Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: Pete si on October 04, 2020, 06:06:19 AM
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My bass will be 25 on December 11. I have noticed a black residue when I rub the fingerboard. I’m assuming this is grime that has accumulated over the years. I read somewhere that treating the ebony with lemon oil would be beneficial. Anybody have experience or thoughts about treating the fingerboard with lemon oil?
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Yes, Yes, Yes! If you search you will find numerous posts on the subject. Lemon oil is the official recommendation of Alembic. Be careful to only use 100% pure food quality lemon oil. Not Lemon Pledge, lemon scented, or any “lemon oil” that doesn’t say 100% pure on the ingredients list! I use Boyajian. A little goes a LONG way. Just a small bottle of this stuff lasts me years (keep it refrigerated).
Bill, tgo
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But only on unbound (or wood-bound) fretboards! C.F. Martin explicitly says not to use it; I'm told that's because it will eat the plastic binding.
Peter
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my 1995 unlined fretless ebony fingerboard gets lemon-oil'd every 4 months or so. the climate in Denver is pretty dry and so it soaks it up. It gives me a excuse to take the strings off (maybe even put new ones on) and admire the workmanship that went into building this bass.
imho not many things finer than a freshly oiled unlined fretless ebony alembic fingerboard. the picture hardly does it justice...
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Beautiful!
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When I use lemon oil I always let in soak in for a few minutes and then do a thorough wiping. The old strings go back on for at least a few days until any residual oil is gone. Then its one more wipe down and if new strings are warranted the replacement set. I do it twice a year in the fall (just before the heat comes on) and in the spring (after a winter of low humidity conditions here in Minnesota).
I've never heard of keeping in in the refrigerator (the lemon oil not the Alembic) and am wondering what others (i.e., Bill) feel is the need for that approach.
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100% pure Lemon Oil will oxidize. I’m on the East coast and my bottle is in the fridge at home, but I’m pretty sure it says refrigerate after opening. And a search of the internets reveals that lemon oil will last twice as long in the fridge.
Bill, tgo
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Bill is correct. The bottle does say to refrigerate after opening.
Regards,
Pete
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100% pure Lemon Oil will oxidize. I’m on the East coast and my bottle is in the fridge at home, but I’m pretty sure it says refrigerate after opening. And a search of the internets reveals that lemon oil will last twice as long in the fridge.
Bill, tgo
I'm going to check on that. My lemon oil is from my wife's perfumery supplies and has been around for a while, probably 5 years old. Smells fine. Truth is, I don't use it all that often. Maybe I should? Although my Modulus basses don't need it and my Starfire is 53 years old and seems very stable.
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I never heard the advice to refrigerate until this post. I have a bottle that's a few years old and has been through a couple of heat waves - used it the other day, and in hindsight realized that it may have lost its potency in the scent department, does that mean it's less effective?
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I wouldn't think loss of scent would impact the effectiveness of the oil. On the other hand have you been checked for covid lately. They say the sense of smell goes first ;)
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I wouldn't think loss of scent would impact the effectiveness of the oil. On the other hand have you been checked for covid lately. They say the sense of smell goes first ;)
Good point! My smeller is working fine though - whew! I think it's time for a new bottle though.
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Plant based oils will go rancid after a period of time. How long will vary by the type of oil, temperature it has been exposed to, etc. Refrigerating should extend the time before the oil would go rancid since heat is the biggest enemy. I don't refrigerate mine being in an air conditioned house but do buy a new bottle for on the first of two oilings I do each year.
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So, I checked with the essential oil guru and she said that true lemon oil can indeed oxidize (she had some technical term for it, which I have forgotten), but in general won't affect the use for fingerboards. I have a bottle that has to be at least 5 years old, unrefrigerated, and it seems fine. But, the prudent thing to do would be to put it in the fridge.
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My last fridge bottle lasted 5+ years before I ran out. The current one has been in there for at least a couple of years now. The only down side I ever experienced with lemon oil is Senior Management complaining about the smell when I do a neck on the couch, next to her.
Bill, tgo
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my lemon oil bottle lives in a cool dark closet, i only pull it out every once3 or 4 months when i change strings or do neck work or cleanup. i did notice the last time that it didn't smell as pleasantly lemony as it had before, so i'm thinking that it's time to 86 this batch (it's almost gone anyway) and refrigerate the next one in between uses.
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I have always used the Kyser brand "Lem-oil" on my open pore fret and fingerboards. No reason other than it was readily available at a local music store back when I purchased my first Epic (~25 years ago). I went through one bottle, but I have near half of another bottle that has to be more than 10 yrs old. Still seems fine - no residue, no off odor.
I have also seen other high end manufacturers suggest pure mineral oil (no perfumes or additives) to be used. If it's been awhile between applications they are suggesting applying with 0000 grade steel wool (first fully cover pickups).
Any thoughts on either account?
:D
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I am still using good old WD-40 after 40 plus years! I make sure to wipe it all afterwards.
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The reason I suggest using pure lemon oil on Ebony fingerboards is because the heavy turpines in lemon oil and in the Ebony are similar. The water and smaller molecules evaporate out of the wood rather quickly, but the big turpines take longer, and they are more destructive when they do since they are big. When you condition the board with lemon oil, you stuff some of those broken cells with chunky lemon turpines, and that protects the layers below it.
There's nothing wrong with pure mineral oil, or any other oil you like to use. On one account, you're cleaning debris off with it, and just about anything will do for this purpose. The lemon oil provides cleaning and conditioning. But if you're taking care of your fingerboard with any suitable substance with any regularity you're way ahead of most.
