Patchouli oil for fretboards?

[Eddie LeBlanc]

Ahh.... no.....
Spector recommends the Dunlop 65 stuff. But no oil on a Maple Fretboard.

But the Patchouli will eventually make your Spector look like this one.

 

[Discount Bassy]

I've been a fan of Fret Factor Fingerboard Serum. Fingerboard Serum | FretFactor

 

[58kites]

Pure lemon oil will dry out wood.
Lemon Oil is D-Limonene which is a terpine and not good for wood.
Almost all "lemon oil" products are mineral oil with trace amounts of D-Limonine added for fragrance and then yellow coloring (just like the Dunlop 65 product above).
Mineral oil goes on your rosewood fretboard and then comes back out on your fingers over a period of weeks/months.
Linseed Oil is the right stuff for a rosewood fretboard, it is a drying oil and stays in the pores of the wood for a much, much longer time.
Three drops of it is usually plenty to get the fretboard covered, wipe off excess after a few minutes.
For some, there is no need to put anything on a rosewood fretboard depending on your hands, how often the instrument gets played and climate.

 

[wideload]

No. Patchouli oil will polymerize over time and become gummy.

Bore oil is the way to go. A $5 bottle will last you a lifetime.

Not to be confused with boar oil. Nasty, nasty stuff!

 

[lordradish]

A longtime friend of mine recently told me that, Patchouli, of all oils, is an excellent fretboard conditioner. Now I love the smell of the stuff, and it makes my skin mighty soft but, on a fretboard?

Does anyone know if this is accurate?

If I'm going to rub down my neck with that, I should probably also lube my pots and such with some sort of thing that smells like 2 months on tour with no shower. I was a Deadhead when I was younger, but I associate that smell now with people with really bad hygiene. Uck.

 

[Old Fart]

I use Formby's lemon oil for the rosewood boards....

This. ^^^

Another favorite of luthiers is boiled linseed oil. Make sure it is the boiled kind.

 

[vvvmmm]

Seems to me that gun oil might be the best oil for ...


... you know.

 

[Pops OB]

This. ^^^

Another favorite of luthiers is boiled linseed oil. Make sure it is the boiled kind.

Yes, regular linseed oil takes a long, long time to dry, and you sure won’t like the smell it develops. I hate patchouli. Patchouli smells better than rancid linseed oil. And, wait until you feel it! You won’t like that either.

Boiled linseed oil isn’t really boiled, so don’t think by boiling regular linseed oil that will give you what you want. It won’t.

“Boiled” is chemically altered linseed oil, and that makes it dry more quickly. Buy the right stuff.

 

[Copperhead]

I don’t want my bass to be smelling like a dirty old hippie, thank you. I

How did hippies get to be stereotyped with stench ? I was actually alive back then, and hippie hygiene was pretty much as varied as the rest of the general populace in my experience.

 

[Charlzm]

A longtime friend of mine recently told me that, Patchouli, of all oils, is an excellent fretboard conditioner. Now I love the smell of the stuff, and it makes my skin mighty soft but, on a fretboard?

Does anyone know if this is accurate?

I don't know if it's accurate, but I hate the smell of patchouli, so I would definitely say I wouldn't use it.

 

[58kites]

Raw Linseed Oil dries in two to three days and does not dry as hard as Boiled Linseed Oil.
If you want to keep an unfinished rosewood fretboard unfinished, the Raw Linseed Oil would be a better choice.
Three drops of Raw Linseed Oil rubbed on and then wiped with a clean rag will not become rancid or smell bad.

RAW LINSEED OIL

Drying Oils - Gamblin Artists Colors
Refined Linseed Oil 8.5oz for about $9-10 at the Art Supply Store.

How did hippies get to be stereotyped with stench ?
I was actually alive back then, and hippie hygiene was pretty much as varied as the rest of the general populace in my experience.

Agree.
I think movies mostly, or written articles, stories.
Many people have so much manufactured fragrance on their bodies, in their clothes, in their homes ..that any smell from nature may become foreign/offensive to their noses.
My wife's eyes water and she gets choked by the massive chemical fragrances poring off some people.
I would rather smell horse-shilt any day than Bounce Dryer Sheets.

 

[GIBrat51]

You don't need oil on your fretboard. Wipe it with a clean, damp cloth, finito!

oil vs. water

It depends pretty much on where you live. Where KBD lives - and, where you live? He's pretty much right. You can certainly oil your fret board if you want, but it's probably not necessary. Especially if it's a sealed one - like a maple Fender neck - or a lacquered Rickenbacker neck. However... if you lived someplace like where I live? Where 40% humidity is as humid as it's ever going to get - and not very often, either? Unless you want your fret board to look something like this - in pretty short order;
you do need to put something on it every once in a while. I use different things, depending on what the fret board's made of - including a clean, damp cloth on my Fender; my Ricks; and my Kramers with Ebanol fret boards. But, I don't use patchouli oil on anything...

 

[Killing Floor]

Garlic butter with a little Old Bay will smell pretty good and make your round wounds sound a little more like tapes.

 

[MrLenny1]

It only works if you're wearing Birkenstock sandals.

 

[vvvmmm]

Re, Ye Ole Hippie Stench, for me it's the smell of latter-day wannabe's, a/k/a Dead Heads and junkies in the late 70's-to-date that I think of in that regard. You know the type, shoes only when necessary and underwear never? The kind that have last week's dinner in their beards, bra's or on their jeans ... or not, but tie-dye and peace-signs and herb-leafs on everything.

Altho' I must say, the patchouli-girl I referenced above was Goth.

 

[Pilgrim]

FretboardS, at least rosewood, never need oil of any kind. I haven’t oiled one in the more than 50 years I have had electric basses. That includes my 1963 P and my 1964 Gibson EB-0.

And to answer the original question, I really don’t care for the smell of that stuff. Never did.

 

[dr doofie]

TruOil's a finish, that stuff is an unfinished oily wood treatment. They shouldn't be used interchangeably, or expected to be comparable.

You are absolutely right... I was unclear in the post; I didn’t mean I was using the orange oil as a substitute, I just put a thin coat on and wiped it off quick cause it’s over a week til the Tru oil comes in, and I’m playing the bass in the interim.
Thanks for the good eye!!

 

[vvvmmm]

I'm still waiting to hear, "WD-40".

 

[dr doofie]

I just about puked reading the title

Smells like dead people and stoned hippies

Or just stoned dead hippies

 

[Vette1976]

What about the entire body? My Ibanez SRSC805 is maple/purpleheart neck with purpleheart fretboard, mahogany wings. I was leaning towards just a mineral oil as it seems that is the least objected-to oil in all of my reading. Would you bother with the body at all or just do the fretboard annually? Bass is only a year old and still smells like a carpenter's shop when I open the case lol