[hide]

I just read Stitch's fret-polish thread, and pondering on what my luthier keeps telling me night and day. First off, I don't want to put in discussion the Great Stitchypoo's Almighty Knowledge, 'cause he really knows his shit.

Anyway, my crazy old luthier, which is kind of well known here, (official luthier for several great concerts in Venice, used to teach for several years in a luthiery school, restaured some Stradivari's ect) has a kind of weird point of view.

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.
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.
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.
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 know the rest of the world doesn't go the way he goes, and guitars don't seem to split in two anyway. There are many of you who know lots of things about guitar tech etc, may I have you opinion plz?

[Jongpil Yun]

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 can't speak for the others, but this just strikes me as weird, as most normal sets have tensions all over the place, whereas with custom sets, you get either a flat tension or smoothly increasing tension (usually).

[Zepp88]

That dudes a nut.

[dpm]

Here's my 2c on these...

1) Theoretically maybe, I've never seen any proof of this in reality.

2) Not sure what you mean by fretboard polish. Lemon oil saturates the wood which should cause it to expand and hold the fret tighter. A drying fretboard will shrink predominantly lengthwise and moisture is mainly lost through the end grain (ie. fret slots), which means the slot itself will get bigger thus possibly allowing the fret to pop loose. So, if anything, a dry, unoiled fretboard would allow the fret to pop loose. I suppose oil could potentially have some lubricating properties but, and I say this with conviction, frets should always be securely glued in place. I am seeing a lot of loose frets lately on production instruments, more than in the past, which I figure is largely due to the wood not being dried properly initially. Fretboard oils also slow the absorbtion and release of moisture, making the neck more stable with humidity change.

3) Frankly, this is bullshit. Standard string sets are extremely uneven in tension to start with. If you were to get ridiculous and, say, double or triple the string tension from one side to the other you'd see the neck twist, but it would take a damn long time (years) to see any evidence of permanent damage. Maybe the trem would respond inefficiently too, though the main concern would be the studs tilting forward due to the body wood compressing. Nobody runs that kind of unbalanced string tension in real life so don't worry about it.

4) WTF?

[ShawnFjellstad]

dan has spoken.

/thread.

[ibznorange]

um, yeah 2 pounds of difference laterally =/= fucking your trem
punch him in the vAG!
but not really just ignore his bad advice
it is bad

[TomAwesome]

Yeah, the string thing is the most obvious one. If anything, non-custom sets are bad. What does he mean by general efficiency in the long run with the springs? If it doesn't damage anything or have any ill effects (which I'm pretty sure slanted trem springs don't), there's no problem. 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. I also have no idea what he's talking about with the static electricity. Even if it did build up on the strings, it would discharge into your hand as soon as you touched them. I've been shocked by a guitar before, but only once, and it was from the amp and not static electricity on the strings (I saw blue electricity running down the strings, too. It was awesome as all hell, but I decided to stop playing shortly after).

[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.

[Ishan]

This guy should retire...

[amonb]

Originally Posted by ShawnFjellstad

dan has spoken.

/thread.

'nuff said.