Lemon oil / fretboard oil removal?

robgilmo

A while back I had a friend set my guitar up, he is an tech and pretty much knows his stuff.

He used an oil on the fretboard, I watched, he put a fair amount on then let it soak for a few minutes then whipped off the access.


I'm not a fan on using oil on Rosewood, my personal thing is it usually doesn't need it unless the wood is worn where it gets played most.


Anyhow, my acoustic in the 12 years I have owned it has never been oiled and it was starting to look patchy and worn in the places it gets the most use, so I decided to use a little linseed oil on it, it came out very nice.


Then I noticed a huge difference between the two guitars, the fretboard with the lemon oil is almost black, I cant see the grain in the wood, its like its been painted over with marmite. The acoustic looks lovely, its easy to see the grain in the wood and its a lovely brown colour as you would expect from a Rosewood board.

So, my guess is too much lemon oil was put on the electric guitar. Its a Squier standard Tele.

So guys, can this be reversed? Can I get rid of this oil? What dissolves it? I refinish/repair antiques so I have a lot of things in my arsenal to dissolve oils, waxes etc.

Any ideas? 

Jack_

Rosewood boards come in all different shades, if it was darker in the first place, then it would be very dark with oil.

A lot of people, myself included, dig the almost black look, it makes it look like ebony and really slick and clean with shiny frets.

There's not really a lot you can do to reverse it, not that would be advisable anyway.

robgilmo

I did think it might have been dark to begin with, cant remember but it wouldn't have been this dark. What I can see is a light brown dried oil in the open grain, like the crusty dried shellac you get on the lid of your polish bottle so it has changed the colour of the board, to what degree I don't know.

Rave

Petrol or lighter fluid will remove it

Bridgehouse

Rave said:

Petrol or lighter fluid will remove it

but don't light it tho...

robgilmo

Don't have any, I have isopropyl alcohol which will dissolve most thing's.  

Rave

Lighter fluid is about a quid a bottle from your nearest Spar or Co Op.

WezV

robgilmo said:

Don't have any, I have isopropyl alcohol which will dissolve most thing's.  

Try it.

you won't destroy the wood.  At worst you might use something that dries it out, but a re-oil will solve that.

thermionic

I think it's well-known that many low-end, far-eastern guitars with rosewood fretboards have been dyed or coated with something. I suspect your Squier had an artificially dark board anyway, a single application of oil won't darken it permanently.

richardhomer

Bridgehouse said:

Rave said:

Petrol or lighter fluid will remove it

but don't light it tho...

Actually you can - though doing so is likely to remove (at least) the fingerboard, as well as the oil....

robgilmo

Thanks guys, nearest spar shop is miles away, we live in the sticks. ISO is moving it but with cotton wool buds it seems to be never ending so as you say thermionic it might be removing a dye as well. I'll be cautious and try not to take too much away.
Also I'm worried about a solvent removing any natural oils but Id say this was at one point kiln dried and most natural oils will be long gone anyway.

thermionic

When I bought my Epi Les Paul I'd read (on one of the LP forums) that they often came with boards that were not as much dyed but coated/painted with something to make them look darker, so much that it was coming off on fingertips in some cases. Several people reported scraping the board with a sharp blade to remove the coating and expose the grain. Mine didn't seem particularly heavily darkened but I tried it anyway - not a dramatic change but the grain looked more natural after I did it. I'd favour scraping over soaking it in solvent in the hope of dissolving whatever it is out.

FelineGuitars

Isopropyl should be fine in the absence of naptha/lighter fuel (I find you can get lighter fuel in the pound shop these days)

robgilmo

It certainly looks like a coating of some sort, in some parts it went a but gunky so I stopped, cleaned it up and left it at that. I didn't fancy dissolving any glue on the neck in the process. My guess is they used a grain filler because they have used lower quality Rosewood (which I very much doubt is Rosewood anyway) with a more open grain and then coated the lot.
Its certainly livened up the grain a little more, it now looks more like wood. I've put on a light coat of Linseed as the cleaning had made the board look very dry and not very pleasant. It looks much much better.

HHwarner

Naptha (Lighter fuel) to clean fretboards

steer

How long ago was it oiled? I tend to find that they fade in time, so in a month or two it might be a lighter shade. 

robgilmo

Just after Crimbo, it was bought about a month before.
Having cleaned it I'm thinking its just quite dark to begin with and due to all the brown that came off it I'm thinking its been dyed. It is what it is I suppose.