Some Mainatnace advice, please

[Moti]

Hello,
Few months ago I've got the ASAT Classic Alnico guitar.
I want to clean it a a little and kind of worried about damaging the neck.
Must of my life i used Rosewood necks, so there wasn't much to think about while cleaning when using lemon juice.
But This baby has A maple neck with vintage ting gloss on it and my current cleaning products say "don't use on Maple".
I have the Dunlop 65 (lemon) and the Dunlop 01 (only going to use one of them),
to my understanding, with this kind of finish i can't really cause any damage, but i don't really want to go in this "trial and error" route.

So what about it? can i use this two?
I've also read about lighter fluid which is safe for this neck, but i rather work with the stuff i currently have in reach.

Also, i have the "Smith pro formula finish" to clean the guitar Buddy.
And problems with that?

And last question,
I'm thinking about take all the strings at once to give the guitar a proper cleaning, does it hurt the neck/bridge setup somehow if it's for a short while?

Beast regards,

Moti.

[docdynamite]

And last question,
I'm thinking about take all the strings at once to give the guitar a proper cleaning, does it hurt the neck/bridge setup somehow if it's for a short while?

I guess I just get a C+. I know the answer to this one. It is totally fine to remove all of the strings at once for a cleaning.

[DanDoulogos]

Real lemon oil is pressed out of lemon rinds (it takes about 100 lemons to make an ounce of oil like this). It's more expensive (but much better in quality) than formulated lemon oil which is typically "made" by boiling lemon rinds in some other more common (and cheaply available) oil , known as the "carrier". The latter kind of lemon oil, is not so much lemon oil, as it is some other oil that has been naturally lemon scented.

That's just some trivia. If your lemon oil describes itself as "specially formulated" - chances are pretty good it wasn't pressed, since there is no formula involved in squeezing pure lemon oil out of rinds. Dunlop's special formula contains silicon. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it certainly doesn't come from the lemons.

All of which is beside the point.

The big difference between a maple fret board and ebony or Rosewood fret boards, is that maple fret boards are typically sealed in a gloss or semi gloss finish. That means smearing lemon oil, or something that smells like lemon oil, on them isn't going to be absorbed into the wood to condition it - it'll just wipe off, and leave residue up against the frets that'll attract gunk.

Also when rub oil on a piece of wood, it stains the wood. That's not really a problem with dark fret woods like Ebony or Rosewood, but it can be a problem with maple, since if there are worn spots or cracks, the oil can get in and stain the maple beneath, leaving dark spots etc. That doesn't end up making the neck look like it has been distressed by age, or given some retro feel - it just looks oils spots.

If you have a maple neck that has been sanded (why do kids do that?), you can use oil to condition the wood, but it'll discolor it. In fact, the oil and sweat from your hands will eventually discolor the neck. Sometimes (and for some people) that can look cool - but it's a crap shoot. Most of the time it just looks dirty, and not in some cool gritty, bad-boy way.

Bottom line? Less is more. The lemon oil is more for the fret board - and even then you only need a drop to do the whole thing. The rest of the guitar you do with a slightly damp cloth to clean it, and a dry soft cloth for buffing - softer the better.

I think most people err on the side of doing too much rather than too little.

With regards to strings - there's a lot of tomfoolery out there passing for wisdom these days. I'm from Canada, and I'll let you in on a little secret: No matter how you flex the blade of your hockey stick it doesn't stay that way - it just bounces back to where it was.

If you want to set a curve in the blade, you'll need to heat the blade up with steam for a long while, until it starts to become pliable by way of the heat. then you put it in whatever shape you want, and keep it that way till it cools down. That's how you warp wood. As a former Aikidoka (practitioner of Aikido), I noted that in the summer time, our wooden bokken and jo sticks would warp under their own weight after several weeks of sitting in the hot sun day after day - balanced between a pair of pegs on the wall opposite the windows.

My point is that warped necks happen when the wood gets hot. Guitar strings do put tension on the neck, but unless your working in a sauna, and leave the top or bottom two strings on for a few days, you're not going to run into any problem. I ALWAYS remove all the string every time, and all the necks of all my guitars are strait as arrows -and I've had some for almost 30 years.

Anyone who has tried to shape a hockey stick's blade would marvel - given just how much (difficult!) work it is to purposely put a permanent bend into a piece of wood, (a piece much thinner than a guitar neck btw) - at the notion that a guitar neck would suddenly warp or twist if the ever-so-slight tension put on the neck by the strings was removed. I don't say this to patronize, but to emphasize. Knowing how difficult it is to try and set a bend into a piece of wood - even with the assistance of the --necessary-- heat, ought to give a great deal of confidence to anyone taking all the strings off. There is nothing to worry about - the strings aren't holding the neck straight - it is the neck holding the strings straight.

That's my 2 cents. Your mileage may very.

[Craig]

Hello,
Few months ago I've got the ASAT Classic Alnico guitar.
I want to clean it a a little and kind of worried about damaging the neck.
Must of my life i used Rosewood necks, so there wasn't much to think about while cleaning when using lemon juice.
But This baby has A maple neck with vintage ting gloss on it and my current cleaning products say "don't use on Maple".
I have the Dunlop 65 (lemon) and the Dunlop 01 (only going to use one of them),
to my understanding, with this kind of finish i can't really cause any damage, but i don't really want to go in this "trial and error" route.

So what about it? can i use this two?
I've also read about lighter fluid which is safe for this neck, but i rather work with the stuff i currently have in reach.

Also, i have the "Smith pro formula finish" to clean the guitar Buddy.
And problems with that?

And last question,
I'm thinking about take all the strings at once to give the guitar a proper cleaning, does it hurt the neck/bridge setup somehow if it's for a short while?

Beast regards,

Moti.

See this post in our G&L Knowledgebase: Question about using lemon oil on Maple fretboard.

Hope this helps.

[Moti]

Thank you all.
I think i understand the issue a little bit better.
time to change the strings and clean the neck.
Cheers,
Moti.