Lemon Oil

[TheGreek]

Just given the Silk Bass a light coat of Lemon Oil - I didn't realise how much difference it makes to bringing out the colour and grain - smells lovely too. Using Linseed Oil always reminds me of putty.

How often should I use the Lemon Oil on the (ebony) fretboard?

[KiOgon]

Maybe once or twice a year - lots of variables but for me, using flatwounds & never having to change them, I only use it when A) changing/fitting new strings or when I get a new (to me) bass.

[Twincam]

Really speaking whatever you use it should be used max twice a year. Really only once a year.
There is possibly the risk when using lemon oil that it actually dries out quicker and your board becomes a slave to it. Much like in the old days they would use certain oils mink oil also petroleum products on leather belt on gramophones etc, this actually dries out quicker and it takes natural locked in moisture away so they would have to be oiled a lot more often then eventually the product started to break down the leather. Now wood will be more durable of course.
But for me, for science sake only boiled linseed should be used. With linseed after a coat it actually gives the finish a tiny amount more durability due to it hardening.

Anyhow what happens if you over oil, is you attract more "gunk" into the fret slots and you get much more contracting back and forth of the wood. So you can get fret issues.

Edited June 14, 2016 by Twincam

[dannybuoy]

I've read mineral oil to be recommended in the past, the same stuff that aromatherapists use so easily bought from ebay etc.

[Bolo]

I use gunstock oil annually on the maple of the stingray, Dr Duck's Axwax on everything else. Once or twice a year is plenty, I find.

[leftybassman392]

Mix 1 part lemon oil with 2 parts light mineral oil. I used to use it every time I changed strings on a guitar or bass. During busy gigging schedules that could mean once a month on the gigging guitars (mainly Strat - R/W and Eggle Berlin - Ebony); less frequently on the basses of course...

The recipe was given to me by one of the senior techs at Eggle Guitars many years ago. A 250ml bottle lasts for ever; I still have plenty left in a bottle I prepared probably 10 or 11 years ago. The mineral oil feeds the wood and the lemon oil brightens up the frets - at least that's how I remember it. Whatever, it worked extremely well; the guitars felt great and smelled nicely lemony!

Edited June 14, 2016 by leftybassman392

[Dad3353]

I've never treated any of my guitars or basses in fifty years; they don't seem to suffer much. I wipe 'em down after playing with a clean, dry cloth. I've very recently bought a bottle of Dr Duck's, and wiped down my Takamine with it just the other day; a first. Maybe it depends on climate or something, but I've never seen any instrument needing regular upkeep of the sort. Maybe I've just been lucky.
Every time the subject comes up on t'web, I see a whole raft of contradictions concerning the composition of these oils. Some say one thing, some another; it's rare to find consensus. Mineral..? Vegetable..? Lemon..? Tru-oil..? Gun-stock..? Boiled..? Raw..? All have been touted somewhere by someone. I use nothing.

[leroydiamond]

Lakland recommend orange oil on rosewood fingerboards

[Painy]

I remember hearing once that the best thing to use is sebum - the oil your skin produces naturally.
The only problem is having to employ a teenager to be on permanent standby so you have a ready supply.

[Truckstop]

I use Beeswax once a year. No idea if it's good or bad but I get a nice sheen on the fretboard and it buffs out super smooth.

[jacko]

The Alembic family recommend pure lemon oil - no additives. twice a year for my roundwounds. Flats haven't been changed in 3 years - why would you?

[KingBollock]

I have used Stand oil (boiled linseed oil), but only because I already had it (artists use it. And me, too) and I had a guitar that had spent several year in pieces in a box in various rooms and sheds, and the fretboard had become dry as kindling. The Stand oil really brought it back to life, so I went and did it to all my guitars and they all came up lovely. I've not had to use it since, and that was a few years ago now.

