How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

[JeffB]

Just wanted to ask a couple of questions re: my new american strat.

First of all, as the title says, how do you take care of/clean a maple board? This is the first I've ever owned. Anything special? Any do's or don'ts compared to rosewood/ebony?

Second: When I installed the tremelo bar, and screwed it in..is the darn thing supposed to be very "tight"?..meaning..is it supposed to take so much effort to pull the bar into position/push it back out of the way? The few strats I've owned had pop in bars or a hardtail.. I was real careful (I thought) installing it so as not to crossthread it.

And third...I see alot of talk about 250/500K pots and whatnot. Were I to switch to some Duncan humbucking pups (thinking Hot/Cool rails) would I need to switch to something else? I don't know what they have to begin with, other than this new (to me) Delta-tone system for the bridge pup.

Thanx in advance

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

No...you'll stress the threads and eventually snap off the screw portion of the arm inside the block. Not fun!

Go to a great hardware store and buy a spring about 1/2" long or shorter that'll slip into the hole in your vibrato block. You want one shorter in length and smaller in diameter than the spring in a retractable ball point point, but stiffer and made of thicker spring steel or wire.

Now screw your vibrato arm into the hole and the spring down in the bottem of the hole will press against it will make it feel snug without having to screw the arm in tight and the threads getting stressed.

Lew

 

[JeffB]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

Lew thanx for the tip. The guitar did come with a spring. Is the Fender spring too stiff perhaps?

 

[JimiHWannaBe]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

clean the fretboard with lemon oil every time you change strings

 

[seafoamer]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

Dirty & worn maple necks make me hard.

 

[big_black]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

clean the fretboard with lemon oil every time you change strings

If the finger board is maple, you don't really need to do anything for it. Use lemon or orange oil on rosewood only. If you get too much gunk maybe use a rag and wipe it. Finished maple like on Fenders need almost no care at all.

As for pots, that is really a personal preference. I use 500K pots with all of my humbucking pickups. My two P-90 guitars have 300K pots, a nice medium. Fender uses 250K pot with thier sinlge coils, I don't know about w/humbuckers. The higher the resistence value (500K) the more treble or high end will come through. Also the more pots you use the less high-end response will show through. If you have the three single coil strat, the pots are most likely 250K, I think some might have 300K. I don't have any experience with rails, but I would say switch them to 500K, since they are basically humbuckers.

 

[JeffB]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

Thank you all for the info on the fingerboard. Is normal guitar polish a "no-no"? for it?


I rarely use the bar, and when I do it's a subtle Gary Moore/Jeff Beck type thing... I'm no dive bomber, so I may just leave it off. I'll try a diff spring though first Lew.

And thanx for the info on the pots, is this an expensive swap/part if it is needed? I have a great tech within walking distance for me who does Joe Beck/John Abercrombie/John Scofield's guitar work (www.guitarspecialist.com). So I'm sure he would have a recommendation as well. But I also suspect his work comes at a premium price (though prolly worth it)

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

Dirty & worn maple necks make me hard.

Hehe ... did you ever see the neck to my Strat?
http://randombenpix.tripod.com

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

I clean my maple fingerboards every time I change strings with a 100% cotton rag and hot breath, that's all. Maple is harder than rosewood and does not need to be treated, at least according to Dan Earlwine's books.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

clean the fretboard with lemon oil every time you change strings

No need on maple, and you don't need to do it every time you change strings on rosewood or ebony. If you use too much or do it too often, it might loosen your frets. :burnout:

 

[big_black]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

Hehe ... did you ever see the neck to my Strat?
http://randombenpix.tripod.com

Make sure you clean off the keyboard before the wife gets home Seafoamer!

 

[seafoamer]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

Make sure you clean off the keyboard before the wife gets home Seafoamer!

Wife? Who's?
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That was pretty sexy though.

 

[seafoamer]

Re: How to take care of a Maple Fretboard? And Strat Guru help needed, please

Maybe hell froze over.