Oiling fretboard

It’s a lot like gun oil, yeah. I should probably order some teak oil.

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Using this… Seems to work just fine :sweat_smile:
79a7f7039abd1e45850a0a79ad6a250f

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I should give a few of my guitars and basses a clean/condition… the place I live in now isn’t nearly as hot/dry as the place I lived for the previous 7 years; the first winter was really hard on the ebony fretboard :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:. I like the ebanol fingerboard on my fretless, it doesn’t require much of anything… wipe with a microfibre cloth and some window cleaner and a little bit of a buff every once in a while :slight_smile:

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That’s mineral oil :slight_smile:

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“they” say every 6 months.
I do this when I change all the anti-tarnish strips in all the silver sax bags (they are extra protection).
It is a day of musical instrument beauty, let’s me listen to lots of music, and bond with all the toys I have.

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This is one of those topics that should go on the FAQ…

Q: Which oil should I use for oiling my fretboard?
A: Depends

as we all know, opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one.

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looking up teak oil on amazon, it appears to be really hard to find actual teak oil. there are a lot of things that are called teak oil but are actually mixed with lacquer and dry to a hard finish which would be an absolute disaster to use. kind of scare me off of it. i would rather go with a finish that is actually designed for fretboards myself.

I looked at a bunch of this or that oils and came to the same conclusion, it’s hard to know what is crap and what is good.
I so no reason not to use the Music Nomad FOne oil.
Seems to work great to me.
I wouldn’t use it on a cuttingboard @Al1885 as no one bothered to make it foodsafe (I am assuming)

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F-One worked great on all the unfinished fretboards on my guitars (acoustics) and basses.

This article recaps some products that do a good job on dry fretboards.

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I’m using F-One as well. Readily available, and it has worked great. My favorite is Fret Doctor, but it’s only available online as far as I know.

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The luthier who built my classical guitar tipped me off to what he and other world-class luthiers and a lot of jazz musicians use to condition ebony and rosewood fretboards: Alisyn Fingerboard Oil. It’s a synthetic oil, so it won’t gum up and build up around the frets over time like a lot of natural oils. Like the Grecian Formula Brylcreem ads used to say: a little dab’ll do ya. I use about a drop every four frets and spread it over the frets in between. Keeps the fretboard nice and conditioned for long periods of time, only have to condition once or twice a year.

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Point well taken, but that was actually the tagline for Brylcreem. :wink:

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Ah, thanks for the correction!

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Oh yeah for sure especially scented ones, I just want to see how it worked on different types of woods and how well it restored dry and dehydrated wood. It was impressive enough as it coated the wood.

Plus like everything else, when companies label something specific “most” are just repurposing something widely available for a lot less and charge a lot more. Lol.

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One thing about Teak oil if you apply too much too often (like “it’s still soaking in”) it will create a varnish like layer at least on teak trim on a boat. Once you have that layer subsequent applications will not soak in just become gummy till it dries. So at least with Teak oil I’d say resist the temptation to apply till it wont take any more unless you are planning to play on the Titanic.

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I’m surprised nobody has mentioned tung oil.

and belly buttons (navels) too! Except for that guy in some TV show I forget, who didn’t. :astonished:

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Kyle XY?

Looks like a good candidate if it isn’t the one! I don’t remember actually watching whatever show it was, just was aware the character had no navel. I looked up “Kyle XY” and found the IMdb entry, and it feels like it probably was from that show. How many shows have a no-navel guy in them, anyway? Ha!

Maybe sometime I will try and watch the show. Don’t think they oiled any fretboards in it, though. :wink:

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As long as it doesn’t smell like petroleum distiliates or lighter fluid (i.e. stink), it should be fine on non-lacqured fingerboards. I use teak oil on my bass’ fingerboard and body twice a year, works great.

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