How to clean a smelly rosewood fretboard?

Bridgehouse

richardhomer said:

Bridgehouse said:
To be honest I edited out the rider suggestions........

Like:
- 48 cans of Special Brew
- 12 Pipes of Pringles
- 20 packs of Benson & Hedges
- 4 bottles of Courvoisier
- Lots of pies
- 10 bottles of fine Single Malt Whisky
- a flat screen television with unlimited access to Porn Hub

The rudest one was “you sure the OP’s fingers don’t just smell of some whores minge?” 

But I decided that better taste dictated I shouldn’t post it..

Bridgehouse

(Editor’s note - “rider” = “ruder” )

HHwarner

Have you tried cleaning it with Naphtha (Liquid Lighter fuel) before re-oiling it?

OilCityPickups

CasperCaster said:

Reminds me of the story of the PRS 'horse piss' guitar, from the early days of PRS's history. In the 80's PRS had someone on the road searching our Braz Rosewood in a tri-state area centred on Kalamazoo. In the 50's, when Gibson cut up logs, the offcuts were sold off cheap, and often ended up as posts for wire fences and the like. Anyway, PRS rep gets a tip there is some at a farm, turns up, and there is still a stack in the corner of a stable. PRS buys the lot and use it for fingerboards. A few months later an owner complains to PRS that he is allergic to his new guitar and that it also smells funny. They replace the guitar with apologies, and upon return note the offending guitar does smell funny when the case is opened. They send aa sampl of the fingerboard to local University lab and its full of uric acid. Horses in the stable had been pissing on the stack of timber for 30+ years!

When I was 17 I built a LP junior out of a 100+year old mahogany counter top from a hardware store. The store had served paraffin to customers all that time, and the wood reeked of it. I did a basic oil finish on the guitar and it always had an 'old hardware store' smell ... which actually wasn't unpleasant (to me at least). The smell however never went, and I ended up selling the guitar cheap ... though it was actually a lovely looking (and playing) instrument.