Deodorizing a guitar

[dewey finn]

My guitar reeks of cigarettes from the previous owner. How do I get it to stop smelling?

[Turdus]

you sell it. Seriously.

[dewey finn]

you sell it. Seriously.

So are you saying there is nothing I can do?

[Turdus]

you sell it. Seriously.

So are you saying there is nothing I can do?

Others will chime in with suggestions. I'm an ex smoker. It pisses me off when opening a box, and being blown away by stale (or powerful ) cigarette smoke.

I've never been successful in totally eliminating the smell. So either back it goes, or I sell the item as quickly as possible.

Good luck.

[murkat]

Depends on the finish if it has one.

Tear down the guitar, remove all hardware.

clean it up with naptha.

Buff the finish out with compounds and wax.

Most of the metal parts you can wipe down with

de nature d alcohol to rid of film, residue.

Plastics, naptha as well.

re assemble and setup.

Guitar case, squirt bottle of diluted carpet cleaner

and a wet dry vac.

febreeze after dry out, dry, vacuum again.

[crunchee]

Depends on the finish if it has one.

Tear down the guitar, remove all hardware.

clean it up with naptha.

Buff the finish out with compounds and wax.

Most of the metal parts you can wipe down with

de nature d alcohol to rid of film, residue.

Plastics, naptha as well.

re assemble and setup.

Guitar case, squirt bottle of diluted carpet cleaner

and a wet dry vac.

febreeze after dry out, dry, vacuum again.

This. I've only had a couple of guitars in the past that I had purchased that smelled of smoke, the culprit usually wasn't the guitar, it was the case. Air out, clean, or get rid of the case, and you'll get rid of the smell in most cases IMHO. If your guitar is sticky with tar, then tear it down as above.

[geoff_hartwell]

Right On,

Separate the case and guitar ASAP, and ditch the case if you can.

If it's a non-vintage replaceable case, just go for a new one.

GH

[sledhead44]

Right On,

Separate the case and guitar ASAP, and ditch the case if you can.

If it's a non-vintage replaceable case, just go for a new one.

GH

+1 I agree. I also read somewhere about putting a bunch of dryer sheets in the case. I did this and also let it air out in the garage for several months and it seemed to work ok.

[kenjones]

The guitar: leave the guitar out of the case for a few weeks. Clean the guitar. Naptha works great. Use polish (I like McGuir's Car Polish paste) to buff back to a shine.

The case: Vacuum out the case thoroughly with a brush attachment. Spray the fuzzy interior with Febreze®. Don't soak it, but don't use too little. Leave the case open in your back yard sitting in the sun during the day. Supposedly the sun helps to break down the odor. Bring the case in at night and put 3-4 new dryer sheets in the case. Repeat this for 3-4 days.

[crunchee]

Ozium is good stuff, too. Somebody once recommended it here, and it's my go-to for things that smell bad. It's a 'glycol-ized air sanitizer'. Here's what the can sez:

'REDUCES AIRBORNE BACTERIA, Eliminates Smoke and Offensive Malodors Caused by Airborne Bacteria!' Their !, not mine.

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/index.p...=36453&st=0

[dewey finn]

The case is vintage(?) correct for the guitar but REEKS of cig smoke. I have washed the guitar down and it has helped immensely I will try the tricks for the case though as I don't want to get rid of it if I can avoid it.

[zenmindbeginner]

Give it your best shot cleaning it with something like Clorox disinfectant wipes. Febreze doesn't actually clean anything but traps the odor with a sugar like molecular compound called cyclodextrin, the stink is there but you just can't smell it anymore.

Then, get it in the sun like Ken said, the UV rays will kill all sorts of funky organisms like bacteria, mold and fungus.

If the funk is still there, get some Japanese incense and cut the sticks down so they are very short and stand them up on a plate, light them and then close the case. Sandalwood and Cinnamon should do the trick.

If that doesn't work, send it to me and I'll blow bong hits on it, better to smell like grass then ass.

[gorch]

Would that be an option?

If not, well, send it to me an I'll take care of proper sorting.

[mail4kev]

I've had old used guitars that smelled funky... a 84 Hamer SS1 (my first Hamer) reeked of smoke, a 95 Fender AM strat which plays great but smells of pee (don't ask me why)... and my beloved 90s ESP Kamikaze that just smells weird.

What I did to fix the problem...

1 - Hamer SS1 - It was the case that caused the guitar to stink. I junked the case and bought a new one. Smell on the guitar faded away after a while and some good cleaning. But eventually sold the guitar coz it just didn't work for me .

2 - Pee strat... I can't detect the smell in the case anymore since sunning and febreezing, but the strat still has a weird light pee smell. I don't think anyone's pissed on it before and suspect I will fix the problem if I stop keeping the guitar in the same case.

3 - ESP... Even with repeated sunning, the case still smells funky... its better now but the smell just won't go away. No solution for this one except stop keeping it in the case.

I suggest you keep the vintage case in your store and buy a new case for the guitar. At least that way you won't have a smelly guitar. But you still have the case for nostalgia or when you wanna sell it.

Kev

[Toadroller]

I have an import Standard with OHSC, not fun to replace. I did the sun exposure and put charcoal briquets in the case. You know, Kingsford.

It has helped immensely. I've had the guitar 3 years, and still keep the charcoal in the case. It's not hurting anything. Doesn't smell bad at all.

[Thundernotes]

I've used this on amplifiers I rebuilt to kill off the mildew/smoke/cat piss smells with very good results. Even used it in a case once.

http://www.nokout.com/

[Steve Haynie]

Just start smoking. It's the rock and roll thing to do anyway.