Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've noticed a trend developing with the finish on my fretboard. It's been happening in spite of using flatwounds. I must confess I've been playing her quite a bit in recent months. Would Scratch-X and Zymol bring back her fretboard's lustre?

Sorry Kira your guitar is ruined ,there's nothing you can do but send it to Glasgow.
id use some head and shoulders to bring that back to a lustrous shine! and its good shampoo too!







I dont think pauls going to reccomend shampoo for some reason!

numpty

kiramdear wrote:numpty

I've never seen that Kira.

I did however, use the "Treatment" on my finished fingerboards in the past with great results.

I also use a FRET cleaner called FLITZ, it works wonders but you HAVE to be careful. It has a mild abrasive. IF you PUSH TOO HARD ( i once used one finger tip instead of flat finger pressure) and it left scratch marks on the sides of each fret that took forever to polish out.
BUIT, this stuff makes the frets look like NEW!

NOT FOR USE ON PLATED chrome or gold tone parts...it will strip the gold tone RIGHT off the part. Did this ONCE on my Alembic Epic tuners!

ajish4 wrote:NOT FOR USE ON PLATED chrome or gold tone parts...it will strip the gold tone RIGHT off the part. Did this ONCE on my Alembic Epic tuners!

You did this to all four tuners before noticing the results?

Luckily the tuners were just Gotoh GB7s and not some nicer tuners like Schaller M4s.

Flit is quite abrasive. I polish frets with "Nevr-Dull" wadding. Scratch-X also does a great job.

Scratch-X and Zymol, Kira, will take care of that light oxidation. But you gotta either remove the strings (time to change yet?) or loosen them a lot and move them to either side of the neck.

Thanks, guys. It isn't happening evenly everywhere, just below the nut and on the lower strings above the 12th fret. It's strange because I play all over the neck, not especially in those places. The frets are in fine finish already, just naturally. The problem is strictly cosmetic. While I got out the "Treatment" I may as well spruce up her body finish too. However at thirteen bucks a pack I'm waiting till these strings are good and dead before proceeding

jps wrote:

ajish4 wrote:NOT FOR USE ON PLATED chrome or gold tone parts...it will strip the gold tone RIGHT off the part. Did this ONCE on my Alembic Epic tuners!

You did this to all four tuners before noticing the results?

Luckily the tuners were just Gotoh GB7s and not some nicer tuners like Schaller M4s.

Nah, but once ONE was done, there was no turning back!
I did 'em all to look the same, then sold it!

On a more serious note... Kira, did you ever find out what was causing the "clouding" of the fretboard surface? Like Paul says, It sure looks like a "remove the strings, apply Scratch-X and then Zymoel the heck out of it" kind of situation.

JR

I'm still waiting till my next string change. But I already did the treatment on the rest of the guitar and I haven't seen her look this good in many years

jingle_jangle wrote:Flitz is quite abrasive. I polish frets with "Nevr-Dull" wadding. Scratch-X also does a great job.

I've used Scratch-X with great results on frets. I've also used Buckaroo cymbal polish which is sold in the drum department of music stores. I'm pretty sure it is the same stuff as Nevr-Dull with a different label.

I've used Flitz on nickel plated machine heads (not RIC which are chrome plated) with good results.

I used Flitz as a cleaner/polish of robust quality on silver and metal parts. I wouldn't overdo Flitz on plated metal. The frets are in great condition I guess because I never much used steel roundwounds on her.

I'm interested in clearing the board itself of the clouding that appears to be from string abrasion. I'll be applying the "treatment" soon and will let the results be known.

Thanks to all who posted