took the finish off my fretboard

elstongunn

so i was cleaning my takamine (eg-240 $250 range) with Martin guitar polish/micro fiber cloth. i was scrubbing the neck pretty good in between changing strings. the guitar is two years old. today my g-friend looks at it and says there is no more finish on the fretboard. sure enough the cloth is full of brown stain and my rosewood kneck looks more grey than deep brown. i was really just trying to get the grime around the frets off. guess i scrubbed too hard? cheap finish? has this ever happened to anyone?
i'm not so concerned about this guitar but i just ordered a martin 000-15 and now am paranoid about caring for it.

http://s37.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=09AO0IZTAWWWH1I068FR2KCRF1

any advice would be appreciated.
thanks
tony

enharmonic

elstongunn wrote:

so i was cleaning my takamine (eg-240 $250 range) with Martin guitar polish/micro fiber cloth. i was scrubbing the neck pretty good in between changing strings. the guitar is two years old. today my g-friend looks at it and says there is no more finish on the fretboard. sure enough the cloth is full of brown stain and my rosewood kneck looks more grey than deep brown. i was really just trying to get the grime around the frets off. guess i scrubbed too hard? cheap finish? has this ever happened to anyone?
i'm not so concerned about this guitar but i just ordered a martin 000-15 and now am paranoid about caring for it.

http://s37.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=09AO0IZTAWWWH1I068FR2KCRF1

any advice would be appreciated.
thanks
tony

Sounds like the rosewood way dyed. I am positive that the Martin polish would do no harm, as I have been using that same stuff for years on my $3000 Goodall.

elstongunn

enharmonic wrote:

Sounds like the rosewood way dyed. I am positive that the Martin polish would do no harm, as I have been using that same stuff for years on my $3000 Goodall.

thanks i'll calm my nerves about the future martin and chalk the takamine up to a 'cheap' guitar

MissYouAllDay

I give my midrange fender a good cleaning and it is fine.

who's_pearljam?

Don't panic! You didn't do any harm.
Maybe you scrubbed a little too hard, but sometimes there's a lot of funk built up on a fretboard. Some of it was dirt and grease, and some was the natural color of the rosewood that rubbed off. There really isn't much of an actual finish on a rosewood fretboard, either. It's usually just some sort of oil. A maple fretboard is finished with poly, or lacquer, but not usually rosewood.

You don't want to use guitar polish to clean a fretboard. For a good fretboard cleaning use a cloth and lighter fluid (Naptha, like the stuff that comes in the blue and yellow can at the cigar store). Use a Qtip to get the grease built up around the frets where they meet the wood.
Then give it a coat of fretboard oil so that it soaks into the pores of the rosewood and polish with some 0000 grade steel wool lengthwise right down the fretboard and frets, and it'll smooth and polish the frets, too!
The gray is probably the leftover polish that got into the grain and a bit of fading after you rubbed it. Try some fretboard oil and it'll darken right up. :cool:

elstongunn

who's_pearljam? wrote:

Don't panic! You didn't do any harm.
Maybe you scrubbed a little too hard, but sometimes there's a lot of funk built up on a fretboard. Some of it was dirt and grease, and some was the natural color of the rosewood that rubbed off. There really isn't much of an actual finish on a rosewood fretboard, either. It's usually just some sort of oil. A maple fretboard is finished with poly, or lacquer, but not usually rosewood.

You don't want to use guitar polish to clean a fretboard. For a good fretboard cleaning use a cloth and lighter fluid (Naptha, like the stuff that comes in the blue and yellow can at the cigar store). Use a Qtip to get the grease built up around the frets where they meet the wood.
Then give it a coat of fretboard oil so that it soaks into the pores of the rosewood and polish with some 0000 grade steel wool lengthwise right down the fretboard and frets, and it'll smooth and polish the frets, too!
The gray is probably the leftover polish that got into the grain and a bit of fading after you rubbed it. Try some fretboard oil and it'll darken right up. :cool:

wow, thanks a bunch. i'm gonna search for some fretboard oil now.