Cleaning tarnished frets

Infms

My old Ibby's frets are pretty tarnished and need a good cleaning.

Is it okay to mask the fretboard and use Brasso? Or is there something better to use? (That's easily available... I don't stay near any big music shops.)

Thanks!

AlanRatcliffe

Don't use Brasso - while it polishes the frets, it leaves behind polishing compound that is white and stays in the grain.

Naphtha (a.k.a. Zippo lighter fluid) will remove light tarnishing from your frets and clean off oils and dirt from your fingerboard. Lemon oil has naphtha in it too, so does a reasonable job if you apply a little elbow grease.

For heavy duty tarnishing or heavy fingerboard dirt, mask off the pickup polepieces and rub the frets with fine steel wool. While the pros like good quality 0000 steel wool, the fine stuff you find in Shoprite brand steel wool pads actually do a good job in a pinch (it's just not as consistently fine, with a few coarse strands and breaks down quickly). Mask off the fingerboard if you want to rub the frets along their length, but remove it when you go with the grain of the board.

Infms

Great, thanks for the tips.

Where would I most likely find lemon oil? Are there any common brands etc.? I initially thought it was the essential oil variety but apparently it's very different.

I'll pick up some steel wool from the shops this afternoon.

Cheers

AlanRatcliffe

Lemon oil is something you'll find at any music store. Mostly naphtha, a little mineral oil and some colouring and scent.

proze

Bothners in Cape Town had Dunlop 65 Lemon Oil last time I looked. Nice stuff.

Infms

Awesome. I'll see what my local music shop has. Thanks again.

Malkav

I do the taping up and polishing each fret with silvo thing, if you do a good enough job taping it up then you won't get any residue on your fretboard, and if you do get a little bit on it's very easy to clean off with a toothbrush and a tiny amount of lem oil.

Infms

I'll go this route if straight lemon oil alone isn't strong enough as the frets are quite badly tarnished––thanks for the info. I just need to get my paws on some of that quality blue 3M masking tape. Cheers.

slyd

"Woodoc" make a "fine" steel wool (I get from Builders Express), which is nowhere near as fine as "Liberon" 0000, but it is much better than the general kitchen stuff from supermarkets.

Also, to save time, I make a fret template from the thin, but firm, plastic of clip-file dividers. I just cut a rectangle a bit wider than the fretboard, then using a stanley blade, I cut a slot as wide as the frets in the rectangle. I hold this in place on the fretboard, thus having the entire fret exposed, and the surrounding wood covered. You can then use the steel wool easily across the frets, without worrying about scratching the fingerboard. And, when one fret is done, you quickly and easily just move the template to the next fret, . . no taping-up, no stress ?

Infms

Thanks slyd, my local music shop doesn't have lemon oil so I'll visit a hardware store later today and see if they have Woodoc fine steel wool.

Great idea using a template instead of masking tape––is yours similar to the photo below?

AlanRatcliffe

That's the idea. I have some metal ones like that - got them from Stewmac years ago.

slyd

Infms wrote: Thanks slyd, my local music shop doesn't have lemon oil so I'll visit a hardware store later today and see if they have Woodoc fine steel wool.

Great idea using a template instead of masking tape––is yours similar to the photo below?

Same principal exactly, just that one seems to be of cardboard, and seems to have worn out a bit.
The plastic I use is very thin, but stiff, and you have more control, . . but yeah, that's the idea ?

jt

off topic but INFMS, love the profile picture... HUGE BSBD fan right here!!!!

Infms

jt wrote: off topic but INFMS, love the profile picture... HUGE BSBD fan right here!!!!

Awesome! I wish the whole world knew about BSBD, they're insanely talented. Noir is still my #1 ?

Thanks to all for the advice. The frets are looking good as new. I ended up using naphtha to clean the gunk off the fretboard and Woodoc fine steel wool to clean the frets.

jt

dude, check the August challenge. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

You will notice that Noir is also my favorite. I mean. One does not simply not have Noir as their favorite BSBD album

Infms

jt wrote: dude, check the August challenge. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

You will notice that Noir is also my favorite. I mean. One does not simply not have Noir as their favorite BSBD album

Haha, that's great! Who chose the pics for the August challange? I've had Noir on repeat for the last 3 years and I still love it. A masterpiece for sure ?