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If you play guitar as often as we do, your fretboard may start to look like…well, a warzone.
But not to fret! Your dirty fretboard CAN be restored to its original glory.
In this ultimate guide to cleaning your guitar fretboard, we’ll provide the step-by-step instructions to get it looking like new again. We’ll recommend a few specialty fretboard cleaners, but you can also get a clean fretboard with household items, too.
Plus, we’re including tips that will help keep it clean in the future. We even added a few videos at the end so you can see these tips in action (on both electric guitars and acoustic guitars, as well as various finishes).
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Identify Your Fretboard Type
Before you start cleaning your fretboard, determine the type of wood it’s made of. The most common types are ebony, rosewood, or maple. Each requires a specific cleaning approach and materials.
Not sure which type of fretboard you have?
- Ebony fretboards are known for their dark, dense grain and smooth feel. They’re typically found on high-end guitars and require a delicate touch when it comes to cleaning.
- Rosewood fretboards have a warm, rich tone and a beautiful grain pattern.
- Maple fretboards are typically found on Fender-style guitars and have a bright, snappy tone. They’re known for their smooth, glossy lacquered finish.
Step 2: Remove the Strings
To access the fretboard easily, remove your guitar strings. You can either take ’em all off in one go (it’s useful to do this during a routine re-stinging or when you break a string) or do it half and half, to maintain some tension on the bridge- whatever you prefer.
Step 3: Protect Your Guitar
Cover sensitive parts of your guitar, such as pickups and sound holes, with low-tack masking tape to prevent any accidental scratches or damage during cleaning. This will also help keep the filings from steel wool from getting lodged any place they shouldn’t be!
Step 4: Start with a Gentle Cleaning
Use a fine-textured microfiber cloth soaked in warm water to gently clean the fretboard. Wipe it down from top to bottom, then dry it before the water evaporates. For maple fretboards, use a dry or slightly damp cloth.
Step 5: Tackle Stubborn Grime
For any remaining grime and oily stains, use very fine steel wool (0000 grade) and a fretboard conditioner (make sure it’s suitable for your wood type). Gently wipe the affected areas in a circular motion, without rubbing or scrubbing too hard, especially on older guitars or finished maple fretboards.
Step 6: Clean Along the Frets
For dirt between your guitar frets or saddle, dip a trusty a q-tip dipped in warm water to reach every last nook and cranny. Then give it a gentle wipe with a soft microfiber cloth.
Step 7: Condition the Fretboard
Apply a small amount of oil (e.g., almond oil, mineral oil, or linseed oil) to darker tonewoods like rosewood, ebony, and pau ferro fretboards. Allow it to soak in for several hours or even a day before replacing the strings.
For maple fretboards, use a pump polish specifically designed for guitars, like Gibson or Dunlop 65, to maintain a clean and shiny surface.
Step 8: Polish the Hardware
Clean your guitar’s hardware, such as the bridge, pickups, and tuning pegs, with guitar polish like the Boss Guitar Detailer to prevent corrosion. To clean the pickups, use a dry cloth or just a bit of guitar body cleaner, being careful to avoid any liquid cleaners.
Step 9: Clean the Guitar Body
For guitars with a shiny finish, give them a little extra love with products like the BOSS BGD-01 Guitar Detailer or the Dunlop Formula 65 Guitar Polish & Cleaner. And for those of you with a matte or satin finish, opt for a simple but effective dry cloth to clean the body. It’s important to avoid liquid cleaners that can clog the wood’s pores.
Bonus Tip: Baby Wipes
It might sound odd, but for a quick and easy fretboard cleaning solution in between deeper cleaning sessions, grab some baby wipes! Just make sure to pick the sensitive kind without any added perfumes or chemicals. The moisture won’t damage the wood, and it’s an effective way to remove grime from your fretboard using common household items.
