brucemoffatt
Well-known member
Hi all,
After a bit of a search I found some lemon oil today at a music shop. Brand is Kwik Fret, and it contains 'pure lemon and organic oils'. It is so thin and volatile it almost creeps out of the bottle and up your arms.
Well, to cut a long story short, I followed the directions and applied a little bit to a clean cloth (I used a microfibre cleaning cloth) and applied it (ahem) sparingly to the fret board of my Makala. Well everything within six inches of the cloth soon got a bit of an oil smear on it, and before I knew where I was going with it I'd oiled the fret board (which smeared the neck), then the neck (which smeared the back), the back (which smeared the sides), the sides (which smeared the front and then I thought it's too late to back out now and I did the front and the headstock to boot.
Does anyone know if lemon oil has a detrimental effect on nylgut strings? I didn't take them off first, so I guess I oiled the strings too. Oh, and the bridge, I oiled the bridge.
On the plus side, the uke has never looked better. I went over the whole thing with a dry cloth to removed all surplus oil (ha - that's a joke). Now I'm letting it suck in a bit before I give it a strum later on today. I'll wear an old cotton tee shirt when I play it and maybe that will help get rid of any more residual oil. I don't have cotton gloves, but I guess they would be a good idea as well.
It's amazing how much oil gets sucked up into a microfibre cloth.
After a bit of a search I found some lemon oil today at a music shop. Brand is Kwik Fret, and it contains 'pure lemon and organic oils'. It is so thin and volatile it almost creeps out of the bottle and up your arms.
Well, to cut a long story short, I followed the directions and applied a little bit to a clean cloth (I used a microfibre cleaning cloth) and applied it (ahem) sparingly to the fret board of my Makala. Well everything within six inches of the cloth soon got a bit of an oil smear on it, and before I knew where I was going with it I'd oiled the fret board (which smeared the neck), then the neck (which smeared the back), the back (which smeared the sides), the sides (which smeared the front and then I thought it's too late to back out now and I did the front and the headstock to boot.
Does anyone know if lemon oil has a detrimental effect on nylgut strings? I didn't take them off first, so I guess I oiled the strings too. Oh, and the bridge, I oiled the bridge.
On the plus side, the uke has never looked better. I went over the whole thing with a dry cloth to removed all surplus oil (ha - that's a joke). Now I'm letting it suck in a bit before I give it a strum later on today. I'll wear an old cotton tee shirt when I play it and maybe that will help get rid of any more residual oil. I don't have cotton gloves, but I guess they would be a good idea as well.
It's amazing how much oil gets sucked up into a microfibre cloth.