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I should look up what a ‘turpine’ is but it’s way too early. The reason I chose lemon oil to treat my fingerboard is it doesn’t leave a residue. I would hate to have oil residue getting on my fingers but more so oil residue is a magnet for dirt and is very difficult to remove.
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Actually, the correct spelling is “terpene”. Terpenes are unsaturated polycarbons usually produced by plants. Terpenes are what give cannabis it’s unique smell and flavor.
Bill, tgo
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Actually, the correct spelling is “terpene”. Terpenes are unsaturated polycarbons usually produced by plants. Terpenes are what give cannabis it’s unique smell and flavor.
Bill, tgo
Maybe we need to think about using hash oil to condition our fretboards?
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Maybe we need to think about using hash oil to condition our fretboards?
Nah, the hash oil conditions the player!
hehehehe
Bill, tgo
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One other note with lemon oil and its heavy terpenes: some people are sensitive to it. So while you should really wipe up excess oil from any source, definitely clean up residual unabsorbed pure lemon oil. I have also been known to throw in a drop or orange or lime oil if I'm cleaning a particularly stinky bass. How do they get so very gross?
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"Stinky Bass" ... sounds like a punk band!
Bill, tgo
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it was time for the annual string changing party for the fretless. After having read this thread, i pulled out my bottle of lemon oil that's been sitting in a closet and it didn't smell exactly wonderful, so i hopped on the bicycle (we're having summer in december here in the mile high city, but that's another story) went down to whole foods and picked up a fresh bottle. the difference between the old and new was striking. so out with the old, in with the new. gonna oil up the fingerboard and throw on a new set of TI flats tonight. maybe post pictures tomorrow.
so my conclusion is that it probably ages (for the worst) if not refrigerated. your actual results may vary from the results presented...
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Dawn had a client in Boston who had her design a scent for his upright bass. He would massage it into the fingerboard and as he played and it warmed up, it would exude his inspirational olfactory desires. And his fingerboard was kept in great shape!
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Dawn had a client in Boston who had her design a scent for his upright bass. He would massage it into the fingerboard and as he played and it warmed up, it would exude his inspirational olfactory desires. And his fingerboard was kept in great shape!
Sounds like the musical version of scratch ‘n sniff. Cool!
Bill, tgo
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Dawn had a client in Boston who had her design a scent for his upright bass. He would massage it into the fingerboard and as he played and it warmed up, it would exude his inspirational olfactory desires. And his fingerboard was kept in great shape!
Sounds like the musical version of scratch ‘n sniff. Cool!
Bill, tgo
And now we can circle back to hash oil! ;D
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well i can definitely say lemon oil loses its pizzazz if you let it sit around long enough. yesterday morning i restrung the fretless and gave the fingerboard a dose of fresh lemon oil straight from whole foods. spiffed it right up. now the house smells lemon-y and the fretless has a new set of strings and a cleaned up fingerboard to boot. the weather in denver has been so dry that it soaked it right up. i try to do this every 3 months or so.
nothing like a freshly oiled unlined alembic fretless ebony fingerboard. sorry about the crappy picture, it was 0500 when i did this and the day was just getting started...
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You must do a much better job getting all that leftover lemon oil that doesn’t get absorbed into the fretboard off your bass than I do. I have found that if I don’t put the old strings back on for a couple of days after Lemon oiling the backsides of my brand new strings are typically quite black as are my fingers. Leaving the old strings on doesn’t do anything about the fingers but certainly keeps the new strings looking new.
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well i don't put very much on, i work it in with an absorbent paper towel and do it twice or thrice. seems to mop up all the finger schmutz as well. as i said, the weather here is so dry, the wood just soaks it up.
btw my hands suffer the same malady from this dry air, i get these fissures in my skin at the finger tips that i have to close up with locktite gel. i've tried everything under the sun (lotion, band-aids, medicine). an old time construction guy turned me on to the lock-tite trick, nothing else works. don't wanna let my fingerboards suffer the same fate...
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well i don't put very much on, i work it in with an absorbent paper towel and do it twice or thrice. seems to mop up all the finger schmutz as well. as i said, the weather here is so dry, the wood just soaks it up.
btw my hands suffer the same malady from this dry air, i get these fissures in my skin at the finger tips that i have to close up with locktite gel. i've tried everything under the sun (lotion, band-aids, medicine). an old time construction guy turned me on to the lock-tite trick, nothing else works. don't wanna let my fingerboards suffer the same fate...
I use Gorilla super glue - and yeah, the thicker brush-on gel is easier to use.
Peter
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<veering off topic>
The skin on my fingers splits regularly. Painful.
The splits usually occur mostly on the thumbs and on the edge/ corner of the fingernail. I found that the splits start on what is dead skin, when the split progresses into live skin the pain begins.
These days I stay ahead of it by using a nail clipper to periodically cut the dead skin back... it has greatly reduced the splitting.
Paul (who’s initials ARE “PhD” but am in no way a medical doctor)
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since we've veered slightly, let's roll with it...
These days I stay ahead of it by using a nail clipper to periodically cut the dead skin back... it has greatly reduced the splitting.
i've never noticed dead skin around the splits, i'll have to be more observant next time it happens. it seems to go in fits and starts, last week i had 4, this week, none. for some reason it's only my right hand this year. i am on my 3rd bottle of locktite so far this winter...
btw, this is one of the few indignities that that old age hasn't visited upon me, it's been happening since i was a yoot yout yute.
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This would used to happen on my thumbs when I worked in a dry environment handling a lot of paper. Try to use a moisturizer on the thumbs and that may help the painful, painful cracking. I fell you on this one.
Love the lemon oiling of a fretboard! Still have the same bottle from 2006 and its amazing!