How to Keep Your Fretboard Clean (After You Clean It)
Here’s some tips to prevent your fretboard from getting dirty now that it’s nice and clean:
- Wash your hands before playing: To prevent unnecessary dirt and oils from transferring to the guitar, always wash your hands before playing. This will help maintain the instrument’s cleanliness and appearance.
- Quickly wipe down the guitar after playing: Use a soft t-shirt or other soft, clean cloth to remove any skin oils, dirt, and dust from the guitar. Make sure to clean the tuning machines as well.
Condition every few months: Condition Rosewood, Ebony, and Pau Ferro fretboards every few months with lemon oil to prevent cracking.
7 Things to Avoid When Cleaning a Guitar
- Avoid using chemicals that may damage the wood, such as ordinary household cleaners.
- Do not use lighter fluid/naptha on your guitar body.
- Avoid using 100% lemon oil on your fretboard.
- Avoid using wire wool on gloss maple boards.
- Use extra care with older, worn maple boards as the polish can seep into cracks and stain the wood.
- Avoid using liquid cleaners on Matte or Satin finish guitars.
- Do not use excessive oil when conditioning your fretboard.
Complete List of Products Needed
We’ve put together this list of essential products that will help you keep your guitar looking like new. Some are optional, and always make sure to use the appropriate products for you guitar’s finish.
- Soft cloth (microfiber)
- Sensitive baby wipes
- Q tip
- Very fine steel wool (0000 grade)
- Fretboard conditioner (e.g Gobi Labs)
- Lemon oil (remember, NOT 100% lemon oil! Kaiser Lemon is good)
- Guitar polish (e.g., Boss Guitar Detailer, Dunlop Formula 65 Guitar Polish & Cleaner)
So, there you have it – the ultimate guide to cleaning your guitar fretboard. By following these expert-recommended steps, you’ll keep your guitar in top shape and sounding great.
Below, we’ve compiled a few awesome videos that will guide you through each step of the cleaning process. There’s videos from Gibson, Fender, and Martin here, as well as some fretboard-specific videos we like. Enjoy!
Selected Videos
Rosewood Fretboards:
Maple Fretboards:
Acoustic Guitars:
In this video, Gibson’s Master Luthier Jim DeCola shows you how to clean, oil, and condition your guitar’s fingerboard for a smoother playing experience and improved stability. A well-maintained fingerboard not only looks and feels better, but it also prevents the wood from expanding and contracting due to moisture fluctuations.
To start, remove the strings and protect the body of the guitar with a sheet of leather or cloth. Apply fingerboard oil (such as Gibson Fretboard Conditioner or lemon oil) generously to a clean rag and work it into the fingerboard, ensuring it is fully saturated. Let the oil sit for a few minutes to penetrate the wood.
If your fingerboard is particularly dirty, use a toothbrush or synthetic steel wool (such as a white Scotch Brite pad) to scrub alongside the frets and remove any gunk. Remember to work with the grain direction to avoid scratches.
Once the oil has been left to soak in for a few minutes, wipe off any excess with a clean, dry rag. Remove the protective covering and admire your freshly oiled and conditioned fingerboard, now ready for restringing. Your guitar will play more smoothly and be more stable, thanks to the oil stabilizing the wood.
Hi, I’m Jim DiCola, master luthier for Gibson guitars. I’m going to show you how to clean, oil, and condition your guitar’s fingerboard.
Cleaning, oiling, and conditioning your guitar’s fingerboard is very important. For one, it’ll make your guitar look and feel better. Having that oil in the fingerboard replenished will make it play like butter. It’ll give the fingerboard a rich, deep tone in the wood, and it’ll also make the guitar more stable because once that oil is penetrated in the fingerboard, it’ll be less likely to expand and contract due to moisture fluctuation, climate change, and so forth.
The first thing we’re going to do is to prepare the guitar for this process. I’ve already removed the strings and put low-tack tape on the bridge posts to keep that bridge from moving since there’s no string tension. Next, I’m going to protect that body surface. The oil from the process can sometimes make a mess and get on the body, not terribly damaging, but it’s best to protect it if at all possible.
