put too much on. either use a bit of naptha to take the excess off, or buff the living hell out of it.

sully

[SEEGERMANY]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

Posted at www.vintageguitar.com

"Ok, I'm probably going to stir up a bit of controversy here, but I wanna offer my $0.02 on the matter. I've seen references to the use of "lemon oil" on guitars. My personal mission statement is to stamp out the myth (perpetuated via 1960s furniture polish television commercials) that the use of "lemon oil" is a Good Thing because it "feeds" the wood. This is Crapola. I distinctly recall reading somewhere in my vast library of woodworking literature that there is no such thing as "lemon oil" -- it is essentially a concoction of mineral spirits and other additives. What frequent use of the stuff evidently DOES do, however, is to dry out the wood in the long haul. Wood is a "living" thing, in the sense that the cellular structure is susceptible to expansion and contraction as moisture (humidity) levels change. The 'lemon oil' will coat and soak into the wood to varying depths, as the absorption rate of the cellular structure is not necessarily constant. The end result is that 'lemon oil' causes the wood to absorb moisture unevenly. Think 'cracked fingerboards'. Relating my own experiences in woodworking, it would seem that the best means of cleaning the instrument would be to use a very soft, damp (VERY SLIGHTLY DAMP) cloth, together with plain old elbow grease. This should be polished until dry, and then left to set awhile just to make SURE its dry. The best defense to oils, finger smudges, etc., would seem to be a very fine coat of paste wax, applied and buffed out. The wax will stay where it belongs, that is, on the surface, providing a uniform barrier to moisture, acids, oils, etc. There are alternate schools of thought against the use of wax -- these relate principally to the damping of the instrument's ability to resonate -- but a light, buffed coat of wax is still the wood's best primary defense. The main thing, though: regardless of whether your guitar is a 1970s Harmony or a pre-war Martin D-35, DON'T use 'Lemon oil'!!!! PS -- all this concerns application over finished wood, that is, with a nitro/lacquer-type finish. You should never put ANY kind of polish or wax over bare wood if there is even a remote chance that you may oneday want to refinish the instrument..."

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

[ QUOTE ]
The best defense to oils, finger smudges, etc., would seem to be a very fine coat of paste wax, applied and buffed out. The wax will stay where it belongs, that is, on the surface, providing a uniform barrier to moisture, acids, oils, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I bought my Ovation 12-string 10-ish years ago they were recommending bowling alley wax for neck/fingerboard care but they're now recommending lemon oil, go figure. Hamer (also owned by Kaman) recommends "light mineral oil" once or twice a year.

I've always wondered how necessary / useful treating the fretboards really is. For example, the board on my '85 RR has never been treated with anything and is still problem-free despite spending much of its life in an area with poor climate for guitars.

[SEEGERMANY]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

I guess it depends on how much you play and or the conditions the guitar is subjected to. My tech recommends that I "condition" my necks twice a year using minimal amounts of oil. He recommends Hoppe Gun Oil (available in the sporting goods section of Wally Mart) or 3 in 1 oil. He does not use lemon oil at all because it has a tendency to dry out wood (?). If I'm not mistaken, he said that too much oil can unseat frets.

[sully]

Re: Rosewood help, please.

yeah, it can get under the frets. i've had wonderful results with linseed oil, and buffing paste wax is a GREAT sealer for the backs of necks (thanks chuck!)

sully