raw rosewood wear & tear?

[rlscherer]

Hey,

I am wondering how a raw all-rosewood neck ages, responds to sweat, handles normal wear & near, etc.

I tend to gunk up my rosewood fretboards with whatever comes off of my fingers, and I think I read somewhere that people with acidic sweat have stinky rosewood necks. I have no idea if I have acidic sweat (my strings seem to last a normal amount of time), but my fingerboards are always gunky looking (of course, I am lazy and would rather play a guitar than clean it). If only someone sold a pH kit for your finger sweat.

I would love to take the plunge on an all-rosewood neck, but a weird voice in my head is telling me that I'll have bad luck and be the one with a grimy, stinky neck in a year or two.

Any experience, advice or tall-tales is appreciated!

thanks,
RLS

 

[AutoBat]

I'd use Ernie Ball wipes.  It keeps my Ebony fretboard clean, moisturized and looking/feeling great.
http://www.amazon.com/Ernie-Ball-Wonder-Fretboard-Conditioner/dp/B000P5M062

What's the difference in care between a rosewood neck & a rosewood fingerboard?  same wood.  just because it says it's for 'boards doesn't mean that's the only thing it'll work on.
The target audience is looking for fretboards and probably aren't even aware that you can have exotic necks without a hard finish.

Dunlop has a similar product, "65" i think is the name.

 

[rlscherer]

Does raw rosewood oxidize or otherwise change over time?

thanks,
RLS

 

[back2thefutre]

I wipe mine down with lemon oil every few months to clean off gunk build up and stickyness. Comes right off. Not a big deal

 

[keeper006]

I have a rosewood neck on my VIP that's 5 yrs old and it still looks new (I'm a daily player). Of course, I don't have stinky sweat  :laughing7: I think you'd be happy with it. Here's a short article on care,
http://www.peerlesstone.com/node/55
I use linseed oil and wipe it down maybe twice a year and the rosewood looks better than any of the other kinds of necks I have. It also has a nice warm, deep tone compared to something like a maple neck. Everyone discusses the tone woods for bodies, but I think the neck wood choice is equally important.

 

[simple]

I have a Brazilian Rosewood neck and it has held up to a lot of weekend abuse/gigging over the last couple of years. Brazilian is denser than Indian but that said, we haven't had reports of Indian not holding up well. (BTW, linseed oil not recommended by Ken Warmoth for cleaning necks). I clean mine with a small shot of Formby's Lemon Oil every couple of months and it seems to work great. Not a bunch of gunk happening on my neck.

 

[gstring120]

I use the Dunlop '65'.  Works great on rosewood.

 

[Steve_Karl]

I tried the Dunlop 65 and also Formbys lemon oil on ebony, padouk and bloodwood.

I like the Formbys better on all 3.