Fretboards Before and After Cleaning

Folks, I cannot stress enough on the importance of keeping your guitar's fretboard clean, and free of any kind of crud or gunk. Most of this nasty stuff consists of congealed sweat, salt and acids from one's hands. And being organic, it provides a fertile breeding ground for various bacteria and fungi. 

When discolored patches begin to appear, especially on maple fretboards, it almost always signifies the onset of wood decay. In more severe cases, I've even had to excise decayed wood from fret slots, graft in solid wood, and re-cut the slots. This was because the affected frets kept popping out, their tangs having nothing much to grab on to.

End of sermon, then. I spent the better part of the day cleaning dirty and grimy fretboards on two instruments, an unpleasant task indeed. One was a Chord ED15BLS acoustic, and the other a Yamaha EG112 HSS S-style. I had to be really careful with the ED15BLS because the fretboard wasn't naturally dark, but dyed to appear that way. Anyway, here are four before and after pics for your perusal.

Before and After Cleaning - Chord ED15BLS

Before and After Cleaning - Yamaha EG112