How to DEEP CLEAN your Fretboard - Full Tutorial
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- Your fretboard looks like it was recently found on the Titanic wreck? or maybe you just bought your dream guitar for an awesome price to discover that the previous owner never changed strings in 5 years? Don't worry! In this video you'll learn how to make the fretboard look as good as new - or even better - in some easy to follow steps and in a totally safe way for you and your guitar.
Hope you enjoy it!!
Full restoration video of this guitar: • Restoring an old and s...
Useful products for cleaning and setup your guitar:
Nut lubrication: amzn.to/3mxOVnY
0000 Steel Wool: amzn.to/2L1nSV0
3m Scotchbrite pads: amzn.to/3ps8ZtP
Fretboard protectors: amzn.to/2WPwnoZ
Lemon oil for ebony/rosewood fretboards: amzn.to/2KURljz
Cleaner for all your guitar: amzn.to/3n2uHTX
Feeler Gauges: amzn.to/38k83ki
Measuring caliper/vernier: amzn.to/2Wt4CT2
Set of allen keys: amzn.to/38aYaFG
Guitar capo: amzn.to/38DIeMk
Clip on tuner (great for quick tuning during the setup): amzn.to/3ptD1h4
Plug in tuner (for precise intonation adjustment): amzn.to/3pumXvg
The background music is composed and recorded by me and is available for free here - in order of appearance:
Powerful dark metal - Guitar backing track
• Powerful slow Dark Met...
Cool groovy Jazz Funk - Guitar Backing Track
• Cool groovy Jazz Funk ...
Awesome Face Melting Hard Rock - Guitar backing track
• Awesome face melting H...
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Greetings from Argentina!
Juan Pablo - Inspiring Tracks
#fretboard #guitar #restoration - เพลง
Some people asked how to proceed with set neck guitars or in case you don't want to remove the neck but still need use this cleaning method. Here I have another video where I show exactly that. Hope you like it! th-cam.com/video/Odq2n6bGbpA/w-d-xo.html
If you also want the see ALL the restoration process of this guitar, from the beginning to the end, it can be found here: th-cam.com/video/uP6cB8ra62U/w-d-xo.html
derfischerläuftdavon
Thank you! I don't have an electric guitar yet however a couple of cheap secondhand ukuleles which I got had some issues. Appreciate your effort!
Just to clarify: the lemon oil isn't actually lemon oil. It's a wood "conditioner" with lemon scent.
You are totally right
yeah dont actually just squeeze a lemon onto your fretboard. thats bad.
Dang, no wonder my fretboard has a load of stains. Well, all in the learning experience i guess.
Right! It has to be a mineral based oil and NO natural oil!
Natural oils deteriorate over time: get sticky and rancid.
Wait , I cannot use pink lemonade from Taco Bell on my fretboard? How can I make my guitar sound "sweet"?
Nice job man, what you did in this videos is exactly how I started my journey to becoming a luthier. I started by just cleaning and doing minor repairs on mine and my friend's guitars then I learned how to do fret jobs, full setups and electronics. Now I have my own custom guitars shop, you can totally do it if you keep doing what you are doing.
Sorry about the late response, luckily the channel is growing and keeping track of all the comments is a lot getting harder. Thanks for your words! they are really encouraging and maybe in the future I'll follow your steps. I recently stained the fretboard of a brand new Gretsch with great results and fret jobs are comming soon! Thanks againg and best wishes for your business!!!
This showed up in my recommended immediately after just changing strings
Isn't that the way it always goes!
It is no coincidence...That happened because you either said something about changing guitar strings, cleaning it, or said something else guitar related out loud and your computer's mic picked up the audio, or you typed something into your browser and it recorded your keystrokes. Either way, big brother knew what you wanted and put this video in your recommendations. It's no coincidence, friend, that's how they get you. Here's how you test it... Type in or repeat the phrase dog and dog food at least 10 times in front of your computer and when you open a browser, you will be inundated with dog food ads. They're listening to everything we say, man! They say you can turn it off, but I'm not so sure!
