Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Quick question. Picked up a 360MG on Ebay and should have it early next week. Not sure how clean it will be but my normal procedure on any used guitar would be to change the strings, clean the guitar top to bottom, check the neck relief and intonation and then clean the fretboard with lemon oil before re-stringing. Is the lemon oil OK for the lacquered finish on a Ric fretboard or should I use something else?

I usually use justy non-silicone furniture polish, unless there's a lot of dirt, buildup, and dullness. I bought a rather road weary, dinged up, and finish-worn 330 with a filthy fretboard that refused to shine up with mere polish. I may have tried lemon oil on it as well, but I usually use lemon oil only on non-lacquered fretboards. In order to bring back the slickness and shine to the 330 fretboard, applications of naptha, followed by Meguiar's Scratch X and Zymöl wax were required, after which I had an extremely slick fretboard with a factory fresh shine. I can't really advise yes or no on lemon oil, as I usually only use that for the non-lacquered fretboards of my guitars, but another, more knowledgeable forum member should be able to advise you on whether lemon oil is okay.

The lemon oil won't hurt the conversion varnish on a Rick fretboard.

Is there any harm in using Naphtha to clean some of the hardware, like bridge screws, saddle springs etc.? Forgive me if this is a stupid question.

I've got quite a bit of experience in cleaning up dirty Rickenbackers. And I have found that you can treat it much like you would treat a car, due to the fact that "traditional" Rickenbackers like the 300 and 600 series really don't have any exposed exterior woodgrain.

For polishing the body and fretboard, the accepted elixir here is a combination of Meguiar's Scratch-X to remove swirls, small abrasions, and minor scratches, followed by Zymol, to finish 'er up. For deeper scratches, wet-sanding with 1500 to 2000 grit paper and some Windex may help, but be sure that you are extremely careful. If you know anyone with autobody experience, ask them for some supervision/guidance. These products will do wonders for a dirty fretboard and tarnished or dull frets as well. Lemon oil is not really something I would use on a finished RIC fretboard. It's not going to nurture the wood, it will just grease it up and gum up the strings, in my humble opinion. Leave the lemon oil to the unfinished fretboards.

As far as dull hardware, there's a few different little methods I use to clean it, depending on the piece and how dirty or rusty it may be. Anything more than a surface coating of light rust is probably not going to come off. Pitting and rust that actually have eaten the plating can't be solved with any amount of cleaning. For light tarnishing and dulling, any good auto cleaner/wax is going to be just fine as it has some petroleum distillates in it that help to dissolve the grime. Again. Meguiar's rules here with their liquid cleaner/wax. For more dulled pieces, Scratch-X or rubbing compound may be in order (watch that RICK-O-SOUND lettering; you'll rub it off faster than you could imagine). For dull screws, I usually remove them, run a dollop of rubbing compound or wax into a tough cloth, and then vigorously rub the screw head into the rag, followed by a wipe-off and a round with an old hard toothbrush, after the wax/compound has dried. That hard toothbrush is also excellent for cleaning the powdery white deposits from bridge saddle springs (do this with the bridge still assembled). Plenty of good quality cotton swabs are also highly recommended, especially for the space between screws on the pickup covers, headstock routes on 12-strings, and other little nooks and crannies. Do not rub chrome too hard with the swabs, and get high quality swabs- the cheap ones quickly come apart, exposing the stick, which leaves swirls and marks in the chrome.

I follow up with any good automotive "quick detailer", such as Meguiar's Final Inspection or Griot's Speed Shine. Final Inspection is especially good (Meguiar's, you rock) and I use it as an all-around guitar cleaner/polish. It is much much better than the greasy and generally disgusting products that are sold as guitar polish these days.

Oh- wash your hands often, especially when you start stringing her back up- or else the tuners and strings have all the residue from your hand all over them.

The big key to making your "detail" job of your guitar successful is this: Take apart as much of the guitar as you feel comfortable with. It's almost always easier and ultimately, less time consuming, to disassemble parts when cleaning them.