I like to use a sheet of leather that I cut out specific for this purpose. If you do it often enough, you may want to do the same. You can also use a rag, paper towels, anything like that to protect the body’s surface. Since I do this all the time, I prefer the leather since it’s reusable and very robust. I’ll also use low-tack tape around that fingerboard, and that will not only keep it in place but it will prevent debris and so forth from getting under this mask and again, keep that body surface clean and protected.
Next, I’m going to use fingerboard oil. Here, I’m using Gibson fretboard conditioner. This is available at many music stores. It’s a type of lemon oil. If your store doesn’t carry this, you can also use a lemon oil like you can get at your local hardware store. You can even use mineral oil or even baby oil that you find at the drugstore. They’re all mineral oil products. They just have different scents and different viscosities and colorings, but they’ll all protect your fingerboard just the same.
I like the Gibson lemon oil fingerboard conditioner because that yellow also helps enhance that color and give it a nice warm tone. When I apply the oil, I like to have a rag specific for that, and I like to keep it in a ziplock bag. That way, it keeps that rag from picking up dust and contamination, which could possibly scratch your fingerboard surface. I want to apply that oil generously to that rag. So, here you can see me work that into that fingerboard. You can already see how deep and dark that will start to get. You want to apply it generously, but you don’t want to be messy. You don’t want this the oil running off the fingerboard onto the neck, but you do want to saturate that fretboard. So, apply a little at a time and re-wet as needed, working it in alongside the frets to fully saturate that fingerboard.
Once it’s fully saturated the fingerboard to where it’s kind of wet laying on top of the fingerboard, I like to let it sit a few minutes, maybe even five minutes, just so it penetrates as much as it can. If you do it too quick, it’ll sit on top of the surface, and then you’ll wipe it dry, and it really hasn’t penetrated and really done the work that it needs to do. So, keep it on there so it’s fully moist and allow it to sit, maybe up to five minutes, to fully penetrate into that fingerboard.
If your fretboard is especially dirty, over time, you can pick up a lot of gunk and funk that will sit in that fingerboard. You can use a toothbrush, an ordinary toothbrush, and work that oil in. You can re-wet the brush as needed and then just scrub alongside the frets. The bristles from that brush will get up next to that fret wire and remove any gunk. Once you treat the entire fingerboard to that process, then you can come back kind of with the grain and work it back in. But you can see how I’ll get on one side and then rotate on the other side of that fret and repeat. That will make sure all that dirt and funk that has penetrated the grain and inside the crevices of the fret wire is removed.
Another tip, if your fingerboard again is gunky with that stuff, in addition to the toothbrush, you can also use a synthetic steel wool. In this case, I’m using a white Scotch-Brite pad. It’s equivalent to the four odd or four zero steel wool, but it’s far less messy. So again, I like to put the oil on the Scotch-Brite and work it in. And now here, you don’t have to put as much. You can see it lays on wetter because it’s not being absorbed into that rag like a polishing cloth, and you can scrub that fingerboard. That’ll remove all that debris in the fingerboard, and it’ll polish up your fret wire. So if you go in the grain direction lengthwise, that’s recommended. However, you may have instances where you kind of have to go against the grain to pull out some of that dirt, but then follow it up going with the grain direction. That’ll ensure that you don’t have any cross-grain scratches in the fingerboard. It’s very fine and unlikely that will leave objectionable scratches, but it’s just good safe practice.
Once you’re done cleaning and polishing with that Scotch-Brite, again, just like oiling it with the rag, let it sit for a few minutes. And after that, then you can wipe it clean with a dry rag. Again, keep it in a ziplock bag. That’ll make sure that it doesn’t pick up any dust or debris or anything that could scratch your fingerboard or your guitar.