That sucks
Tough
Did he sneak a little Steve Vai in that riff?
That looked incredible when you were finished! Removing the tape was oddly satisfying haha
Thanks! And yes, I think that's the best part. Cheers!!
Great video! Helps a ton since I'm completely new to working on guitars. I just picked up a used guitar for cheap at a garage sale, was in pretty rough shape at first but after doing some work on it turned out perfect. Thanks!
I’ve been a guitar player for damn near 15 years, and until recently I had never once oiled a fretboard. What an insane difference it makes, it almost feels like a completely new instrument. Going to start oiling every unfinished board I got.
Also you didn't mention but steel wool comes in different sizes and the coarse stuff will ruin a neck. Its graded with zeros. the more zeros the finer it is. I use 0000 or 00000 only. Nothing coarser.
Yes, this is what my guy is telling me. You want the least coarse steel wool you can find. Four or five zeroes.
You can clean glass with quad too. Learned this from my car detailing research living in sappy areas of the country.
if i was using 0000 could i then not worry about my polished maple fretboard when I'm cleaning my frets?
Awesome !!! I own 7 bass guitars and 3 acoustics. Evertime I change strings I always do a deep cleaning like this, i turn on some music and it relaxes me. 😌
That's great! I also find it very relaxing, and nothing compares to play a nice and clean guitar. Cheers!
Me too brother . . . very Therapeutic. oNe LovE from NYC
that bad horsie remix as ur backing track is amazing btw
Nice vid, result looks really good.
I like working on my fretboard every couple of months just cause I really the smooth feel of a well maintained board.
Excellent tutorial ! In a guitar maintenance and repair online course, the guy showed the use of a cabinet scraper directly on the wood and he also recommended the use of turpentine. That just didn´t resonate with me..... I´m glad I decided to check out those somewhat aggressive methods and then I found this tutorial. Thank you much Juan Pablo !
Glad you found it useful! There's several methods to do this but I'll not use scrapers or solvents, and certainly not recommend it to less experienced people at all. Cheers!!!
Great video man. So incredible the end result
exactly the video I was looking for! thanks man
Best vid I’ve seen on this so far, thank you!
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Awesome job. Definitely makes me want to clean all of mine! Thanks for the tips IT!
Happy to help! Cheers!!!
Love a good instrument cleaning season. It surely relaxes me.
Same same.
great help in 35 years i never cleaned a guitar except polish the body. learn something every day thanks.
If you clean them regularly there's no need for a really deep clean like this. This is a somewhat extreme case (I've seen a lot worse though) I'm glad you liked the video!
@@InspiringTracks mine get this dirty and I clean them about every 3months. Any tips to keep it clean longer?
Seems like the ideal way to clean up the frets and board ... I've just started doing this with friends guitars . I'm sure they'll be pleased with the final job ... Thank you :-)
There's lot of methods out there, this is the one I've found works the best without using volatile chemicals or razor blades as some people suggest. Maybe takes some elbow grease but is safe and the results are great. Cheers!!!
I like how you use a hard drive magnet to clean up the steel wool. Very cool!
AWSOME WORK!YOU ROCK! Thanks for your tips!
Glad you liked it!
Beautifully done!
Nice snare drum sound in the funk song. Great video and I like the polishing part and the magnet works well . ThanK YOU
Glad to see you cutting the masking tape at a 45 degree angle with the point under the fret. Great job! 👍
Okayyyy but those instrumentals are vibeyyyy my guyyyy
I found this clip very useful. Keep it up!
Thanks!!
This is awesome! I have a couple guitars I have never treated the neck. Been years.
Now THIS IS A USEFUL VIDEO! thanks
Superb video, thanks alot and well done! 👍🏻
So satisfying 😁 definitely trying on my PRS
Great Video! Thank you for spending the time and effort!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I've found Music Nomad's F One oil will get that gunk off, with a little elbow grease, and hydrate at the same time. I've gotten away from using steel wool directly on a fretboard and stopped using lemon oil but your end result is amazing. Might try the direct wool on a really nasty one I get next time. Thanks for the great video!
