De-odorizing Gear

[diablo175]

Anyone have any suggestions on how to remove potent cigarette smoke odor from a guitar and case?

Febreze seems like a good place to start for the interior and exterior of the case. But what about the guitar itself?

[stonge]

How about an unfinished maple fingerboard? I have a Warmoth tele neck where the fingerboard looks unfinished (like an old Ibanez Jem) and it's grungy but also full o' stank. Not sure how to clean the gray smudge marks between the frets (it ain't reliced just dirty and the stank is shall we say unpleasant).

[Bobby Marshall]

Dryer sheets in a closed case and put guitar in there too if she is stanky. But you should also clean the guitar if it is that rank.

[Silvertone Jockey]

Am I the only one who closes a case once I take the guitar out? Leaving a guitar case open on the ground is a sure fire way to trip on and destroy it.

This reminds me of Star Music in Morristown NJ. That place STANK. Like Cat piss and cigarettes. Bet you can't guess why!

People pissing in the corners and lots of cigarette smoking?

[Steve Haynie]

Those Gonzo Odor Eliminators work in small areas. That might be worth a try inside a guitar case, but if there is a bacteria or micro-source of the smell then you need to get rid of that anyway.

I found mine at Home Depot.

[mhmike]

My Studio's case smells somewhere between a wet cat, a swamp and an old person's knee-pit.

I've tried baking soda, dryer sheets and Febreeze (not all at once). Be careful with the Febreeze, I sprayed too much in and it ended up smelling like you sprayed the donation room of a Goodwill with it, but didn't really help too much beyond making it smell even weirder.

I think the only thing that helped it was sprinkling baking soda in it, leaving it in until I remembered about it, and then vacuuming it up, and also leaving the case out on the porch in the sun during windy days, but even then it still reeks a little (this was this fall). All with the guitar out on a stand, by the way. I'm going to try baking soda + outside in the sun again when it warms up in the spring.

[Steve Haynie]

My Studio's case smells somewhere between a wet cat, a swamp and an old person's knee-pit.

How are you able to reference the subtle smell of an old person's knee-pit? This could be interesting.

[diablo175]

Knee pits and cat piss notwithstanding, I took the case outside to the deck, as it was sunny and unseasonably warm yesterday. Febreze-d the hell out of it and let it air out for 6 hours. Worked wonders. Now the case is oppressively odoriferous merely from 5 feet away as opposed to 15 before.

On a slightly more serious note, it does smell a bit better. A few more treatments and maybe some dryer sheets in between, and that should hopefully do the trick.