How filthy are your guitars

[Securb]

Fretboard gunk is a DNA record of a dirty guitarists life -imagine all the crimes that cold be solved if the FBI gets wise to this goldmine of nefarious data

We need to give Dick Wolf a call. Picture it, Fin and Olivia Benson go to the Rocklahoma Festival undercover as roadies. While backstage, they swab every guitar, bass, drumstick, and microphone for DNA. Their investigation cracks thousands of sex cold cases going back to the 80's and prompts so many paternity suits that the courts are backlogged for years. And most importantly we find out who killed Tupac.

Dun-Dun

 

[NegativeEase]

We need to give Dick Wolf a call. Picture it, Fin and Olivia Benson go to the Rocklahoma Festival undercover as roadies. While backstage, they swab every guitar, bass, drumstick, and microphone for DNA. Their investigation cracks thousands of sex cold cases going back to the 80's and prompts so many paternity suits that the courts are backlogged for years. And most importantly we find out who killed Tupac.

Dun-Dun

Riffs and Order
Special Backstage Victims Unit

 

[Mr. B]

I keep a lot of guitars/basses at the school where I teach. Even though they only get played twice a week by students they get dirtier a lot faster than my own guitars at home, even though I play mine a couple of hours almost every night. Some students over the years have had such corrosive skin oils that even if they wash their hands they would ruin a new set of strings in one sitting. I had coated strings on one guitar for a particular student like that, and it was the only one he was allowed to play.

One trick I have found to keep the finger grime from sinking into rosewood fretboards is Butcher Block Conditioner oil (I use Howard brand). It is a combination of mineral oils, beeswax, and carnauba wax, and wipes on like a slightly thicker oil. It soaks in well and, does not feel sticky at all after it either soaks completely in (if your fretboard is extremely dry) or gets wiped off. It does not create a hard finish or anything, but it does keep finger grime from getting down into rosewood boards. Makes the wood look great and keeps the wood looking that way much longer than the Lemon oil I used to use. It is also WAY cheaper than the old Formby's lemon oil I used to use, since it has been discontinued, and there isn't much available. I have been using the butcher block conditioner for several years now and have found no drawbacks to it. It is my favorite fretboard treatment for unfinished fretboards, and I have tried most of the ones out there.
You know how your frets feel so much smoother and faster to play on after a good fret polish? That is what the butcher block oil does for your fretboard wood.

 

[Aceman]

Well, there is filthy and then there is this....I'd say it is pretty dirty.

 

[jeremy]

look at that sweet little pro jr there!

 

[NegativeEase]

What looks like dust under the strings is often pick residue, but it depends on the material the pick is made out of. Delrin tends to shave off in microscopic slivers, while nylon doesn't.

Ive looked at the material handling data sheets on Delrin and Ultex and Nylon etc... A little surprised that the only danger identified is smoke inhalation when burning. Maybe the Big Pick Industry is suppressing the truth! Ive always assumed the pick dust was slowly poisoning me.

 

[Seashore]

I go through those orange Tortex picks pretty quickly, and the pale orange color in the dust around the pickups on my guitars is what clued me in to how much of it was coming from the picks. Makes sense when I stop to think about it... the pick material has to go somewhere, after all. Big Pick must love me. I'm an addict.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

I clean the strings immediately after playing, that's practical maintenance since my sweat is highly corrosive.
Cleaning & polishing the body is cosmetic maintenance; it gets done only when I feel like addressing it.
Sometimes I'll shine up a couple of guitars for an important gig.
In the old days I used to polish them before a photo session.

 

[Mincer]

Ive looked at the material handling data sheets on Delrin and Ultex and Nylon etc... A little surprised that the only danger identified is smoke inhalation when burning. Maybe the Big Pick Industry is suppressing the truth! Ive always assumed the pick dust was slowly poisoning me.

Big Pick has endless money for lobbying. There's no point trying to fight it.

 

[GuitarStv]

Big Pick has endless money for lobbying. There's no point trying to fight it.

I don't buy it. There's no California prop 65 warning on picks . . . and that warning goes on anything that might even possibly cause problems.

 

[Seashore]

I don't buy it. There's no California prop 65 warning on picks . . . and that warning goes on anything that might even possibly cause problems.

That's just more proof of how powerful Big Pick really is.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

I did a pickup install and setup for a friend that is a working musician. I have never seen worse dark grey/black fretboard gunk in my life. I had to take stiff nylon brushes and cleaner to the fretboard. I think it was sweat and dead skin mostly, freaking disgusting.

Same. I did some work on a busted old guitar for a friend who was a pro musician and I ended up taking the neck off and scrubbing the fretboard with dish soap and a nylon brush (it was finished maple), Absolutely disgusting with brown tar gunk around all the frets. Ew.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Jameson is a Ho / thread ---->

 

[Mincer]

That's just more proof of how powerful Big Pick really is.

They can probably hear us and turn us in.

 

[Seashore]

They can probably hear us and turn us in.

They want us out in the world, buying picks and turning them into dust. It's the illusion of freedom.

 

[NegativeEase]

They want us out in the world, buying picks and turning them into dust. It's the illusion of freedom.

Big Pick wants to distract us with colors and size choices so we cant focus on whats really going on....

Systematic distribution of Nylon, Delrin, and Ultex particles in the water supply for control

 

[Seashore]

Big Pick wants to distract us with colors and size choices so we cant focus on whats really going on....

Systematic distribution of Nylon, Delrin, and Ultex particles in the water supply for control

It's turning the frogs into guitarists!

 

[Securb]

Big Pick wants to distract us with colors and size choices so we cant focus on whats really going on....

.

 

[GuitarStv]

.

Sometimes when the tip of my pick gets dull I grind it down to a point again. Does this count as pro filing?

 

[NegativeEase]

Sometimes when the tip of my pick gets dull I grind it down to a point again. Does this count as pro filing?

You are clearly expediting Big Pick's ends.