I consider myself pretty good at this. I like my guitars to be kept as pristine as possible at all times (I never went to sleep after a sweaty gig without wiping down my guitars, no matter how late) and that obsession has bred a lot of creativity in me over the years.

Hope that helps.

It's hard to see how clean a guitar is in a picture- so here is a shot of the inside of my car. This is how it's kept all the time, even with two teenage kids. So take that as a measure of my standards.

Nice write-up Bob.

Since you are (like me) a neatnick with the auto, have you checked out the PoorBoy's line of products? I was once a diehard Meguiar's fan until I came by the PoorBoys polishes and waxes. I use their Natty's carnuba on just about everything - it gives depth to a finish like none I've seen before. No matter what I use, the cloths are now nothing but microfiber...gone are the diapers! I've been using the SSR Swirl remover, Pro Polish an Natty's on my guitars with stunning results.

Just another man's (or chimp's opinion) - thought I'd share.

Lemon oil won't hurt the finish but I agree it won't help much either. On a fully CV'd Rick, clean and polish the fingerboard the same way you would clean and polish the rest of the guitar.

Never used any of 'em. I'll have to look around for them. I do like the Meguiar's stuff very much though.

windchimp wrote:Nice write-up Bob.

Since you are (like me) a neatnick with the auto, have you checked out the PoorBoy's line of products? I was once a diehard Meguiar's fan until I came by the PoorBoys polishes and waxes. I use their Natty's carnuba on just about everything - it gives depth to a finish like none I've seen before. No matter what I use, the cloths are now nothing but microfiber...gone are the diapers! I've been using the SSR Swirl remover, Pro Polish an Natty's on my guitars with stunning results.

Just another man's (or chimp's opinion) - thought I'd share.

The reason for Zymol is that it is the only water-based premium wax on the market. It allows you to build coats on top of coats for max protection and gloss. Scratch-X has a solvent used as vehicle, so don't use it after you've used Zymol, unless you re-Zymol over it to restore the wax surface.

Microfiber cloths are still synthetics, and as such they will scratch microscopically, as they are harder plastic than the rather soft conversion varnish surface. I've tried them on a Forum member's recommendation, and continue to recommend soft diapers to all my customers and students. I've been using them since the early '70s. They absorb and hold both wax and compound well and in proper amounts to speed the work of rubbing out and waxing a guitar, and the cotton is softer than the surface of conversion varnish.

My experience with wax products is constantly being renewed--I have a couple (at least) of large file boxes filled with different wax products which I've tried over the last decade or so, and my recommendation of Zymol and Scratch-X (and 3M Perfect-It 3000 for deeper scratches and bad hazing, prior to the Scratch-X and Zymol), which Bob has mentioned above, is based upon my use of all these products, as well as diapers, in finishing out the manufacturer's auto show prototypes that I built and painted for over a decade prior to joining this Forum.

I'm always interested in finding better products for this purpose. But when I see that a wax is solvent-based, I immediately move on...you cannot build maximum gloss on dark paint with a solvent-based wax product. It used to be that there were two water-based waxes on the market--Meguiar's Medallion and Zymol. Meguiar's stopped making Medallion because of VOC regs. That was when I switched over to Zymol exclusively.

Show me a water-based carnauba (note spelling) wax and I'll be glad to give it a good testing!

I'm not talking about the 25 for $10 microfibers from Costco, but I'll defer to your experience...

Regarding the Natty's - it's a paste, and AFAIK is not solvent based. Standard practice is to apply, allow to cure for 24 hrs and repeat, layering the product. I use another Poorboy's product - PwC "Polish with Carnauba" (got it this time...) which, as any polish would, contain cleaners. I use the PwC followed by Natty's. The Zymol is good stuff, don't get me wrong - I have a bottle of it in my collection. I discovered the Poorboy's line and the others are gathering dust...

