Lemon oil for guitar

The guitar, like any musical instrument, requires regular maintenance. Over time, dirt accumulates on the surface of its wooden body and neck, which, absorbing into the wood, destroys it. You can effectively clean the neck and wood body of your guitar with lemon oil.

Lemon oil for guitar protects from decay a fretboard that is not varnished if it is made of rosewood, ebony, or other woods other than maple. Maple necks, which are installed on budget guitars, are varnished to prevent dirt and grease from absorbing into the wood structure.

For professional expensive instruments, special formulations are used based on natural lemon essential oil. To care for your hobbyist guitars, you can use essential lemon oil from the pharmacy. When buying such a budgetary tool, you should pay attention to the composition in which only natural ingredients should be present, otherwise you can destroy the coating of a musical instrument.

With proper care of your musical instrument, you should clean your guitar every three months. At the same time, special care is required for each part of the instrument:

• the neck, made of dark unvarnished wood, must first be cleaned of dirt accumulating on the frets, and only then treated with lemon oil;
• the body of the guitar, which needs to be regularly treated with lemon oil, is wiped with a soft cloth;
• the strings and the fingerboard underneath should be processed every month using special compounds;
• metal parts of the oil will protect against corrosion.

Lacquered maple overlays cannot be cleaned with lemon oil. They are usually installed on inexpensive hobby guitars that are protected from dirt with varnish. The essential oil can eat away at the finish and ruin the entire tool. Caring for such guitars consists of regularly wiping them with microfiber cloths, which will remove dirt from the varnished surface without destroying its integrity.

Only proprietary products should be used to care for a professional guitar, otherwise you can ruin an expensive musical instrument. With its help, you can immediately remove dirt and feed the wood without harming it, as well as create effective protection of the tool from aggressive environmental influences.

Professional oils cost from 400 to 500 rubles, which is more expensive than essential lemon oil from a pharmacy, but at the same time they guarantee high-quality care for the instrument and its reliable protection. Professional Lemon Oil for Guitar is packaged in a handy bottle with a dispenser that allows you to apply just the right amount to your guitar. When using lemon essential oil from a pharmacy, you will need to prepare several more cleaning compounds and time to apply them in stages. Professional and pharmacy lemon oil should be applied to the cleaned and dried surface of the guitar so that it becomes wet. After that, the guitar should lie in a horizontal position for 15-20 minutes, after which the remaining oil should be removed with a clean flannel napkin.

If your guitar hasn't been cleaned for over a year, you will need to remove all dirt from various parts of the body before using lemon oil. The frets can be cleaned with a steel wool brush or an old toothbrush. Only metal parts of the instrument can be cleaned with brushes. For wood, soft flannel materials or microfiber are used.

If your guitar hasn't been cleaned for a long time, you will need to remove the dirt from it before using lemon oil. To clean you need to prepare:

• light cotton fabric;
• soapy water;
• ethyl alcohol or vodka

Before cleaning, put the guitar on the table on a special stand so that the instrument is in a horizontal position. The strings must be removed from the fretboard or their tension must be loosened. After that, the bar should be treated with soapy water using a white cotton cloth. Wrap it around your finger, moisten it a little in soapy water and wipe the neck with a damp cloth. It is impossible to wet the tool strongly, otherwise the structure of the wood will deteriorate.

You need to process all the frets in stages, removing dirt from them. Loose dirt must be removed with a dry cloth. After using a damp cloth to clean the neck, air dry the guitar for 15-20 minutes. Only a well-dried wooden surface can be treated with lemon oil.

If there is a lot of grease and dirt on the neck, you will need to use ethyl alcohol, which will dissolve old dirt.It should be remembered that you should use such an alcohol solution carefully, since alcohol dries the bar. Be sure to use a fretboard conditioner after the alcohol.

When the neck and body are completely free of dirt and grease, lemon oil can be applied. It moisturizes the wood well, preventing it from drying out. If the body and neck dry out, cracks will soon appear on them, and the instrument will become completely unusable.

This should be done regularly every three months by applying lemon oil to the cleaned guitar parts. After each use, the instrument should be wiped with a dry, clean cloth, and storage should be carried out in a case, preventing the guitar from becoming dusty. You also need to wipe the metal parts of the guitar with oil. This procedure will help keep them from corrosion.

In addition to professional lemon oil, you can use other products that clean the surface of wood:

• ethanol;
• turpentine;
• petrol.

These formulations should only be used when cleaning stubborn dirt and in the absence of lemon oil. They have a number of significant drawbacks and are rarely used by professional guitarists. Gasoline and turpentine smell strong. Alcohol dries wood, dissolves the surface layer of plastic elements and corrodes metal parts. Be sure to use lemon oil after it.

In contrast to these products, professional lemon oil, created from natural ingredients, absorbs well into the wood, gently removes old dirt and nourishes the structure of the wooden parts of the guitar. It protects metal parts from corrosion and gives the tool a pleasant lemon scent. The only alternative to such a tool can be professional wood preservative oils, which are sold in specialized hardware stores in large containers.