Here you can see that the oil’s been sitting on this fingerboard for several minutes, so it’s penetrated about as much as it will. That means the job is done. Now I’m going to use a clean rag, and I’m going to wipe off all the remaining fingerboard oil that’s sitting on the surface. And again, I’ll try to wipe alongside the fret wire to make sure there’s no puddling or standing oil so it doesn’t create a mess. You want to wipe it dry, and you’ll see that it’s a much deeper, richer shade of rosewood from what it looked like previously.
After that, we can remove the mask, clean up any residue along the side of the fingerboard, and now it’s ready for restringing. You can see how deep and rich the rosewood looks compared to how it was before. So again, the guitar will play a lot smoother and more effortlessly, and it will be more stable because of that oil stabilizing the wood.
Thanks for watching. Be sure to check out the next episode of Gibson’s Guide to Guitar Setup and Maintenance.
Is your guitar’s fretboard looking a little dry, dull, and lifeless? It might be time for some conditioning! In this video, Mike from Fender discusses the importance of fretboard conditioning and how to do it properly. This process should be done every six months for most unfinished fretboards (rosewood, laurel, ebony), but might need more frequent care if you live in a dry climate.
To condition your fretboard, you’ll need an oil specifically designed for guitars, such as Fender Fingerboard Remedy, and two cloths (one for applying and one for wiping off). First, remove your guitar strings and check if your fretboard needs conditioning. Note that finished maple necks don’t need conditioning, just a damp cloth and some guitar polish to clean it.
Apply the oil to the cloth and gently rub it on the fretboard, making sure to cover the entire surface. If there’s any grime or dirt, now is the time to wipe it away. Let the oil soak in for a few minutes before wiping away the excess with a clean cloth. If the fretboard still looks dry, you can repeat the process, but remember that a little oil goes a long way.
By conditioning your fretboard, you’ll prevent potential issues like protruding fret ends or cracks, and keep your guitar sounding and looking its best.
Hi, everybody. I’m Mike. I’m here today with Fender and we’re gonna talk a little bit about fretboard conditioning.
Now you may ask yourself, “How do I know when it’s time to condition my fretboard?” Well, friends, if your fretboard is looking a little dry, a little dull, a little bit lifeless, give it a kiss of oil. That’s all you need.
Now, I recommend doing this maybe once every six months for most unfinished fretboards. That’s rosewood, that’s laurel, that’s ebony. But if you live in a particularly dry climate, you might need to do it every three to six months, somewhere in there. Basically, whenever you take your strings off, just look at your fretboard. It’ll tell you everything you need to know.
A dry fretboard can mean problems down the line, such as protruding fret ends or cracks, so it’s best to keep it conditioned.
All right, now the strings have been removed and we are ready to condition. However, if you have a guitar with a finished maple neck, you don’t need to condition that. That’s already sealed off, it’s taken care of. Now if there is maybe dirt or grime buildup on it, all you need to do is get a damp cloth, maybe some guitar polish, and just wipe it away.
Now let’s focus on conditioning. Take it from me, there exists some heated debate on the Internet about what’s best to use on your fingerboard. But if you’ve got a question about it, not sure which way to go, it’s best to use a product specifically designed for your guitar. Today we’ll be using Fender Fingerboard Remedy.
Now to get the job done, all you’ll need, aside from your oil of choice, are a cloth to wipe it on, and then a clean cloth to wipe it off. Now what we’re gonna do here is apply some of that oil directly to the cloth so that we don’t overdo it. And wipe it on. When applying the oil, gonna rub gently, making sure that we get full coverage here, and if there’s any grime or dirt on the fretboard, now is a good time to wipe it away.
We’re gonna let that soak in for a few minutes and then wipe away the excess with a clean cloth. Try not to get any on the body of the guitar, but if you do, it’s no big deal. It’ll wipe right off.
Once you’ve done all this, if the fretboard still looks really dry, it’s okay to do it again. However, I do wanna mention, don’t wanna use too much oil. A little goes a long way in this instance.
Presto. Now once you’ve done all that, congratulations, you’ve conditioned your fretboard. For more information, go to fender.com and stay tuned for more videos. We’ll be seeing ya.
