Making DIY Fast Fret™

[Jack]

After a recent thread where I asked for string cleaner recommendations I have done some more research, taken as much advice as I can and come up with a solution. It seems to be the case that most string cleaner products are essentially mineral oil, sometimes with a little extra scent. However, if that's the case then £8-£10 for a few ml of mineral oil seemed like a bad deal to me, so I figured I'd do it for myself.

 

500ml mineral oil £7.99 (about 100x cheaper than any commercial string cleaner by volume)

5 lint free cloths £3.99

2 marijuana tins £7.99

 

In other words, for somewhere about the price of 2 lots of commercial string cleaner you can get two infinitely refillable tins, enough cloths to last ages, and enough oil to refill the whole shebang 25 times over. Nice! I poured a few ml into each tin, stuck the cloth in there so it got nice and soaked and put one in my office where I play bass and one in my gig kit bag. It's been about a week now and so far it's working just as well as anything I've ever used. Which is to say that the strings feel shiny if you wipe before you play and then they still feel a little shiny next time you pick them up if you wipe them down after you play. I'm not entirely convinced that any of these products inherently make your strings 'last' longer before going dead, but it can't hurt, right?

 

[Cliff Edge]

This is interesting, I might give this a try as my FastFret is almost dead. Where did you get the tins?

[lidl e]

What do you do with the marijuana in the tins? 🥦

[Bolo]

Over the past 9 years I've used about 1 oz of the 4oz bottle of drDucks ax wax. It is going to last my lifetime. I get that homebrewing can be fun, but half a liter will supply a music school and all their students for a generation.

[Grahambythesea]

I suppose the bonus here is you can oil your chopping board too!

[Jack]

15 hours ago, Cliff Edge said:

This is interesting, I might give this a try as my FastFret is almost dead. Where did you get the tins?

Everything is just from Amazon. 

14 hours ago, lidl e said:

What do you do with the marijuana in the tins? 🥦

Not my style I'm afraid. I haven't yet run out of sex or rock n roll, never really felt  the need to do drugs. 

12 hours ago, Bolo said:

Over the past 9 years I've used about 1 oz of the 4oz bottle of drDucks ax wax. It is going to last my lifetime. I get that homebrewing can be fun, but half a liter will supply a music school and all their students for a generation.

Hah yes! I have a bottle of that somewhere too and it's brilliant you're right. It was more the convenient tin/applicator arrangement that I wanted. Maybe I should have just put that in the tins... 

11 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

I suppose the bonus here is you can oil your chopping board too!

I've done the desk since that photo was taken. 

[TRBboy]

Great job! I switched from fast fret to planet waves XLR8 years ago, because I got fed up with FF drying out, and the crappy plastic pots breaking.

 

XLR8 is in a metal tin, much smaller, and the pad is almost like a latex makeup sponge. I'm still on my original one, and I must've had it at least ten years.

 

It did start drying up after a few years and was a bit dirty, so I thought I'd be cheeky and email planet waves to see what 'magic' stuff it's impregnated with... To my surprise, they told me! Exactly as you said, it's just white mineral oil!

 

So every now and then, I just clean the sponge and reapply some oil, and it's good as new. The sponge is starting to degrade a little bit now after all these years, so I might buy another one, but at £7.99 for 10 years use, it's pretty good value 😅