Guitar Best way to clean your fretboard?

[Luke G]

Hey all, I haven't been active on this website for a while and I have a question that seemingly everyone around me has a different opinion on. It's really simple, I just need to learn how to clean my fretboard, but yet I've gotten all sorts of different answers and I want to make sure I take extra care of my guitar. The fretboards are very dirty, as I had stopped playing for a while due to personal circumstances. Over the hiatus the fretboards for my guitars are caked in oil and soot and I want to get them looking brand new again. I initially spent about an hour or so rubbing off some of the more obvious dirt with a guitar pick, as to not scratch the wood, but there is still a considerable amount of residue left over. I heard to use steel wool, or lemon oil to get it out, but I don't want to damage the guitar. The frets are also not as shiny anymore, any recommendations on how to properly clean and take care of my guitars?

Thanks for the help!
-Luke

 

[hunte25]

What I do I is I use the Dunlop deluxe cleaning kit I’ll first spray cleaner and prep on a cleaning cloth and rub it against the direction the wood goes (usually vertically) if that’s not enough then I’ll use a toothbrush (don’t use the one you use for your teeth that’s gross) which that definitely cleans it right off without scratching the wood (you don’t need to use a lot of strength too much force on the fretboard will hurt it). for maple fretboards I have no clue because I personally think maple is ugly and a pain in the butt

 

[Rad Synner]

Yeah, lemon oil is great. I used the dunlop one for years and it has always been good but it's just very important to not use lemon oil for maple fretboards! As for the method, I just use a microfiber cloth once the lemon oil has been applied to clean the whole thing. I personally don't do it in any particular direction and im not particularly delicate either but also I don't press like crazy. I clean my fretboard like i'd clean a table or something.

The last thing is also to wait a minute after the first wipe because there might be some rejected lemon oil from the fretboard to clean up.

That's about it!

 

[Ed Seith]

For normal situations, yeah - cleaning spray or even warm soapy water on a microfiber rag. But if you're deep in the caked on shit and gunk, get Gorgomyte.

Gorgomyte Fret And Fingerboard Conditioner

Gorgomyte is the world's best fret cleaning and polishing method. Used by professionals everywhere around the world. Frets, polish, shiny frets, guitar polish, world's best guitar polish. gorgomyte

www.gorgomyte.com

 

[Rad Synner]

For normal situations, yeah - cleaning spray or even warm soapy water on a microfiber rag. But if you're deep in the caked on shit and gunk, get Gorgomyte.

Gorgomyte Fret And Fingerboard Conditioner

Gorgomyte is the world's best fret cleaning and polishing method. Used by professionals everywhere around the world. Frets, polish, shiny frets, guitar polish, world's best guitar polish. gorgomyte

www.gorgomyte.com

Holy shit, that website is old as fuck. I kind of dig it