Do you oil the fingerboards on your basses and if you do; What do you use?

[walterw]

Well if I did nothing for the last 30 years, I assure you the FB would look like total crap. It starts to in less than a year (finger scum, whatever).

OK, that means the stuff serves as a cleaner, which is good. (i see my share of truly nasty fretboards )

if the stuff really is true volatile lemon oil then that makes sense, it'll dissolve finger gunk for easier cleaning. i use regular naphtha for that but it's the same principle, it attacks grease and gunk then evaporates away entirely.

that's different from "oiling" a fretboard with something and imagining that it's "nourishing" or "hydrating" the wood.

 

[bigtone23]

I find that most of my fingerboards are just fine with just the oils that come off my fingers.
However, if a board is ashy and dry, I just use coconut oil on it. I have it on hand in my kitchen already, and it makes the wood look and feel hydrated, and kills some bacteria to boot. This is a rare occurrence, I think I have oiled 2 fingerboards in the last 5 years.

 

[Passinwind]

OK, that means the stuff serves as a cleaner, which is good. (i see my share of truly nasty fretboards )

if the stuff really is true volatile lemon oil then that makes sense, it'll dissolve finger gunk for easier cleaning. i use regular naphtha for that but it's the same principle, it attacks grease and gunk then evaporates away entirely.

that's different from "oiling" a fretboard with something and imagining that it's "nourishing" or "hydrating" the wood.

The stuff in question is actually 100% pure lemon oil, usually food grade. I had a bottle of food grade orange oil kicking around my shop for many years, it's great for certain things, including cleaning really nasty fingerboards. It'll stain plastic, or even eat it in some cases, so I'd be careful with it on musical instruments.

 

[Turnaround]

The stuff in question is actually 100% pure lemon oil, usually food grade. I had a bottle of food grade orange oil kicking around my shop for many years, it's great for certain things, including cleaning really nasty fingerboards. It'll stain plastic, or even eat it in some cases, so I'd be careful with it on musical instruments.

Limonene which is the main component of real orange oil and real lemon oil oil is a mild irritant, as it dissolves protective skin oils. That's why it is useful in cleaning a fretboard since most of the gunk on a fretboard is skin oil and trapped skin cells. It's not useful for "hydrating" or "conditioning" beyond the cleaning capability.

 

[Passinwind]

Limonene which is the main component of real orange oil and real lemon oil oil is a mild irritant, as it dissolves protective skin oils. That's why it is useful in cleaning a fretboard since most of the gunk on a fretboard is skin oil and trapped skin cells. It's not useful for "hydrating" or "conditioning" beyond the cleaning capability.

Yep. For whatever reason, the orange stuff seems to cost about 1/3 as much, at least for the brand I bought at the local supermarket. It's supposed to be killer in brownies too.

It's also fine to use on many plastics, I first encountered it back when I worked as a ski tech and it was used a a base cleaner.