[Twincam]

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1465926775' post='3072208']
Mix 1 part lemon oil with 2 parts light mineral oil. I used to use it every time I changed strings on a guitar or bass. During busy gigging schedules that could mean once a month on the gigging guitars (mainly Strat - R/W and Eggle Berlin - Ebony); less frequently on the basses of course...

The recipe was given to me by one of the senior techs at Eggle Guitars many years ago. A 250ml bottle lasts for ever; I still have plenty left in a bottle I prepared probably 10 or 11 years ago. The mineral oil feeds the wood and the lemon oil brightens up the frets - at least that's how I remember it. Whatever, it worked extremely well; the guitars felt great and smelled nicely lemony!
[/quote]

The guy must be a right!.

As lemon oil is scented mineral oil haha! So your just wasting your time.

[skankdelvar]

Luthier guru Dan Erlewine recommends cleaning the board with spit.

As for natural oils, Squalene occurs on the human nose and in sharks. It's also available as an extract from olives. The stuff on one's nose doesn't cover much board so I tend to use it as a substitute for string-glide.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited February 28, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[blue]

I've been using lemon pledge on my basses before every gig for the last 50 years. Works great.

Blue

[KK Jale]

Pledge is stuffed with silicone. You have been using an inappropriate product for instrument care/repair for 50 years.

It is damn good for cleaning motorcycle wheels, though.

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1465946354' post='3072436']
The guy must be a right!.

As lemon oil is scented mineral oil haha! So your just wasting your time.
[/quote]

'Fraid not:


Extract from a Wikipedia article on lemons and lemon oil (as in 'oil from lemon peel'):

[quote][i]The oil of the lemon's peel also has various uses. It is used as a wood cleaner and polish, where its solvent property is employed to dissolve old wax, fingerprints, and grime[/i].[/quote]

Here's the main article:[url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon[/url]



Extract from a Wikipedia article on mineral oil (sometimes called liquid paraffin):

[quote][i]A [b]mineral oil[/b] is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_alkanes"]higher alkanes[/url] from a [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral"]mineral[/url] source, particularly a distillate of [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum"]petroleum[/url][/i] [/quote]

... and here's the main article for this one: [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_oil"]https://en.wikipedia...iki/Mineral_oil[/url]



I don't doubt that some of the stuff marketed as 'lemon oil' is in fact scented mineral oil - who knows, it may even have had some actual lemon oil in it's general vicinity at some point in it's production - but genuine lemon oil is oil extracted from lemon peel. The clue is in the name.


Have a nice day.


ETA: Forgot to mention that the main reason genuine lemon oil doesn't get used much is that it is very expensive. I bought mine around 20 years ago - a 250 ml bottle was considerably more expensive than the litre of light mineral oil I bought at the same time. Whatever people might want to say about it's use, the simple fact is that lemon oil has long been known about and used as an agent for treating wood, and it is still widely used (admittedly in very small quantities) in wood-treatment products to this day.

Edited June 15, 2016 by leftybassman392

[Coilte]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1465946764' post='3072437']
Luthier guru Dan Erlewine recommends cleaning the board with spit.[/quote]

Always play with clean hands and you won't have to worry about cleaning the fretboard. Plus, the natural oils from your fingers should be enough for the fretboard. In the 60' and 70's cleaners/conditioners were unheard of. Did not seem to do the bases of the time any harm. I see lots of such basses for sale and they look great.

[Dad3353]

Here is what a guitar information site has to say...

[url="http://www.muzique.com/schem/fret.htm"]Fretboard Care ...[/url]

[Twincam]

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1465983632' post='3072553']


'Fraid not:


Extract from a Wikipedia article on lemons and lemon oil (as in 'oil from lemon peel'):



Here's the main article:[url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon[/url]



Extract from a Wikipedia article on mineral oil (sometimes called liquid paraffin):



... and here's the main article for this one: [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_oil"]https://en.wikipedia...iki/Mineral_oil[/url]



I don't doubt that some of the stuff marketed as 'lemon oil' is in fact scented mineral oil - who knows, it may even have had some actual lemon oil in it's general vicinity at some point in it's production - but genuine lemon oil is oil extracted from lemon peel. The clue is in the name.


