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Get the funk(smell) out

H

Hiking Viking

Guest
May 28, 2018
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#1
As I am new to playing bass at the tender age of 53, I'm going to probably be asking this group a lot of really stupid questions so..
I bought a bass from Craigslist, the the guy had two old German Shepherds so the house smelled like dog. didn't think much of it . But when I got home it smelled like the dog had been living in the guitar case with the bass I mean it was really strong. any suggestions on how to remove this smell from the guitar and the case?
Thank you
 
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#2
Best one - take the case outside, burn / dump in trash, get new case.

Remove strings (I'd suggest new ones as the funk will be trapped deep in the windings, and being me, I'd suggest tapewounds) and completely clean the bass, leaving it outside in the sunshine whenever possible. Do not associate it with a case until it and the case are both dog-stench free. Take some lemon oil to the fretboard, you'll be amazed at how much crud comes off most basses - it's much easier to do a good job with the strings off. What you clean the rest of the bass with depends a lot on what the bass is finished with - typical polyurethane finish is tough, so most household cleaners are fine, nitrocellulose is fussier and someone other than me could better advise about that.

Down several notches - place open case outside in the sunshine. Vacuum the heck out of it, dump in a pound of cheap ground coffee, close it, shake the case all around, leave it for several days, vacuum the heck out of it, leave it in the sun some more. Bring in, put a large amount of of baking soda in a shallow open box or on a sheet of newspaper (you want maximum exposure, not just ripping the top off the box it comes in) close and leave for a few days, open and dump the baking soda, case back in the sunshine. Baking soda is more prone (than coffee grounds) to get stuck and be hard to vacuum out if in direct contact with the "case fur."

Try some "pet odor eliminator" spray from a pet store or the pet aisle of a box store.

Still bad, move to cedar shavings, or rent a steam cleaner with a hose/small head intended for doing furniture (rather than just being set up for floors) and do that early in the morning on a day when you can set it out to dry.
 
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#4
Hiking Viking said:
As I am new to playing bass at the tender age of 53, I'm going to probably be asking this group a lot of really stupid questions so..
I bought a bass from Craigslist, the the guy had two old German Shepherds so the house smelled like dog. didn't think much of it . But when I got home it smelled like the dog had been living in the guitar case with the bass I mean it was really strong. any suggestions on how to remove this smell from the guitar and the case?
Thank you
Click to expand...

Welcome to TalkBass!!!!

Nothing..... and I mean NOTHING has ever worked better than sunlight and fresh air for getting smells out of bass gear, in my view. I did a zillion gigs back in the days of smoky bars. I tried everything to get smoke smells out of my cases and basses. Then someone told me to set them outside. It took a few days, but it did the trick.

Over the years I figured out some tips.

When it comes to the case, set that sucker out in the high noon sun. That UV light will kill the smell in a matter of two or three times of setting it out. In my experience, it actually makes the smell WORSE the first time. It somehow stirs the smell up. But the second and third times it goes away. I have a screened in back porch. So I'll usually set mine out in the sun during the heat of the day, and then put it on that porch (open) overnight.

When it comes to the bass, I would pop a wall hanger in the side of a tree trunk in your yard if you have any. I do mine facing the setting sun. That way the bass isn't getting high noon sun and possibly messing with the finish. I will set the bass outside in the shade even in the middle of the day. But then I'll hang it on that hanger closer to sunset. I have even turned the bass with the back facing the sun a couple of times. Again, after a few times setting it out, the smell should be completely gone.

No tricks. No chemicals. Just good ole' sunlight.... and a little bit of time.
 
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#6
I bought a used P Bass that must have sat in someone’s musky basement for years because it stunk of mildew.

At the time, I didn’t have the luxury of trying the outdoors (without the likelyhood of never seeing the bass again), but did try a few things - I think I tried Dunlop’s fretboard cleaner on the rosewood board and that orange wood cleaner on the finished wood; also tried letting it sit near grinded coffee beans, vinegar, baking soda, bounce dryer sheets and other tips I ran across but none of that worked (for me and my stench anyway, but it seems that different scents need different solutions).

After a few months of never putting it back in the case, it got a bit better, but it was still there.

I hope you have better luck than I did. This instance, unfortunately, made it harder for me to buy used basses comfortably.
 
#7
Matthew_84 said:
I bought a used P Bass that must have sat in someone’s musky basement for years because it stunk of mildew.
...
but none of that worked (for me and my stench anyway, but it seems that different scents need different solutions).
Click to expand...
The problem with mildew and not being able to put it in the sun (take it to a park and sit there and watch it, if need be) is that mildew is more than a smell, and you need to kill the mildew (which sunlight will do - it's rather more difficult to get a UV lamp with the ability, since they are also dangerous to people.)
 
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#8
T_Bone_TL said:
The problem with mildew and not being able to put it in the sun (take it to a park and sit there and watch it, if need be) is that mildew is more than a smell, and you need to kill the mildew (which sunlight will do - it's rather more difficult to get a UV lamp with the ability, since they are also dangerous to people.)
Click to expand...

Appreciate the feedback. I wasn’t smart enough to sit with it the whole time. Perhaps I should have tried that. Thanks.
 
#10
Hiking Viking said:
As I am new to playing bass at the tender age of 53, I'm going to probably be asking this group a lot of really stupid questions so..
I bought a bass from Craigslist, the the guy had two old German Shepherds so the house smelled like dog. didn't think much of it . But when I got home it smelled like the dog had been living in the guitar case with the bass I mean it was really strong. any suggestions on how to remove this smell from the guitar and the case?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Place a drop or 2 on a piece of cloth and leave in your case a day or so...hope you can find some where you live. its great stuff. Use sparingly though...1 or 2 drops. It really works and quite inexpensive.
Nilodor.JPG
 
#16
Try Zep odor remover. It's a spray designed to remove cigarette smoke but they list pet odor as one use. You can get it at a hardware store.

I used it to remove cigarrette smoke odor from an amp and it worked very well but I literally had to rub it in with a cloth on almost every surface inside and out.

I don't know if it's finish safe so I wouldn't put the instrument back in until it dries completely.

People must think I'm nuts but when I buy used gear I always smell it now because it was a big pain to deal with. However, for a case I would probably just throw it out and buy a new one if you can't get the smell out 100%. It will hit you in the face every time you open it up.
 
#17
I agree with the several hours of sunshine and air suggestion and add this: get some activated charcoal (aquarium supplies is often the source that's easiest to find), put a few ounces of it in a couple cloth bags and leave them in the case for a few days. Activated charcoal absorbs odor and has no odor of its own.

My wife is a fan of Febreeze but I haven't tried it on anything like a case. Nature's Miracle, mentioned above, is a good candidate as well. Dog smells are much easier to treat than cat.
 
#18
I bought 4 cases from a "buddy" 3 of the 4 were fine, the fourth had a stench that I couldn't describe. I left in in the sun for more than a week, tried professional odor eliminators, closed it up with dryer sheets, eventually got fed up and stripped out the whole case thinking I'd use the shell of the case for something. The innards I removed reaked, and after everything was out of the case and all there was was bare plastic.... it still stunk. 1 year later it's still sitting in my garage. I'm afraid to open it again thinking that I'll find a portal to Hell.

Buy another case, and get that one exorcised.
 
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