In this video, we explore fretboard cleaning and fret polishing on a maple-bordered guitar, discussing the differences in approach compared to other types of fretboards. First, remove the strings and ensure the fretboard and finish are in good condition. Avoid using wire wool on gloss maple boards, and instead opt for a pump polish specifically designed for guitars, such as Gibson or Dunlop 65. Apply the polish to a soft towel and gently clean the fretboard, making sure not to apply too much pressure or polish. Be cautious with older, worn maple boards as the polish can seep into cracks and stain the wood. Regular maintenance with pump polish can keep your maple fretboard looking clean and shiny, and even polish the frets to a certain extent.
Hi guys, we’re going to look at fret ball cleaning and fret polishing on a maple bordered guitar this time. For you guys that didn’t fully get it the first time, it might be good to watch this as well. We’re going to discuss the differences in approach, so let’s get straight down to it.
First things first, strings off. These are slightly different tuners than the last guitar, these are vintage style tuners in church style tuners, ladies, and a little bit quicker and easier to remove the stray case. Okay, so it just comes out. You can sort of see there that the string goes down inside the tuner. That’s right, it means they just sort of pop off when you’re loosening them with your lovely like that string winder. Plus, they’re very, very pretty. Absolutely, and they work very, very well too, but we go into that in more detail. Nice little teaser there, so that’ll be in the tuning, in the tuning, a sort of restringing sections.
I’m just going to knit it via the ends off because they won’t go through the bridge. Okay, so let me just long get a shot of you doing that there. We’re clean as a whistle now. Okay, so let’s have a look how you getting those strings out on the back there. So you just thread them through and they come out of the block underneath there like that. And because you snip them off, they come out nice and easy, and you don’t need to sort of rip them through, and your son has an almost or almost perfectly in position.
If you notice on the back there, I didn’t have a back plate. Absolutely ease of access. So any reason for that other than convenience? Or I think they sound better. Because you get to hear that natural reverberation. That’s interesting. That’s interesting. So if you mark off, it’s the same as Eric Johnson’s. Very nice. So you’re just letting those strings kind of the springs on the back rather sort of breathe and kind of right.
Now, this is a gloss maple board. Yeah, okay, see on that’s very, very shiny. Now, we don’t use the wire wool on this type of fretboard. Okay, okay, we’re going to use just a pump polish. I’ve got a Gibson, yeah, Amish here. Other brands are available, indeed, but Dunlop 65 is very good. Okay, pump polishes, Gibson polish is very good. Okay, what you’re after is something that’s not harmful to the finish. Okay, sure. Now, that would be something which has silicon in it like my household cleaners. Yeah, um, best or should boundary advisable guitars. So you want to kind of delicate. So yeah, it’s hard polish if you can, if you can daringly, yeah, right, they’re out there in abundance. Sure, and it’s what should be used. So if you’ve got a guitar that’s cost you a thousand pounds or a thousand dollars or whatever, spend a little bit more, get the right polish, and don’t ruin the finish. Absolutely.
Okay, so a couple of things to mention specifically about the maple ball. Yes, okay, so this being finished, this is relatively new. This is probably only about a year old. Okay, it’s one of our demo guitars, so it’s rarely played. The finish on the fretboard isn’t warm. Sure, yeah, it does look pretty pristine with guitars for older and are worn makeup boards. Yeah, got to be careful how much polish you use or even make a judgment call whether you should use any. Cuz if maple board the finish has cracked at all, okay, yeah, what policy youth will go underneath and can stay in the wood. Okay, if so, eyeball it, check it, make sure it’s, you know, it hasn’t cracked in any place. Okay, okay, and a crack will be will be pretty obvious to the naked eye. Yeah, it will be a hairline crack, and you’ll see it’s what’s called check-in. Okay, wear to finish checks, fair enough. That’s just one thing to be just cautious about if you’ve got a vintage instrument. You should definitely check that. Okay, if that’s the case and you’re concerned, then just some towel or a polish paper, yeah, okay, and just clean it like that, fair enough. Okay, but this is perfectly fine to use some kind of guitar cleaner, sure.
