Cleaning the neck of Electric guitar

fada

I have never cleaned it in the four years I have it. What should I use to do and will it improve the sound

ianvomsaal

Here you go: click here: FRETBOARD CLEANER
No real noticeable sound improvement, but playability and string life will be improved.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

fada

I was just going to use a cloth and water.

Guitarhero27

you can go ahead and use cloth and water, but you WILL dry out the neck, and the cloth could cause some scuffing of the wood, helping dry it out more. Definiately listen to Ian when he says the fretboard conditioner. Also grab yourself a 100% cotten cloth. That is your best bet by all means.

xtremehardy388

ghs fast fret too

Jooooosh

the fretboard?
lemon oil and 100% cotton rag -- although if I remember correctly you shouldn't use lemon oil on maple fretboards.
You can just use some old English lemon oil -- it's for polishing furniture but it'll work fine. The specially formulated fretboard conditioner is usually just 95%+ lemon oil anyways so you mine as well save a few bucks.

ianvomsaal

Jooooosh wrote:

although if I remember correctly you shouldn't use lemon oil on maple fretboards.

as I've mentioned fretboard conditioner is probably the best thing to use.

Jooooosh wrote:

You can just use some old English lemon oil -- it's for polishing furniture but it'll work fine

Old English will hurt your lacquer (it breaks down nitrocellulose).
Some repair shops use old english instead of water when they wet-sand finish repairs, but that's because it helps
cut the finish before they wipe it clean and buff it out.
Feel free to use something like Formby's furniture grade lemon oil, but personally I'd stay away from Old English.

Or better yet, just use some kind of fretboard conditioner (some are mineral oil, some lemon oil).
These are all fine to use : click here: FRETBOARD CONDITIONER
There's also Gerlitz Guitar Honey.
Cheers . . .

- Ian

xtremehardy388

Of the ones Ian suggested, I HIGHLY reccommend(I love spelling) Lizard spit. A friend of mine uses it and it's amazing..and smells nifty too

Oh, Jimmy

ianvomsaal wrote:

as I've mentioned fretboard conditioner is probably the best thing to use.

Old English will hurt your lacquer (it breaks down nitrocellulose).
Some repair shops use old english instead of water when they wet-sand finish repairs, but that's because it helps
cut the finish before they wipe it clean and buff it out.
Feel free to use something like Formby's furniture grade lemon oil, but personally I'd stay away from Old English.

Or better yet, just use some kind of fretboard conditioner (some are mineral oil, some lemon oil).
These are all fine to use : click here: FRETBOARD CONDITIONER
There's also Gerlitz Guitar Honey.
Cheers . . .

- Ian

There is no nitrocellulose on unfinished fretboard, so is it ok I use Olde English for my rosewood.

sennin

xtremehardy388 wrote:

ghs fast fret too

I just got some the other day. It really works! and it's cheap!

ianvomsaal

Oh, Jimmy wrote:

There is no nitrocellulose on unfinished fretboard, so is it ok I use Olde English for my rosewood.

Just be careful you don't get any on any other part of your guitar -
Which can be difficult to do since you usually spray it -
Again, I'd recommend something else since it's easy to get messy and make a mistake.

xtremehardy388

sennin wrote:

I just got some the other day. It really works! and it's cheap!

Someone on here reccomended it to me and I've never found something better!

Snake

Ive never even tried it. ARe you supposed to take off all the strings?
Because I know your supposed to keep string tension on the neck.

Oh, Jimmy

ianvomsaal wrote:

Just be careful you don't get any on any other part of your guitar -
Which can be difficult to do since you usually spray it -
Again, I'd recommend something else since it's easy to get messy and make a mistake.

I never spray any cleaner except to the back of the guitar. Always to the cloth. Super paranoid about having to take my guitar apart and dig that shit out, I guess.