rosewood fretboard " gunk "...

[DaveDeVille]

i ran a Search on the subject and found a few ideas for cleaning
it off the fretboard { in particular from Bill Cumpiano , thanks to rickbass } ...

i guess my question is " should i remove the gunk ?"
i remember reading an article on James Jamerson , where he
said he never cleaned his fretboard because " that's where the funk is ..".

i recently purchased a 1985 Fender Jazz Special - MIJ - and it looks
like it hasn't been cleaned in 20 years , with deep gunk build up at frets ,
especially around the 5th to 7th frets ...

the sound is ok , but i still need to do a general setup before i know for sure
if i even like this bass well enough to keep .

i understand that it's a personal prefrence , and i've always tried to keep my basses
and fretboards clean , but what is the general opinion around here ,
does the gunk keep the funk ?

[Charles Shores]

Other than in a psychological way, I think not.

[Kronos]

Verdine White is quite the funky player, but his bass is pristine. I say clean your fretboard.

[nemo]

I believe cleaning the heavy gunked fretboard will open up the sound. Funk will still be there, it'll just move from Jammerson to Marcus, in a sense.

[DaveDeVille]

Originally Posted by nemo

I believe cleaning the heavy gunked fretboard will open up the sound.
Funk will still be there, it'll just move from Jammerson to Marcus, in a sense.

thanks for the responses , i cleaned the gunk off and the fretboard
looks very nice ...
i'll post pictures under the "Basses" forum , i'm almost finished with
the cleaning and will do a set-up tonight ...

[SBassman]

I'm not an advocate of Repeatedly cleaning it, but if you say it has some gerf build up, you should clean it off. It will only help, not hurt.

[DaveDeVille]

here's a couple quickie pics of what i have been doing ...




i used a degreaser to clean the gunk off fretboard .
that rag shows what i have taken off so far ..

[Blueszilla]

Nice and dirty, eh? My dad always said, if you want to keep it for long time, take care of it.

You've inspired me, I'm off to clean my...er...bass, yes, my bass, that's it.




Edit: Oh, and the funk is in YOU. Don't clean it.

[SBassman]

Originally Posted by david meissner

i used a degreaser to clean the gunk off fretboard .
that rag shows what i have taken off so far ..

Yikes! Have any idea what the make-up of the Gunk is?
Do you want to know?

[DaveDeVille]

Originally Posted by SBassman4x

Yikes! Have any idea what the make-up of the Gunk is?
Do you want to know?

i think it was a combination of years of nicotine and sweat ...
yuck .

anyway , rather than start a new thread , i think i'll
just post the process here !
there are sixteen pictures , so bear with me ...

first shots are of the rusty , dirty bridge and of the
really filthy headstock ...

[DaveDeVille]

closeup of THE GUNK ...
another of the de-greaser i used to remove it .

[DaveDeVille]

i really had to tear this baby down .

removed neck and tuners and all electronics , and applying
first coat of lemon oil to the fretboard ...

[DaveDeVille]

i removed the pickups and sanded down the pole pieces
...i read that a paper bag has about the same grit as fine sandpaper , and it works !!

i tried my best to clean and straighten out the control cavity .

[DaveDeVille]

i had to sand { after removing all bridge screws } and re-paint the bridge ,
it was really rusty and dirty .
while i was at it , i replaced the plastic knobs with AllParts
black barrel knobs ...
a new set of Elixer strings helped bring it all together .

[DaveDeVille]

here's a couple of body shots after the final set-up ...

[SBassman]

Originally Posted by david meissner

...i read that a paper bag has about the same grit as fine sandpaper , and it works !!

Interesting. Cool.

[SBassman]

Originally Posted by david meissner

here's a couple of body shots after the final set-up ...

Really nice work. Great pics and posts.

[DaveDeVille]

at practice , this thing really sounded great .
the problem with the "P" pickup wasn't really the pickup at all ...
the selector switch had a loose wire , and it was an easy fix .

also , here is a shot of the black neck ...

[DaveDeVille]

Originally Posted by SBassman4x

Really nice work. Great pics and posts.

thanks man , i really appreciate that ...
it took the better part of a day to complete , but it was worth it .

this was the first time i ever tried to save a bass
{ at first i thought it was a p.o.s. }, hanging on the wall at a local pawn shop .


another body shot , and another one of this fine bass
in front of my rig ...

[petch]

Fine work. Looks like a keeper! I had to do pretty much the same routine when I got mine. How come the original owners of this particular model always seem to abuse 'em? The SPCB
(Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Basses) is going to be very proud of you! Congrats!