STICKY FINGERS

When I play my electric guitar for any length of time, and especially when I am playing a show, the fretboard and the back of the neck becomes very ‘gummy’. This ‘gumminess’ seriously impedes the movement of my fingers on the ’board and my hand on the back of the neck. I always try to wipe the guitar down, hoping that it will help, but it never does. Once this happens, my playing goes south badly.

I have tried all of the usual suspects to compensate for this – GHS Fast Fret String and Neck Lubricant, Tone Finger-Ease String Lubricant Spray, Graph Tech Chops Dry N’ Glide Talc – with varying degrees of success. They help a little bit, but in time all they really do is add to the gumminess. The only way I can fix the problem is to remove the strings, clean the fretboard with a small amount of naphtha, relubricate the board with raw linseed oil, and restring. I have fought this problem for years.

For the record, please note that I change the strings roughly every month on every guitar I am currently playing. I also wash my hands before I start to play and wipe the strings and neck every time I am through playing. I am also a relatively clean person!

Any insight or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time. John Seiver, Katy, Texas Aside from having yourself freeze-dried, shrink-wrapped and laminated it looks like you’ve done everything you can to solve your problem. A lot of guitarists suffer from the same affliction. We all sweat to varying degrees when we play and all that salty pore juice is bound to end up on the strings, ’board and the back of the neck. The fact that you live in humid Texas probably isn’t helping the situation much.

Some bass players such as Motown’s James Jamerson never cleaned the filth off his P-Bass’s ’board. He thought it would ruin the tone. Same goes for Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers who won’t allow his guitar tech to clean his finger grease off the neck of his original Fender Broadcaster. So, not everyone views the gummy stuff as a nuisance. Most guitar techs and luthiers will recognise those vile chunks of black gunk that have taken hold of their customers’ fretboards. Sometimes it’s so thick you have to scrape the stuff off with a credit card or plastic ruler.

For our part, we did find an improvement when we started cleaning and lubricating our guitars with a bottle of Dr Duck’s Ax Wax. The sweat just runs off now. It just takes a quick wipe to leave everything looking clean. It’s worth a try as you’ve given everything else a chance. In the end though, your careful and methodical cleaning regime is the most responsible way of protecting your gear.