Good and safe product to clean dirty guitar fretboard?

[gitman]

Take a sponge soaked in lukewarm dishwater and slowly loosen that grime. It does not serve any purpose, it's just a build-up of sweat, dust and shed skin , disgusting really .....

[Rob MacKillop]

0000 steel wool rubbed all over the frets and wood will transform the fretboard.

[corpse]

Take a sponge soaked in lukewarm dishwater and slowly loosen that grime. It does not serve any purpose, it's just a build-up of sweat, dust and shed skin , disgusting really .....

I guess I can try that to break it up over time, maybe every string change. The things I saw online made it out to be a big project.

[pauln]

By the time I notice it, cleaning would be a real chore.

Those aren't fingerprints, that stuff is made of fingers!

Even though I've been playing it continuously since getting it new 32 years ago, during which time since it has accumulated over 12,000 hours of stage performance and countless hours of practicing, every time I open the case I am presented with what looks and feels like a brand new guitar.
I have a rather involved method to clean my strings, clean the fret board, and detail my guitar after every playing, using ScotchBrite pad to clean the plain strings, ChapStick and carpet sample to scrub all the strings and fret board, and a small polishing pillow to shine up everything else. The whole process takes about 10 minutes.

You don't have to do what I do; just do something and do it after every playing.

[whiskey02]

[John A.]

I have always gotten these grime-fingerprints. I know it’s from not cleaning, and I could clean most of it off. By the time I notice it, cleaning would be a real chore. I do lemon oil every few years, but don’t scrub anything.

Anyway, now that I have an instrument that was a serious investment...is there a real reason I need to get it clean? Have any of you repair guys seen an actual effect from it? Here’s a picture from google that shows what my guitars look like. Must be these old corpse fingers. I wear through frets fast too, but that’s when I sell it—never had a refret done. Now I have a guitar I intend to keep.

Attachment 69617

If you clean it, the frets will feel noticeably taller. That looks like enough schmutz to affect playability. I had a guitar with that level of build-up, and when I finally cleaned it, it felt like it had been refretted.

John

[sgosnell]

I use white Scotchbrite pads. They're just abrasive enough to remove the crud and polish the frets. I just can't bring myself to allow that much stuff to build up. Steel wool can easily break small bits off, which can get into the pickups, attracted by the magnets in there. That's more mess than I care to deal with.

[deacon Mark]

Ok this is pretty easy. Steel wool can work start with grade 0 and work to 0000. But as noted it breaks off and you have to watch the magnets in the pickups. The other option is what I do just at the end of a fret dressing. Get the graded scotchbrite pads and go from the course to the superfine grade they work much better. Then 1000 sandpaper going to even 1500. Work all of these at a 90 degree angle and dig the base of your hand against the frets and fingerboard. Finally take the 1000 sandpaper and run in parallel to each fret taking care to polish it out and the fingerboard in between. It appears to be rosewood and than is good to work with as of course ebony. A touch of lemon oil at the end if you choose although Wahl clipper oil is good too and I have it around for my train wheels ( that another forum.) One thing for sure is I am not big on much if any oil on fingerboards sometimes they attract dirt. Only if really dried out and then with caution.

[DRS]

The tone is in the boogers . . .

[mr. beaumont]

Pretty grody, but a sign a guitar is being played.

There's some of that on all my guitars probably, but I do clean every few string changes. I find my strings last longer if my fretboard is cleaner.

[rintincop]

I just sanded my rosewood fretboard with wet-dry 2500 grit sandpaper and lemon oil. It is now glassy smooth and a big improvement over the Fender factory fretboard treatment. You can't hurt it with 2500 grit.
Highly recommended. Not recommended for Maple finished fretboards.

[Spook410]

I use Gorgomyte to clean my fretboards but I don't like to put oil on them. There seems to be separate camps on this. I'm in the one that says they get enough oil from fingertips and any more just attracts grit.

[rintincop]

I'm not talking about cleaning, I'm talking about making the fretboard wood glassy smooth.

[Cunamara]

So you are basically wet sanding with lemon oil. I've never tried that; indeed, I've not ever even really felt one way or the other about how smooth the fingerboard should be. I'll have to give that some consideration. I did finish a Telecaster body with boiled linseed oil and sandpaper, which ended up being a very hard, durable and not quite glassy finish (I probably didn't go enough steps fine enough on sandpaper to achieve that effect).

[Jimmy Mack]

So, did you apply the oil before sanding, or after you finished sanding?

[wolflen]

my 15 yr old les paul..I use a QTip and some rubbing alcohol to clean the board and around the frets...once every few months..and use one drop every few frets of light "lemon" oil - dry it with a microfiber towel - once a year I doubt its lemon--but the pourous quality of rosewood reacts to heat/cold and I dont want the wood to become any "softer" by using cleaning "oil" on it

[cosmic gumbo]

I think the cheap paper for office printers is coarser than #2500.

[sgosnell]

Or newsprint. Or almost any paper.