I played for years and never cleaned my guitars, guess I kinda thought all that dirt and funk added to the “mojo”, lol. It don’t. The last couple of years I been cleaning up all my stuff and man, they play so much better. This is a great video with lots of good tips. I do use lighter fluid as a solvent though. You may be tempted to skip the fret polishing but don’t skip it! It has a big effect on how bends feel and really how it feels all the time. Well worth the effort and again, good video. 👍
Didn't you notice the loss of sustain with a really dirty fretboard? That's what made me clean mine when I was a beginner.
@@castleanthrax1833 - not much really. I didn’t know the difference then but I do now. I was pretty good about changing strings though.
The wearing down of the body is in my opinion the only thing that I like. But when the fret karde dirty it's just a pain rather then adding to the beuty lol
It hurts my soul seeing neglected guitars that has years of gunk and matte frets.
Diadarrio fret polishing cloths work like magic!
Thanks brother. I decided to get my Peavy PXD Tragic 1 out of retirement and get it looking good again. I'm gunna put a sustainiac in the neck pickup pocket, wrap the guitarbin a galaxy wrap, and got all new hardware, volume and tone pots, and a new 3 way switch. This video helped alot since I didn't realize I'd need steel wool lol.
I love this! Thanks again!
Glad you like it!
Excellent Video.... you can substitute using fret erasers to buff/sand problem frets and a dremel with a buff wheel & polishing compound to make those frets shine. I usually apply 3-5 coats of Womby's Lemon Treatment and let it soak for hours before re applying. Eventually the pores will close which is what you really want. Nice "Bad Horsie" too.
Good job, man! Great video!
Thanks!!
Nice! I use alcohol as well, and to protect the neck I take a plastic place mat (or thin sheet of plastic) and place it between th strings and the fretboard. This way I can put more pressure on the top of the strings when cleaning the top, and place the rag underneath the strings to clean the underside without drying out the fretboard.
Great tutorial!!!
Glad you liked it!
This one of my projects too do on my guitar I’m restoring that I found at a job I did while I was doing fire and water restoration
That shinning fret looks satisfying
Thanks!
Nice work doctor... Looks great
Thanks!!!
Thanks man!! Its really help me
That's great! Cheers!!
fantastic, thank you for sharing !
OK. So this video, I trust. Thanks for sharing in such detail.
Thanks! Glad you liked it!!
Good info. Nice music.
Gonna do this to my guitars next weekend
Good luck! You won't regret it!
Very nice job I like the way you did the fritz the fruits of a shiny the word came out really nice good job
Thank you! Cheers!
Pick and quadruple 0 steel wool to remove stains on rosewood fretboard.
I never knew that could be used to do the job. Thanks for the insight!! 👍👍
Nice Job Dude!! bravo
Thanks!!!
Great Job!
your string posts are very neat! hope you can show us how to do it hehe
Ahora mismo vengo de comprarme una guitarra usada, casualmente también es una Gio, y a pesar de que tiene muy poco uso está llena de porquería de estar guardada. En breve pondré en práctica este tutorial. Muchas gracias!
Great video. Looks Great !!!
Thanks!!!
Very good job! This is similar to how I clean and condition all of my fretboards. However, I speed up the process using a Dremel tool for the polishing, etc.
That's awesome! The dremel works great but I think I'm a little more old school (or masochist) and like to do it manually lol
@@InspiringTracks what kind of cloth are you using when applying the polishing compound?
I use a 2" buffing wheel on a 1\2 in. drill! My dremel doesn't seem to have enough power to do the job I like
Tried steal wool, and really really don't like it at all. Big mess without a good finished looking result. Heavy polishing compound like that used on aluminium fuel tanks works much better for me.
First thing I do to raw necks is sand ALL the varnish off immediately, mist with water , let dry in the sun, or a warm place, then recoat the back of the neck with a high quality furniture polish, let dry and soak in, in the sun.
