Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I picked up a second 650D a few months back. I paid a bit high, but got trigger happy, and I love it (I foolishly sold my first one a little while back).

What's the best products to use to get the fretboard clean (the unfinished maple shows grime easily) and get the body back to a nice, deep walnut? It's a bit dry at the moment, and with the winter months, I'm thinking it could use some conditioning.

The owners manual suggests some 3m sandpaper, I believe, but I'm a bit nervous about it.

Pretty much, I'm wondering what type of tung oil is the best, and if anyone has any good tips for getting the wood back to it's rich, walnutty goodness

I found some posts addressing this issue, and it seems like Watco's would be good. Someone used their Walnut stain, but I'm wondering if that would be a bad idea, being that it'd be hard to keep it from staining the maple.

Thanks in advance!

You'll find some useful information here:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=382418&p=445555&hi ... ng#p445555

(Found by using the Search feature on "cleaning 650D")

+1 for the Watco's Danish Oil Finish recommended by Paul W. It does a great job of cleaning and gettinfg rid of dryness in my 650S, and leaves a deep looking luster to the wood.

will the watco stuff leave any tacky feeling or will it preserve the feel of the natural wood? since it's got other chemicals in it, I'm worried I might end up with a "waxed" feel - and look.

Thanks for the responses!

It keeps the natural feel of the wood - No tackiness, no waxed feel.

Austin, I still have some tung oil (pure, no additives) that I can send you if you want. The 3M product recommended is not sandpaper, but the Scotchbrite pad.

I use the tung oil and a nylon stocking (instead of the Scotchbrite pad) for my 650 neck and body and also my 380Ls. Works great.

Timbo