Help Needed Quick!

[JeffWiredBeck24]

My RG20th was left in the sun for too long inside the case (about an hour) while I was out. I get back and see that it's still out, and (as expected) the case is pretty warm. However, I opened it up and found that the frets from 11-24 had turned a yellow color and there seemed to be condensed water on the guitar itself. The pickups had some on there, and so did the bridge. I wiped it off immediately but now am stuck at what to do next.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

[David McCarroll]

Not good - you really shouldn't do this sort of thing to your guitar. With a Poly finish you will most likely be fine, but if you ever find yourself in this situation at all, it is best to leave the guitar in its case unopened until it has had a chance to cool down and reach inside room tempreature in the shade.

Anyway, it's probably way too late to take any measures like this, so just let the guitar reacclimatise to room temperature for a couple of days and check the neck relief - it may need a truss rod tweak, hopefully nothing else.

[JeffWiredBeck24]

^It's been in room temperature for a few hours now out of the case. Thanks for the help. What of the frets?

[David McCarroll]

Polish 'em up with very fine steel wool! I have discovered some marvellous fine buffing compounds to get a mirror like shine out of your frets - these include Lemon Jif, and Colgate Tooth Polish - no joke - the latter is effectively a superfine cutting compound with a fresh minty taste! - after the steel wool, a little bit on a fine cloth will bring the frets up like little mirrors - but you have to be super diligent about cleaning the polish off afterwards, otherwise you'll be playing a fresh, minty guitar for a few weeks.

I'm not joking by the way - I just finished a refret on a Strat, and I wanted to get a super polished look to the frets for it's owner, and that was the experiment that did the trick!

He did comment on how nice the guitar smelt too

[David McCarroll]

Oh, another thing - Steel wool disintegrates as you use it, so you have to shield the body and particularly the pickups before you start work, otherwise you will be picking steel wool fragments out of the gap between the pickup coils for ages!

[JeffWiredBeck24]

^Again, thanks a lot for the help! I'll wait a couple of days, leave it at room temperature and see how the neck is.

[jb4674]

What kind of rg 20th are talking about here? If it's got a maple fretboard, you can get away with putting car wax on the frets and polish the hell out of them without any worries. If it's got a rosewood fretboard, then mask the frets and feel free to use whatever method you deem necessary. Personally, I don't like using steel wool unless I really have to because you're basically sanding the fret down. If you use a cleaner/polish all you're doing is cleaning/polishing the metal.

Jimmy

P.S.: Never leave a guitar exposed to warm/hot or cold weather, even if it's inside its case

[ryanb]

Always mask off the fretboard before polishing the frets -- ESPECIALLY on a maple board -- otherwise you will get black stains all over the board that do not come off easily. I also avoid steel wool like the plague, since it is a real PITA and leaves steel bits everywhere. Just use a cotton rag and some polishing compound (or toothpaste as desired). [What is lemon Jif? Around here JIF is peanut butter.] If it is a rosewood fretboard, add some bore oil since you probably cooked all the moisture out of the wood. Otherwise you are probably OK, except that it will probably need some setup tweaking after it re-acclimates.