The differance on the neck is off the chain!!! They don't make a coating good enough to replace the true patina of real wood.
Excellent Video-Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I use baby-oil for conditioning. It‘s a mineral based oil, does not deteriorate over many many years, has no smell, and was already in my household before the first guitar. It‘s basically exactly the same as lemon oil, but without the lemon scent.
For cleaning two times per year I just use a damp microfiber cloth. Not much to clean because I wash my hands every time before playing, and after playing I clean the strings with a dry microfiber rag.
I’m definitely going to try this!
Awesome man! Thank you very much for this video, I've been already watching a lot of the tutorials about cleaning the fretboard but they were not efficient really. But your vid made my day! Well done, keep up doing great job.
Wow thanks! I'm really glad you liked the video and hope it helps you to get your fretboard as good as new. Cheers!
it made my day!
Thanks!
Great video man thank you very much
Glad you liked it!!
I bought a guitar today which was really dirty and I went to guitar center and they wanted to charge me a lot of money to clean it so I did it by myself and it turn out to be amazing I'm proud of my self and how good it came out
That's great! Nothing beats the satisfaction of doing it yourself!
Probly did a better job than the lazy bored guy working at guitar center for minimum wage would have done too
Really great information presented here. What a transformation. I love doing my own Set-ups and maintenance. Enjoyed your video & Hit the like-button. oNe LovE from NYC
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
This is so satisfying
Thanks!!
Great result! If you are not really enjoying it, I recommend using a dremel for the fret polishing. It's much easier and 10 times faster :)
I love seeing perfectly wound strings like at the end
My OCD wouldn't let me do otherwise lol. It also helps a lot with tuning stability
Thanks for the nice video!
you're welcome!
Did this to my maybe 15 yo used Les Paul guitar, the steel wool on the fretboard. Plays like a PRS
I know that cuz I went to the guitar store to buy strings to do this and saw this PRS Custom 24
Thank you 😊
Cool, thanks for the vid. I actually used a 0000 steel wool to clear the fretboard of about 50y old bass. Nothing else worked. :)
I use johnsons baby oil on rosewood fretboard, poly finish body, and all metal, with strings on. Just a couple drops on a soft rag. Or a paper towel for fretboard. Wipe off oil on body with super soft cotton cloth. I use old washcloth. It removes gunk. Once a month or so.
For around 25 years or so, I've used Windex to clean my fretboard. Saturate a clean cloth with the Windex and run the fretboard until the rag is no longer discolored by the old oils/residues that are being lifted out of the fretboard by the ammonia. Then, I oil it with Trombone slide oil. I prefer the slide oil because it's a thin, clean oil that is causes no tarnishing and leaves no residue on brass instruments. One of my guitars in a 1991 Jackson RR1 that I purchased new. Played the hell out of it, in a band for around 15 years, and the fretboard still looks basically brand new.
Windex or any glass cleaner with ammonia on wood is a great way to damage it and dry it out super fast. Terrible advice!
IDC how long you've been doing, but you've been doing it wrong. It's also a great way to make white-out ebony fretboards.
You could've told people to use warm soapy water, and it wouldnt have been such a bad advice.
At least is you use wood soap you're not drying out the wood with solvents.
Please use some common sense, and use non-solvent based cleaning products and always oil the fretboard after cleaning!
looks good! i use some ernie ball wipes for the fret board, and for the frets i use some import tool from japan thats kinda like a eraser and its polishes.
For years I use those products to clean house, floor... Just in the scale. Perfect and pratical.
Excellent using plectrum I use Stanley knife blade
You can wrap cheese cloth around flat blanks of wood to polish the frets. I staple the cloth into the back of the board. Each board is roughly 1/4" thick 6" long, 2" wide. I use three different blanks each with a different grade of polish soaked into the cloth. No need to tape off the fretboard. Also the wire wool used for the initial clean should be 0000 grade..which is very fine.
Very nice video
Satisfied watching🤪🌟
Thanks!!!
