cleaning and restringing guitar..

[Dave77]

Hello,

I have just dusted of my Fender Strat having not played it in over a year. It needs a restring a damn good cleaning.. The fret board is covered crap which does'nt want to come off with a normal cloth and I dont want to use harsh cleaning fluids on it, is their anything that will shift the dirt and get it looking like new.

Also.. when putting a new set of strings on how much string should I leave free as I always either end up with too much on the post or not enough!

Thanks.

David.

 

[nealw]

for a rosewood fretboard, lemon oil is the way forward

as for string length, i measure up the ones ive just taken off and go from there and adjust as needed.

 

[Locrian]

String length??? Put them on first then cut them? I have never measured the length of my strings in my life.

As for cleaning it up, you can use mild cleaning agent (you can get some specialised instrument cleaner stuff) and seal the wood with lemon oil.

 

[Chronos-X]

The way I do strings is put them through at both ends and let it have enough length to touch either the lowest or highest string at the 12th fret (whichever is further away) - then bend round, wind and cut the end off.