Cleaning nickle silver frets

Garthy

Hello, I have a Washburn Mercury MG72 that has barely seen the light of day for about 15 years, and when I got it out of it's case yesterday I noticed the frets have oxidised with a rather manky looking green tinge, so shame on me for not cleaning the thing before putting it away. I've looked via various search engines about cleaning and restoring nickle-silver but most of the suggestions seem like they may damage the rosewood fretboard & I would really would rather avoid having to remove the frets if possible.

Does anyone have any ideas to clean these while they are in place? Hopefully the solution will be something really simple that I've overlooked and I can feel a little sheepish instead of the alternaitve of removing the frets, thank you

WezV

0000 liberon wire wool.   if its in that state you probably want to get the fretboard as well  before re-oiling and conditioning it

ecc83

Just thought but.

If you were to treat the fretboard, oil and plenty of elbow grease, maybe the frets would shine up as well? If not, careful masking and the wirewool?

Dave.

ICBM

Mask the fingerboard - and the pickups, if you can't/don't want to take the neck off, since the polepieces will attract the wire wool fibres and are a pain to get off - and use fine wire wool followed by Brasso or other metal polish. You can use the same two pieces of tape and move them up the board one fret at a time if you want to use less tape .

You really don't need to take the frets out .

Maynehead

The proper way would be to mask the whole fretboard with masking tape leaving only the frets exposed. Then depending on the severity of the corrosion either use increasing grits of sandpaper (600 - 1200) or wire wool as suggested. If you use wire wool however make sure you mask the pickups well as rogue strands tend to get sucked into the pickups, which might cause you all sorts of problems.

The lazy way would be to use a fretboard protector strip which is a metal strip that fits over a single fret and protects the wood around it. The same cleaning technique above still applies.

WezV

i quite often don't bother masking the board on something like this - corroded fret are usually accompanied by lots of fretboard grime and the wire wool gets through it all.

I specifically recommend liberon because its smooth enough to not leave visible scratches on the wood

but yeah, always mask pickups

sweepy

A fret protector and T-Cut works a treat hits a final buff from a Dremel

WezV

here is a few pics of me cleaning up a fender acoustic neck with the fine liberon wire wool... although the frets were not too corroded here, the board was pretty gross

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/new/XL804339.jpg

once its all done the fretboard can look a little dry, the frets are pretty much shiny and new again

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/new/XL804344.jpg

a re-oil makes it all spiffy

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e31/WezV/new/XL804345.jpg

if you are polishing the frets with metal polish it is best practice to mask, unless its a lacquered board

sweepy

you only need to make the cloth damp, ppl tend to use far too much

John_P

I nearly always, give the fretboard a quick once over with a silvo or brasso rag, then a clean cloth. Then a spray of lemon oil and a final wipe clean to polish.  

thermionic

Here's a before and after shot of a 51-year old flamenco guitar I've been looking after:

I scraped between the frets with a Stanley knife blade first, then went over the frets with bog-standard steel wool I got from Halfords. I did mask the board, but gave it a once-over along the length of the board with steel wool just to minimise any side-to-side marks.

Not sure about the yellowish tinge to the frets, makes me suspect they're more brass than nickel-silver.

Sassafras

I've not tried it but Gorgomyte seems popular. It's an impregnated cloth that apparently is ideal for fretboards although I use Liberon 0000 wire wool as above. Doesn't leave scratches on the board.

Garthy

Thank you everyone. The fretboard isn't that bad, certainly nothing like any of the pictures above. Thanks for the tip about masking the pickups, I'd have probably overlooked that!

Garthy

I've finally got around to doing this while the strings are off for a scratchplate Tim is making. The frets & board have come up a treat.

I can't stand the smell of lemon oil, is there a suitable alternative? Thank you

Adam_MD

@Garthy try some of this

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/181582288223?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=m&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%3A80%2Frover%2F1%2F710-134428-41853-0%2F2%3Fipn%3Dicep%26icep_id%3D67%26mtid%3D1673%26kwid%3D1%26crlp%3D51961433586_563391%26icep_item_id%3D181582288223%26itemid%3D181582288223%26icep_meta_categ_id%3D619%26icep_etrs%3DY%26icep_epid%3D-999%26icep_ctlg%3D-999%26icep_cond%3DNew%26targetid%3D98503412946%26rpc%3D0.19%26rpc_upld_id%3D45306%26device%3Dm%26icep_msku_flag%3Dn%26icep_cbt%3Dn%26adtype%3Dpla%26gclid%3DCOjT0ZDkrsQCFQf4wgodKZ4A-A%26srcrot%3D710-134428-41853-0&ul_ref=http://rover.ebay.com:80/rover/1/710-134428-41853-0/2?ipn=icep&icep_id=67&mtid=1673&kwid=1&crlp=51961433586_563391&icep_item_id=181582288223&itemid=181582288223&icep_meta_categ_id=619&icep_etrs=Y&icep_epid=-999&icep_ctlg=-999&icep_cond=New&targetid=98503412946&rpc=0.19&rpc_upld_id=45306&device=m&icep_msku_flag=n&icep_cbt=n&adtype=pla&gclid=COjT0ZDkrsQCFQf4wgodKZ4A-A&srcrot=710-134428-41853-0

Brings rosewood boards up a treat and smells nice too. A bottle will last you a long time.

Gassage

I bought some Brasso wadding the other day. Mask the board off and it's superb to use- works a treat

Garthy

Adam_MD said:

@Garthy try some of this

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/181582288223?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=m&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%3A80%2Frover%2F1%2F710-134428-41853-0%2F2%3Fipn%3Dicep%26icep_id%3D67%26mtid%3D1673%26kwid%3D1%26crlp%3D51961433586_563391%26icep_item_id%3D181582288223%26itemid%3D181582288223%26icep_meta_categ_id%3D619%26icep_etrs%3DY%26icep_epid%3D-999%26icep_ctlg%3D-999%26icep_cond%3DNew%26targetid%3D98503412946%26rpc%3D0.19%26rpc_upld_id%3D45306%26device%3Dm%26icep_msku_flag%3Dn%26icep_cbt%3Dn%26adtype%3Dpla%26gclid%3DCOjT0ZDkrsQCFQf4wgodKZ4A-A%26srcrot%3D710-134428-41853-0&ul_ref=http://rover.ebay.com:80/rover/1/710-134428-41853-0/2?ipn=icep&icep_id=67&mtid=1673&kwid=1&crlp=51961433586_563391&icep_item_id=181582288223&itemid=181582288223&icep_meta_categ_id=619&icep_etrs=Y&icep_epid=-999&icep_ctlg=-999&icep_cond=New&targetid=98503412946&rpc=0.19&rpc_upld_id=45306&device=m&icep_msku_flag=n&icep_cbt=n&adtype=pla&gclid=COjT0ZDkrsQCFQf4wgodKZ4A-A&srcrot=710-134428-41853-0

Brings rosewood boards up a treat and smells nice too. A bottle will last you a long time.

Marvelous! I've got 8 rosewood boards so I'll certainly get some use out of it! Thank you.