Super satisfying.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome results mate, I just hope you washed your hands before dinner! keep up the great work, Subbed!
Thanks
Glad you liked it!
Awesome toturial! Everything is well explained and filmed and the final result is amazing. Thanks a lot for this!
Tutorial not toturial
I use micro mesh it just works for me, plus for the neck through instruments with uncovered pick ups I don't have to worry about taping the pickups off as much still do out of habit and because the chance of the loose fret material may get in there
That´s great! Steel wool is kind of the nuclear option and I reserve it only for realy dirty fretboards like in this case to avoid the problems you mentioned. Cheers!!
@@InspiringTracks figured came out looking great. For bolt ons steel wool works fine cause you don't have to worry about the pick ups so much.
Thanks! Another tip - bend the steel fret protector at a right angle at one end. Makes it more stable to work with and gives more access to the ends of the frets.
I remember seeing someone in a video drilling a small hole at both ends of the protector and inserting a rubber band that way he could slide it to the next fret
@@alonzobarragan5658 like a capo
My guitar neck looked similar. The color was actually a moldy green that came off the rag.
This was my first guitar
I realize that for illustrative purposes so maybe my tip isn't for this video, but when I use a magnet to pick up metal shavings, I put the magnet inside of a plastic shopping bag! While over a trashcan, turn the bag inside out & tie when done. Trapping the shavings inside the bag.
That's a really great tip. Thanks!
I like murphys wood soap that stuff does wonders on maple necks
I know nothing of guitar care, but inherited an old acoustic that's dirty all over. Will change the strings soon, and this taught me nigh everything I needed to know about cleaning that gross fretboard while I'm at it (watched some other videos, little additional info). Plus, watching this at twice the normal speed, the music is very distracting :D
He mentions POLISHING WOOD but just the frets...reminds me of Senior dance when we setup a place in a janitor's office and much polishing of was done, more than 75 seniors were polished that night. Ole Debbie would be 66 now but she could police a dome stadium and suck a backetball through a drinking straw...good memories...Debbie was a queen.
Awesome
Thanks!!!
Subscribed!
Thanks a lot!!!
This is a great video, but I use a Dremel to clean my fretboards. Dremel tools have various attachments that are great for deep cleaning without causing any damage, and polishing afterwards. Still, what's really great about this video is the detail and how you highlight what needs to be cleaned, and how to clean it, so I would always recommend watching this video before starting any fretboard cleaning job.
I cleaned a fretboard earlier today and I was done, in and out, in about 15-minutes, that includes removing the neck, removing fret gunk, polishing each individual fret and then wood polishing the neck in the end - and I didn't have to using fret protectors. The fretboard looked brand, spankin' new! If you're not opposed to trying new things, and you own a Dremel with various attachments, then I would highly, giving this method a try, my friend. I started with a spinning attachment that is like a Brillo/steel wool pad, but softer, and it ate up all that nasty gunk in micro-seconds! I ended with a polishing attachments that left the fretboard looking brand new! I'm telling you, man, I mowed through this fretboard with extreme prejudice!
Looks pro 😎
Tx bro 🇮🇩amazing simple
I'm glad you liked it!
Lemon oil (if it really is lemon) also dries the rosewood so don't worry about the solvent when cleaning... and after all, in the end, if the lemon oil is properly rubbed in, it brings certain amount of moisture back... even it also tend to slightly dry the rosewood fretboard.
Have you ever tried micro mesh? You can polish your frets much nicer with it
I use a product called Howard Feed-N-Wax, its orange oil and bees wax. It is freaking amazing on the rosewood.
It has solvents and resin in it and will harden over time.
Excellent video! But I hope you change those tuners eventually...just looking at them is giving me a headache.
I found that some 98% Isopropyl Alcohol and a Wettex cleaning cloth works the best for me for cleaning dirty fretboards, and then I rub some guitar polish on the fretboard after it is clean.
Hey Man, nice job, I noticed that the hardwares such as the tuners and string trees are also cleaned, what did you use to clean those?