I recently saw a TV show talking about maintainance of Guitar.. they said to apply Lemon Oil to your fretboard once a month especially to guitars with Rosewood Fretboard.. is it true?

I once ownd a Gibson acoustic with Rosewood Fretboard.. It looks pretty dry but was lefted like that without a problem..

I heard from others that Lemon Oil is not needed and they will actually harm your guitar??

A little confused..

Panda, I defer to an expert here, none other than Jim Grainger, luthier extraordinaire of Custom Fretted Instruments in Sparta, TN. Jim has personally told me, and also stated this on several forums publicly before, that if you PLAY your guitar, that is all the oil that the fingerboard needs. Just the oil that comes from your fingertips.

There might be extenuating circumstances that prevail at times, but that is his general rule, and good enough for me. In fact, what most folks do is OVER oil their fingerboards, which is another problem in and of itself.

So PLAY your guitar, and don't worry about it unless you're seeing some sort of problem!

Gary Collier
Atlanta