Ebony board maintenance

OldGtrGuy

OldGtrGuy

Well-known member
What are you guys using? I have some Dunlop 65, is that sufficient? Is there something out there that is far above the rest? Need to clean up this schecter I just got.
 
How often do you guys treat your boards? I hardly ever do.. I guess maybe I am not playing all my guitars enough
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
How often do you guys treat your boards? I hardly ever do.. I guess maybe I am not playing all my guitars enough
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I personally don't very often but just got this guitar used so I'm going to restring and clean it up a bit.

Maybe once every couple of years, I have no idea how often we should but as long as it isn't dried out or have gunk all over it I'm good. I think ebony requires the least amount of cleaning of all the wood types iirc.
 
I will use lemon oil - but only occasionally to clean the wood if it’s particularly gunky. I do understand lemon oil can be drying - so occasional and limited use for cleaning only. After it’s nice and clean, I’ve never been disappointed by Howard’s Cutting Board Oil - Clear, pharm grade mineral oil.
 

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PDC said:
I will use lemon oil - but only occasionally to clean the wood if it’s particularly gunky. I do understand lemon oil can be drying - so occasional and limited use for cleaning only. After it’s nice and clean, I’ve never been disappointed by Howard’s Cutting Board Oil - Clear, pharm grade mineral oil.
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Can you apply this right after cleaning with lemon oil?
 
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OldGtrGuy said:
Can you apply this right after cleaning with lemon oil?
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I’ll usually give the lemon oil 10-15 min to evaporate. It’s pretty light / watery. But ebony is a pretty dense wood and once treated, it may not need additional ‘protective’ oil at every string change. That probably depends on the relative humidity where the guitar is kept, and how much the players hands tend to sweat.
 
I don't need to oil my boards often. Maybe once a decade? When I do though, I just use food-grade mineral oil from the pharmacy area of the grocery store. Give it a good cleaning, and then a light oiling. I use mineral oil for wooden cutting boards, and things like that.

A lot of lemon oil is just lemon-scented mineral oil anyway, or mineral oil with a miniscule amount of lemon oil.
 
I just cut murphys oil soap with water and use it for the whole guitar. Some lemon oil for the board once every year or two. I don't think it really makes a big difference unless you park your guitar outside but it does make the board look dark and glossy.
 
I've been using Music Nomad's F-One oil a couple times a year on my ebony boards, usually with the big seasonal swings. Ebony is pretty hard and brittle, so it's more prone to cracking, which is why conditioning them is important, at least IMO. I've seen plenty of ebony boards with nasty cracks in them.
 
Lemon oil preferably, or even mineral oil. Any guitar specific product would work. Ebony hardly needs anything in my experience. Once in a blue moon. Almost like a strat with a maple board…
 
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