oxidized frets

[Danserrano]

just wondering what u guys use to keep ur frets nice and shiny and oxifree lol.....saw a little utube video saying steel wool....if so what size grit?

just curious so that in 35 yrs when my eb's finnaly do oxidize im rdy for it!!!! lol

danny

 

[MN246]

I clean my fretboards about once every other month with some lemon oil and fine steel wool. I follow that up by rubbing in some pure caranuba wax.

Kyser makes some stuff called Lem-oil that works really well. It's also great for the back of the neck if it is unfinished like an Axis.

 

[candid_x]

I give mine a lick of 0000 steel wool every few months. Cleans and smooths them up. Be careful to protect electronic parts/pickups from the steel wool bits.

 

[robelinda2]

steel wool works just great, they get nice and shiny!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Danserrano]

cool info guys thx =D

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I have used Duraglit wadding to shine up the frets - worked like a charm!

 

[Spudmurphy]

If you don't want shards of wire wool sticking to your pickups use some 3M scotchbrite.

 

[candid_x]

If you don't want shards of wire wool sticking to your pickups use some 3M scotchbrite.

Very easy to prevent, especially if it's just the frets and not the fretboard you're wooling.

 

[roburado]

What do you use, Bruce? I've heard of people using masking tape to cover the pickups. Does that work well? Double-sided tape would seem IMHO to work better, because then if you had some steel wool bits attracted to the pickups, they would stick to the double-sided tape when you remove it.

 

[candid_x]

Rob,

If it's time to give the neck a full going over, cleaning the maple board and polishing frets with wool, and/or actually refinishing the neck with Birchwood Casey, I take the neck off or remove the pickguard assembly. Easiest and surest is to just remove the neck. If I'm just smoothing frets a bit, I just cover everything below the neck with an old t-shirt. I only use a tiny piece of wool at a time for that, and it's easy to control the wool lint.

 

[roburado]

Rob,

If it's time to give the neck a full going over, cleaning the maple board and polishing frets with wool, and/or actually refinishing the neck with Birchwood Casey, I take the neck off or remove the pickguard assembly. Easiest and surest is to just remove the neck. If I'm just smoothing frets a bit, I just cover everything below the neck with an old t-shirt. I only use a tiny piece of wool at a time for that, and it's easy to control the wool lint.

Cool, I was thiking a cloth or sheet of plastic might be a good way.

 

[candid_x]

Cool, I was thiking a cloth or sheet of plastic might be a good way.

Yeah, a heavy t-shirt or towel just stays put better for me.

Maybe I'll try the teflon pads next time. Creature of habit, I've always used steel wool. When available I also like following up the wool with a French polish product called Flitz. I used to use it for gun barrels and parts, but it make frets smooth and shined like glass. Only thing is, it turns black quickly from rubbing the frets, and that can smear onto a maple board, if not careful. But I think it's amazing stuff. A tiny bit goes a long way.

 

[peat]

anyone ever have any problems with the steel wool lint getting into the grains of your fretboard?

mines rosewood and has lots of tiny holes and lines
once i steel wooled and there was lint stuck in the wood
i ran a magnet over the whole neck a few times to suck out the lint

the first time however, i taped off the entire fretboard
that was a lot of work though

also i usually just whack some tape over the poles of the pickups and have no problems

 

[Mick]

They won´t oxidize if you play enough)

 

[Crewood]

There is a product available in most countries called Abralon, it's mainly used by automotive body shops for refinishing. It comes in foam backed pads of various sizes with different grits as fine as 4000.

I use the finest grit to smooth the sprayed finishes out on my woodturned pieces before final polishing. No problems with the fine strands of wire you get from using the steel wool.

Mike