Okay, so this one’s already looking pretty clean, I have to say. Oh yeah, awesome. And the frets on this, when we come to polish in them, look pretty clean already, but we’ll see what they come up like. Oh yeah, I see what we can do. Okay, so just a couple of sprays on the towel. This towel, by the way, is called erm Scots shop towel, okay, and it’s, I found it to be the best thing to use. It doesn’t tear, right, and it’s she’s good when it’s wet. The other important point and probably the most important for us, you know, in the repair shop, is that once that’s been used, I just throw it away. Okay, fair enough. Yeah, so there isn’t a buildup of different polishes, okay, you have been used on multiples of guitars. Oh, absolutely, because if this has got pump polish on it, and then I start using the same cloth on a vintage instrument with different finishes or things like that, you have to be cautious about it. Okay, fair enough. And I guess there’s also the possibility of maybe picking up some kind of possibly the wire wall just absolutely. If you can have half the blue towel, and then you can throw it away, sure, it’s a good habit. Okay, cool.
So although this board wasn’t exactly dirty, but you can see that in the light, the whole thing looks really nice. Yeah, it’s coming really, really nicely. If you had a maple board which looked similar to Dan’s rosewood board, lots of dirt and grime all over it, this pond polish would slowly lift that. Okay, you might just have to turn the cloth over a couple more times, right, if it’s really filthy, and you know you’re certain there’s no checking on that finish, yeah, possibly spray some on the board and really get a good old clean. This cloth will polish these frets up just slightly, you know, okay, it will shine on them. So on the road too, if you’re very happiness, yes, I feel regularly maintaining your maple board, okay, this may shine them up suitable as sure. And obviously, this is something that you can do whether the strings are off or not, but would you ever bother cleaning the back of the neck at all whilst you’re doing it? Absolutely, it’s something you can certainly do, and obviously, the back is also finished with yes, some maybe know where guitars have a satin finish. Okay, okay, so a maple fretboard with a satin finish, yeah, that back and clean up in exactly the same way. Okay, but if you continually polish it, yeah, you’ll end up buffing, right? Okay, and that will slowly start looking like gloss, right? I say, hey, I say overtime FreePlay, you’ll make it shinier anyway, I say, but it’s worth bearing that in mind, yeah, because you’re sort of, you know, you’re polishing it gradually over the sound sort of exact for decades of use, but it’s perfectly safe to use something like that on the Southshore – sure. I think we’re ready to fret polish. Okay, cool. So next time we’ll have a look at actually polishing the frets.
In this video, the expert shares valuable tips on how to properly maintain and clean your guitar for a long-lasting, beautiful finish. Here are the key takeaways:
- Always wipe down the guitar after playing: Use a soft cloth (e.g., a yellow cloth from the 1833 shop or a soft t-shirt) to remove any skin oils, dirt, and dust from the guitar. Make sure to clean the tuning machines as well.
- Avoid using chemical polish directly on the guitar: The finish on most guitars is porous, which means that rubbing in chemical polish can cause more harm than good. Instead, use a designated guitar polish, like the one available in the 1833 shop, sparingly and only on gloss instruments.
- Condition the fingerboard: After playing, you may notice a buildup on the fingerboard. Use a soft cloth or minimally abrasive steel wool to gently clean the fingerboard and shine up the frets. To condition the fingerboard (and bridge), use products like three-in-one oil or Dr. Duck’s Axe Wax once or twice a year to keep the wood from cracking.
- Wash your hands before playing: To prevent unnecessary dirt and oils from transferring to the guitar, always wash your hands before playing. This will help maintain the instrument’s cleanliness and appearance.
By following these simple tips, you’ll keep your guitar looking and sounding great for years to come.