Have a nice day.


ETA: Forgot to mention that the main reason genuine lemon oil doesn't get used much is that it is very expensive. I bought mine around 20 years ago - a 250 ml bottle was considerably more expensive than the litre of light mineral oil I bought at the same time. Whatever people might want to say about it's use, the simple fact is that lemon oil has long been known about and used as an agent for treating wood, and it is still widely used (admittedly in very small quantities) in wood-treatment products to this day.
[/quote]

Sounds even worse to put an acidic oil on wood that may be a good de greaser or whatever and then overtime let it eat away any fret glue or to mix it with a petroleum product and have some sort of gunk going on.
No thanks.

Of course that would be an extreme reaction but no way no would I put anything remotely acidic on a fretboard I can only imagine the havoc it could cause a very dry vintage fretboard.

[leftybassman392]

I wonder if this might be a good time to distinguish between the necessity of fretboard treatments and their desirability.

As to whether fretboard treatment products are necessary, well clearly opinion is divided. Be that as it may, good fretboard treatments do have a positive influence on the instrument, in terms both of playability and appearance (leaving aside their benefits to the wood - most would agree they do benefit the wood - the argument would seem to be about whether such benefits are necessary in order to enhance the longevity of the instrument).

During my days as a tutor I regularly got various kinds of minor maintenance work on students' guitars - restrings, cleaning, minor setup work, etc. The brew that I referred to upthread was very good at cleaning up dirty fretboards - it gave the wood finish a bit of extra lustre and made it feel a bit nicer to play, and was very good for cleaning out the gunge that had invariably accumulated either side of the frets. It also did an excellent job of brightening up the frets themselves, making sideways movement of strings across frets a little bit smoother (this may not mean much to a lot of bass players, but techniques such as string bending and sideways vibrato are a key element in pretty much any electric guitarist's technique; clean frets are easier to move across than dirty ones.)

So, is it necessary? Debatable.

Is it beneficial? IME and IMO, yes, definitely.

[ahpook]

Is it still OK to use if for squeaky lemons ?

[lee650]

I used Lemon oil for years and did find that it could dry out quickly,so id have to apply more often. I now use a product called Gerlitz fretboard Honey and i love it. Its a mixture of oils and it really adds a nice shine to Rosewood/Ebony boards, oils from your hands will also coat your rosewood board too, which should help against drying out, so play more!!

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1465989717' post='3072605']
Sounds even worse to put an acidic oil on wood that may be a good de greaser or whatever and then overtime let it eat away any fret glue or to mix it with a petroleum product and have some sort of gunk going on.
No thanks.

Of course that would be an extreme reaction but no way no would I put anything remotely acidic on a fretboard I can only imagine the havoc it could cause a very dry vintage fretboard.
[/quote]

I'm not entirely clear.. are you conceding that lemon oil is different from scented mineral oil (which was your original argument and the source of your derogatory comments) or not?




While I'm here, it occurs to me that your notion of acidity is slightly at odds with mine. You do understand that there's different degrees of acidity I presume? You also understand that not all acids are corrosive in the way you seem to think?

I've been using this stuff for well over 20 years: I've never had frets corrode. Or fall out. Or indeed do anything other than what they were put there to do. I've had it in contact with my skin over long periods of time (and so have my students). Last time I looked (a few seconds ago) all my fingers looked as well as can be expected from a man my age, and I never had any complaints from any of my students on that score.

Here's an article that might help:

[url="http://www.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_examples_of_weak_acids_and_weak_bases"]http://www.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_examples_of_weak_acids_and_weak_bases[/url]

You're welcome.


Serious point: if you don't want to put anything on your fretboard, that's entirely up to you. The information I provided above is correct, and changing the subject ain't gonna change that. When you've availed yourself of the relevant facts, perhaps we can talk about this again.