[Zepp88]

Is this him?

[The Dark Wolf]

Yep. Dan pretty much covered my responses as well.


All in all, sounds a bit nutty to me.

[JJ Rodriguez]

Why would your trem springs having an angle hurt anything anyways? You're springs aren't stationary unless you don't use your trem. If you do a really big dive, they're going to get angled if you didn't angle them in the first place anyways. Dude sounds off his rocker, but then again I imagine pretty much everyone will have a couple ridiculous beliefs, even me, who happens to be infallible...

[hide]

Thanks guys, I also thought he was a moron, but I'm a total nOOb when it comes to guitar maintenance, and I needed some support from people who know it better.

Originally Posted by TomAwesome

I don't think all these companies would be making fret board products that harm the fret board. It makes no sense. I've never even heard of anything like that.

He's a paranoid about that. He thinks companies put defective parts in the instruments they build to make it easier to have the customer buying another one within an year or so.

Originally Posted by dpm

I will add that come guitar products do contain harmful silicones. That's some polishes, string lubricants etc. Basically, if it feels slimy like ArmorAll, don't put it on your guitar. Don't put furniture waxes on your guitar. Lemon oils don't fall into this category.

I know, thanks, I've always been careful about my instrument, checked out other forums and used the search function

Thanks Dan, you've been very helpful, and clear. Now I know what I have to do. This guy is taking a lot of money for the few little works he does for me because of his reputation, and pwned me for slanting the springs, lemon-oiling the fretboard, using custom string sets etc., when he came along with that statements I was a bit disappointed.
Now I know I'm not a total asshole.

He is.

[newamerikangospel]

Sounds like john nash had a brother

[Drew]

Originally Posted by ShawnFjellstad

dan has spoken.

/thread.

The only thing I agree with himon is I'd be a little uneasy about using any product on your fretboard not really designed for the purpose - that gunk Stitch uses to clean his frets had me a little uneasy in that it's an automotive product and isn't intended for use on wood. I'd be afraid of letting that shit get on the fretboard and possibly penetrate into the wood.

[neroceasar]

Originally Posted by hide

2) He says fretboard polish corrodes fretboard wood, Lemon oil accumulates under the fret and makes the fret pop out earlier. The only thing to do is to gently rub the fretboard with a clean coat, preferably a thick grained paper one so that it's less abrasive and doesn't leave lint, after every time or two you play, so that sweat, which is acid from itself, purges the wood.

I use a fret board polish. It works fine and doesn't corrode the board however, from everything I've read and everyone one I've talked to(that knows their shit) Lemon oil will corrode the frets and the board so Don't use it. It's somethin about the acidic nature of the oil that hurts your fretboard.

[dpm]

Most lemon oils are actually mineral oil with a tiny amount of real lemon oil- if there is any genuine lemon oil in there it will be less than 1%. The technical name of pure lemon oil is d-limonene. Mineral oil is used in industry to protect against corrosion, however d-limonene does have an acidic relative pH value. Does typical guitar 'lemon oil' cause corrosion? I have never seen any evidence to say it does. Fretboards generally only require oiling once or twice a year at most. Maybe oiling the things excessively would cause a strong reaction, I don't know. D-limonene is a solvent but I very much doubt such a dilute form is strong enough or thin enough to penetrate and destroy fret adhesives. If it were we'd have whole fretboards falling off all over the place.

What gets overlooked in these discussions is that woods naturally produce acetic acid as they age and contain mineral salts which can react with metals strongly. How aggresively they react varies according to species and moisture. Those of you with a reasonable variety of guitars would probably have noticed that certain instruments corrode frets quickly and others don't in spite of being treated the same way (oiling, playing time). The alloy of the fret will play a part too, I'm sure some alloys corrode more easily than others.

The other big factor here is sweat. Perspiration is water and salt, great for corrosion.

While we're on the subject of corrosion, celluloid plastics (such as tortoiseshell and pearloid bindings) also release acetic acid and can cause extreme corrosion of metal parts, especially when the instrument is kept in a small space, like a guitar case.

[darren]

Originally Posted by hide

1) He thinks springs in the trem cavity shouldn't be slanted: the lateral ones would work more than the central one and general efficiency would be worse in the long run.

This is true. Most setup tutorials you'll see state that the springs should always go in straight so they all work equally. If you need more tension on them, use the claw to tighten them.

Originally Posted by hide

2) He says fretboard polish corrodes fretboard wood, Lemon oil accumulates under the fret and makes the fret pop out earlier. The only thing to do is to gently rub the fretboard with a clean coat, preferably a thick grained paper one so that it's less abrasive and doesn't leave lint, after every time or two you play, so that sweat, which is acid from itself, purges the wood.

There's probably some truth to this. And being an experienced luthier and guitar technician, he's probably seen more popped frets than most of us will in a lifetime. I'm inclined to agree with him on this. I'm sure i've read many times that over-oiling a board is not good for it.

Originally Posted by hide

3) Custom string sets are bad for general tension: if you put a .52 or .56 in a .10 set you'll stress the trem.

I'm not sure about the logic in this. What constitutes a "custom" set? There are so many different gauges and things like "light top/heavy bottom" sets that are all over the place tension-wise. Most players here are making custom sets to make the spring tension more even. A difference of a few pounds of tension from top to bottom shouldn't "stress" a piece of hardened steel too badly.

Originally Posted by hide

4) After playing, before putting the guitar in the case, putting a paper between strings and pu's prevents static electricity to discharge them.

I've never heard this one before. Ever.

[BigM555]

Guy sounds like a loon to me. (#4 especially)

As for lemon oil. Dan's got it down. Listen to him.

Basically, you want to stay away from any oils that are nut or vegetable based. It's possible for them to eventually turn rancid and rot the board from the inside out.

I think this is often the confusion with "lemon oil". As Dan points out lemon oil is (typically) not really made from lemons. Most that you can purchase outside of a specialty health food store is mineral oil which will not go rancid or oxidize (at least at temperatures under 500F).

I used to use 3-in-1 or similar products because they are petroleum based (as is mineral oil) but it's not really recommended because some can have other solvents in them that can damage inlays or the epoxy holding them in. I never had a problem but I've switched to a mineral based lemon oil.