A fretboard is the one piece of wood on a guitar your hands touch for hours – and usually the only one with no finish protecting it. It needs very little care, but it needs it regularly. Here is the calendar.
Know your board
Dark unfinished hardwood boards drink oil; lacquered and light maple boards must never see it. If the board has a gloss to it, cleaning is a dry or barely damp cloth – conditioning is for bare wood only.
Clean at every string change
With the strings off, lift the grime line along each fret with a soft cloth and a dedicated fingerboard cleaner. Grime holds moisture against the wood and hides the early signs of fret wear – remove it and problems announce themselves while they are still cheap.
Condition twice a year
Bare hardwood boards want a light coat of conditioning oil roughly every second string change: apply thin, wait five minutes, buff off everything the wood did not take. Over-oiling is a real thing – the board should look fed, never wet.
Mind the winter
Heated rooms in winter pull moisture out of wood fast. Keep the guitar in its case when you are not playing, away from radiators, and let it acclimatise for an hour after a cold journey before opening the case – the finish will thank you in spring.