Today on Pro Tips, I’m going to show you another thing that I get a lot of questions about: how to take care of the finish. How do I clean it? How do I polish it?
Now, the best thing to do every time you play your guitar, whenever you’re done with it, is to take a soft cloth like these yellow cloths that we have in the 1833 shop here and just wipe the guitar down. You just go over it lightly. You can also use a soft t-shirt or something like that. But anywhere that basically your arm, your hands, any of your skin oils touch, basically wipe it down. You can go over to the tuning machines and everything, just make sure that everything is clean.
Some people like to go ahead and just spray polish on or get some kind of polish on and rub it right in. Our finish is very porous, so if you would rub in some kind of polish with all that chemical stuff on there, you’re actually just going to rub that stuff into the finish and ingrain it into the finish. And you could actually do more harm than good. You know, this is a simple, quick way just to clean everything up, get all the chemicals and stuff off, and make it shine.
Now, after you wipe everything down with a cloth, if you decide that you want to shine the guitar up even more, then you can go ahead and use one of our polishes that we have here. We have this available in the 1833 shop, and it’s also available online. It is designed to be used very sparingly. All you have to do is take it and spritz it over the top like this. You don’t need a lot. And then take the soft cloth and go over it. It cleans up pretty quickly. It just dries itself. So you just go over and make sure you get all the excess stuff off. Turn the rag over to a dry side, just like you would if you’re polishing your car or anything else. There’s no abrasives in it, so you don’t have to worry about it scratching. And that’s why I always say to wipe it down with a soft cloth or a damp cloth first to get all that stuff off of there, all the dirt and dust and grime and everything before you go after it with that, because you may end up scratching the guitar.
Also, remember to only use that polish on gloss instruments, anything with a full gloss finish like this GPC PA one or something with a gloss top. None of our satin guitars, anything with a satin finish, do not use this or any other kind of polish on.
Included in this, another question that I get is how to condition the fingerboard, how do you clean the fingerboard? Well, after playing a lot, you know, you have a lot of stuff on your hands. And before I even go any further, one thing I definitely want to mention is before you play your guitar, please wash your hands. You don’t want to have your lunch all over your hands when you go up and pick up one of these instruments because you’re only going to make a mess of the guitar. So please wash your hands. But even still after that, there’s still natural oils and everything in your hands. So sometimes when you’re playing, you know, there could be some buildup on the fingerboard. Again, you could take a soft cloth, preferably not the same one that you use on the body and everything, but you could take a soft cloth and just wipe off the fingerboard. You can also take a minimally abrasive steel wool such as this and go over the fingerboard, and this will also help to shine up the frets and clean all of the excess stuff off, you know, excess oils and everything off of the fingerboard.
As far as conditioning the fingerboard, and this goes for the bridge as well because there’s no finish on those, they’re still basically raw wood with a little bit of stain on them. It’s not something you have to do a lot. I would say maybe once or twice a year, you know, depending again on the humidity control and everything else that you have. But it’s a good idea to make sure that those woods are a little bit moist as you don’t want to have them crack. A couple of products that you can use, three in one oil. This stuff you can use on everything. You can put it on your lawnmower, you can lubricate your sewing machine with it, you can lubricate tuning machines with it, and you can also use it on the fingerboard to condition the fingerboard. If you don’t want to use three in one oil, another great product is Dr. Duck’s Axe Wax. This stuff’s great because you can get it on the fingerboard. If you get it on the finish, it actually makes the finish look prettier. It’s completely safe on this finish. To demonstrate with this stuff, you just take a little bit and score them on the fingerboard so it’s like that. And then you can take a rag, you know, you can obviously see that I’ve used this one a few times, an oily rag, and you’re just going to go in there and just clean that up and kind of massage it into the woods. Make sure that you catch everywhere. You know, you can get in there and rub pretty hard, and you can see already that it’s shining up the fingerboard, making the fingerboard kind of come back to life. And if you want to, you can also take in another rag and just clean up the excess that’s in there, and then you’re done.
