Clean and Condition an Unfinished Electric Guitar Fretboard and Frets
Most electric guitar fretboards are unfinished—meaning there is no lacquer sprayed on the fretboard itself. Among these unfinished fretboards, ebony and rosewood fretboards are the most common. You can use any number of special fretboard cleaning products to clean your fretboard, but I like to use Murphy’s Oil Soap. Oil soap not only helps clean your fretboard, it also helps condition and moisturize it. Since your fretboard is unfinished, there is no layer of lacquer to help protect it from the elements. The fretboard can dry out and even crack if it is severely dried out. Oil soap will prevent your fretboard from drying out. It will also give your fretboard a new clean shine. To clean your fretboard, simply drip a small amount of oil soap on your fretboard. It does not take much—a little goes a long way. Then take some #0000 steel wool and rub the oil soap into the fretboard and remove the dirt buildup. You may want to cover your pickups so that pieces of the steel wool do not get magnetically stuck to the pole pieces While the steel wool is soaked in the oil soap, you can rub and polish the frets with the steel wool until the frets are shiny and clean. After the fretboard and frets are cleaned, you can wipe away the excess oil soap with a piece of paper towel. Now your fretboard is clean and conditioned and your frets are nice and shiny.
Not all unfinished fretboards are made out of ebony and rosewood. Some unfinished fretboards are made out of maple. Maple fretboards pose a challenge to clean. The light color wood can easily be stained by oil soap and dirt. DO NOT use oil soap on a maple fretboard. Use a razor blade to clean an unfinished maple fretboard. Simply take the razor blade and lay it flat against the fretboard. Then scrape the razor across the surface of the wood removing the dirt. You will need to mask off the fretboard with a fret-mask or with painter’s tape before you can polish the frets. The mask will help protect the maple wood from the steel wool. Once the fretboard has been masked off, you can rub the frets with #0000 steel wool. Do not use oil soap to polish the frets. After you have polished the frets, you can blow the dust off the masked fretboard and remove the mask. Now your fretboard is clean and conditioned and your frets are nice and shiny.
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