EVH Grime

[rupz28]

My EVH guitar has been sitting in a case for about 8 yrs. in my parents basement (a surprise of sorts ) and upon getting it out, the frets have a greenish tinge to them (mold, grunge) don't know what.....

What is the best/safest way to clean the maple neck and get this gunk off my frets?

It was purchased in late '94/early 95 as a collectible of sorts, it's never been played, thus the reason for it sitting in a case for such a long time.

Thanks for any help,

Chris

 

[Daggo]

Chris,

There are lots of posts on this forum regarding cleaning the neck. I would start with the least "severe" methods first, and work my way up to a complete neck re-oiling and waxing if necessary.

Start with cleaning the neck, fretboard and frets with lemon oil. I find this takes most tarnish off the frets, too. You can use a toothbrush to scrub away junk lodged in the frets. If this doesn't work, a mixture of 3 parts water and one part Murphy's oil soap can be used to get things cleaner.

If you want the frets themselves to really sparkle, mask the fretboard wood with tape so that only the frets are exposed, and rub them gently with 0000 steel wool. You should probably cover your pickups with a cloth while doing this, as I've heard the steel wool shavings can stick to, and possible damage, your pickups.

If the neck feels dry or "fuzzy" after the cleaning. You might want to re-treat the neck with Birchwood-Casey Tru-oil and finish off with Birchwood-Casey Gun Stock Wax. There were some excellent posts a few weeks ago on how to go about doing this.

Good-luck.

Dave

 

[Jimi D]

Like Daggo said about the cleaning- there isn't much more to it than that... but if the guitar's been stored in a damp basement - a place damp enough to mold the neck - I'd be pretty concerned about a warped neck, and I wouldn't want to be releasing the string tension from the neck all at once... Might be worth your while to take it to a guitar repair place for a clean up / tune up, especially since an EVH has some value when the neck's not twisted into a pretzel...