Thanks to all for the advice. Lemon oil is out for the fretboard. I have some good Petros guitar restorer and polish I will try first. Both are silicon-free and the restorer can be used on finished portions if this guitar is really grungy. I don't think it will be but best to be safe with a finished fretboard. Knew I would get the lowdown here. The tracking numbers say it will be delivered tomorrow so the brown truck wait begins.

Thanks again forum members!

windchimp wrote:I'm not talking about the 25 for $10 microfibers from Costco, but I'll defer to your experience...

Regarding the Natty's - it's a paste, and AFAIK is not solvent based. Standard practice is to apply, allow to cure for 24 hrs and repeat, layering the product. I use another Poorboy's product - PwC "Polish with Carnauba" (got it this time...) which, as any polish would, contain cleaners. I use the PwC followed by Natty's. The Zymol is good stuff, don't get me wrong - I have a bottle of it in my collection. I discovered the Poorboy's line and the others are gathering dust...

Ross, I'm gonna track down and order some Natty's paste, and I'll give a full report. They do not publish MSDSs on it, so I cannot find out if it's solvent-based. The fact that you are supposed to wait 24 hours before buffing it off would seem to indicate that they want a solvent to completely evaporate before disturbing the wax itself, but we'll see... EVERY paste wax I have ever seen has some petroleum distillate in it as a solvent; water does not improve the viscosity enough to enable a paste to be applied properly and evenly.

Thanks for the tips. And, the microfiber thing is something that I've looked into in some depth, and my conclusions above are based upon my experiences with them.

Additionally, there's a "feel" thing when paint is being rubbed and buffed by hand, that speaks volumes about methods and materials used. A certain amount of drag in the cloth, and a feel of reduction in drag as the compound or wax "takes" into the finish itself, tells me that the process is working correctly. Microfiber cloths (in addition to being harder than the CV) do not telegraph this "feel" to me.

Mark, let's not get "silicon" (an abrasive) mixed up with "silicone" (a compound). The "E" is important in this case.

Hi Paul -

I checked into the Natty's - it does contain petroleum distillates. So from what you've said here (in in the past - yeah, I've been lurking for a few years!) this is not good for the conversion varnish RIC uses? Since I've not applied the Natty's to any of my Ricks yet, I'll dust off the bottle of Zymol when the time comes...so far all I've used on mine is the PwC that I mentioned earlier and plain old Turtle Wax. I stopped using the Turtle due to the dusting and switched to the PwC since it (like the Zymol Cleaner Wax) contains a touch of Carnauba and does not dust. What always bothered me about the (retail/Turtle Wax licenced) Zymol is that it has scratch/swirl removers which I don't always want, while the PwC is a non-abrasive product which however does contain petroleum distillates.


My experience in finishes lies mostly in lacquers, enamels and epoxies used in automotive and aerospace. I will gladly yield to anyone who has a history with a specific finish such as the subject here. I'm not too old to learn something - I'm listening!

Ross, the grade of swirl remover (kaolin powder) used in Zymol cleaner wax is so very fine so as to have zero visible effect on conversion varnish. I'm thinking that it will be most obvious on nitrocellulose lacquer, which is what Zymol products were originally formulated for use on. (I believe it was Ralph Lauren's black Pebble Beach Bugatti that got Zymol first).

As to whether petroleum distillates are or are not "good for" the CV finish, this is not an issue. RIC themselves use Turtle Wax 123 for their own final, pre-shipping wax on each guitar. This stuff has petroleum distillates in it.

My own choice of Zymol is based upon the fact that a water-based wax can be layered without worrying that the petroleum distillate will strip the preceding coat of wax. Commercial waxes use this to prevent the so-called buildup and subsequent yellowing. Zymol does not yellow, is water-based, and I typically will wax a newly-finished guitar or bass three or four times for maximum depth and protection before casing and shipping it.

The metal parts can be cleaned with Maas Metal Polishing Creme. It's not cheap, but a little goes a long way. Plus, I can get it at my local Ace Hardware Store!