Ruin your guitar??? PLEASE! Beer, smoke, food, saliva, ashes, bong water, whiskey, Coke, gravity, impact, sweat, snot, motor oil, blood, even dog piss, and you're worried about a little drop of what's usually just rebranded lemon oil? Give me a friggin' break.
Seriously Luthier's Choice is great stuff. Been using it since the 90s almost every time I change strings with rosewood and similar fingerboard. Stay away from the thick gooey kinds. If your store is out of it go to the grocery store and get Old English. It's fine in a pinch.
Ive never oiled a fretboard in 35 years,being either ebony,rosewood,maple or whatever. ive owned probably 50 guitars and currently own a dozen varied guitars...... its absolutely unnecessary.......if you feel it is,that's fine however it is not. use a damp cloth and a dry cloth,that's it.
So what should we look for when we buy a used guitar? what does a fretboard that is damaged by using oil to clean it look like?
This topic When I started playing none of us put stuff on our fretboards and nobody I knew ever experienced a fretboard that cracked or "dried out." I don't use anything and have had ZERO issues. Many like to darken their fretboards and this stuff will do that. I don't because I like to see the figure in the wood if I have a nice fretboard. I can't help but conclude as product was invented and put on the market it was marketed as necessary. If you believe you should use product then use it, otherwise don't. I have seen no issues with not "oiling" a fretboard.
Dude, you shoulda used ORGANIC lemon oil! Then your guitar would sound perfect, because you'd have better karma!
Damn, I played Strata since 1970 and never knew that the fretboard had to be oiled. I got a record contract from EMI and played in concert halls, even in some TV shows, but perhaps some oil on my fretboard could have made me world famous! I am spressed! PS, that's me and Hank B. Marvin of the Shadows on the photo.
I’ve seen a couple of highly regarded luthiers use 3 in 1 oil on rosewood fretboards. Turns out, that stuff is mineral oil (more than 97%) with a little naphtha (under 2%) added. I know I’ve never seen anyone oiling Maple, and I can’t recall anyone doing that to Ebony.
I've been playing over 50 years now and I have never oiled a fret board. I have guitars that are older then me and they've never been oiled either. I'd never heard of it until internet forums, but then, there are lots of other things that fall into that category too.
IKEA sells mineral oil without any additives for €3,99 ($4.07) per 0,5l (17oz). At the current rate (with 8 rosewood-type fretboards), this will last me to approximately 2185:
I've used Fret Doctor for years. Seeing that a huge number of my guitars were rescued from pawnshops, it's really helped clean them up significantly as they are usually filthy & dried out. I'm sure there are other products that work as well but I like it and it never has caused any problems.
If you search hard, you can still sometimes find the old-fashioned real thing. Not just for banjos anymore... Cures lumbago and baldness, too.
The exact same could be said for the Les Paul in the early/mid sixties. To completely "redesign" the model (what we've come to know as the SG now) was pretty telling at the time.
paul reed smith was a super famous guitar repair guy before he became famous for building guitars and he uses mineral oil.
