ConditioningRosewoodFretBoard(how often)

[StuH]

All my teles and non teles have rosewood fretboards. I live in a semi arid climate. How often should I be conditioning the fretboard?

Also a bit OT but but a planet waves humidifier for my acoustic and it says to use distilled water. Do you think I can get away with tap water?

[Manitou]

StuH
I can't answer about the fretboard since I only own 1 tele with a maple neck, but I think that humidifier water without alot of minerals would be fine, but here in Pennsylvania, we have limestone out the wahzoo, so it is also in the water, and will leave a white powdery film, and eventually a crusty build up of minerals. That's what I think that they're trying to avoid with the distilled water thing.
If your water is fairly mineral-less, it'll probably be OK.

[teleftcaster]

I have a les paul w/ rosewood. I generally do a treatment every other string change in the winter (I change strings about once a month) when it's dry where I live. In the humid summer I don't mess with it.

[Lostheart]

I once read that rosewood boards need very little care and they seldom crack...ebony is apparently the one everyone should worry about.

[The String King]

"teles and non teles" verb, used to describe 6 stringed instruments (see "guitars")

as you can see i've never read a dictionary haha.

Anyways, I wouldnt know about an arid climate, but I would say once every fortnight?

[Mark Davis]

Tteat it with some bore oil or lemon oil on each string change.

Clean it with maptha first. I always keep an old toothbrush around to clean near the frets too where the gunk builds up.

[Sleph]

I clean the fretboard and give it a once over with every string change... that's once a week or maybe once a fortnight.

[weelie]

The what to use and how often to clean is an endless debate. You don't really need to use anything or do anything. But most people like to.

Tap water: I do use tap water with the Planet waves. But it does build up some fungus or whatever, and a new one takes two syringes and my old one takes less than one...which could be a result of using tap water. But they are cheap, so you can buy a new one every two or three years.

[mc5nrg]

Couple times a year or so,if needed. After you treat a fingerboard you'll get an idea how things have changed and should be able to eyeball the condition of the board down the road.Best approach to whatever you use is wipe on, wait a minute or two, wipe off. I usually treat fingerboards after doing the polish the frets/clean the fb with 0000 steel wool thing. If you choose that approach mask the pickups/cover the body with a plastic bag/or remove the neck to protect the body and pickups from sw particles.

[TelZilla]

Well, I have a '92 am std strat and I've put lemon oil on the board 3 times so far. Looks ok to me.

As Pete Townshend said "I don't clean it, I PLAY the f**king thing".

Not the approach for everyone, but I just want to present the lazy man's viewpoint.

[Axis29]

Originally Posted by TelZilla

Well, I have a '92 am std strat and I've put lemon oil on the board 3 times so far. Looks ok to me.

As Pete Townshend said "I don't clean it, I PLAY the f**king thing".

Not the approach for everyone, but I just want to present the lazy man's viewpoint.

I've got an almost 40 year old Gibson ES-340, I've pledged once or twice... and an early 70's SG that's never gotten a drop of anything other than finger oil on it (well, maybe some sweat?). Both still play and look as good as can be.

Just adding to the lazy factor...

I have a strat with a rosewood fingerboard I've been thinking of putting some lemon oil on, but I keep forgetting...

[Sleph]

...I do mine regularly not only for the fretboard but because a clean, grunge-free fretboard helps strings last longer.