Mr T wrote:
??? That's a pretty misleading statement from the authour - especially if you read the confusion in the comments section. :? Dunlop Lemon Oil and pretty much all the other guitar fretboard cleaners marketed as lemon oil (Planet Waves, PRS etc.) have nothing to do with lemons or oil extracted from citrus rind.
Guitar Lemon Oil is made from mineral oil (to rehydrate the wood) and a solvent (to clean off the usual gunk & build up), and gets its name from its colour and tart smell. Like any cleaning product, the colour and smell are just there to make the product more appealing for customers. It could be clear and smell like industrial cleaner if they wanted it to. Lemon oil is just what it's become known as over the years.
Real lemon oil is corrosive and is indeed a bad idea as the authour states. But guitar lemon oil has exactly zero in common with actual lemons. Not sure how the authour could get that so badly wrong... ?
This. +1. Plus the actual oil content is fairly minimal - mostly it's naphtha, which evaporates pretty quickly. Sure, some guys do overuse it and the oil builds up under the frets and can make refretting difficult, but that's serious overuse and is the exception rather than the norm. Dunlop, D'Andrea and other lemon oils you see locally are all pretty harmless (my only complaint being that you can't condition or darken a really dry fretboard with them - and that's what I use Fret Doctor for).
