white stuff in rosewood fingerboard - mold?

caprile · #1 03-24-2002, 01:03 AM

hey i'm cleaning my new guitar and notice some white stuff in the grain of the rosewood. is it some kind of mold? what can i do? thanks!

yurich · #2 03-24-2002, 01:08 AM

it's dirt from ages of playing...I had the same stuff on my classical. go through Rich's primer, it tells you how to clean it

caprile · #3 03-24-2002, 01:26 AM

yeah i went thru rich's excelent primer (a LOT of times while waiting for the guitar!). i'm asking here because i have some white stuff like inside the grain (i don't know if i'm clear explaining this) so it's flush with the board, there's no 'crust' in there.

Rich · #4 03-24-2002, 01:30 AM

Could be crust down in the pores, could be metal polish, I've seen all kinds of crud. Hit it with some mineral spirits of lemon oil and see what it does.

spiro · #5 03-26-2002, 06:45 PM

a toothbrush will get it out.. as rich said it is most likely metal polish.. use some furniture polis with it to lubricate....

nuno · #6 03-27-2002, 03:40 AM

yeah,
about 10 years ago i did that big mistake: i polished frets with metal polish!
i placed a piece of tape on each side of the fret, to keep the wood from any damage, but it didn't work...
the metal polish penetrated down between the tape and the wood, and it flush-filled the wood grains throughout the board.
oh, it sucks!

any tips to get rid of it?