Heavy smoke and soot damaged guitars.

[JT11]

There was a fire in my father's business premises, he is a luthier. Where a big number of guitars were, all acoustic. The outside lacquered and the inside raw wood. There is quite a bit of smoke damage and soot damage. But fortunately the guitars have not been in the room of the fire.

One professional cleaning company came by. And they told us that all guitars are so specific and valuable that they don't dare to take all the time it will cost to clean them. And say it isn't even possible anymore. This too because the smell would never go out. And the soot is in all bodies. There were guitars in a display cabinet that also contained soot and smoke and the ones on the floor in the room were exposed to the most smoke, soot and heat.

The question is whether people here have experience with cleaning acoustic guitars and whether this is possible? Can the soot from the bare wood be sanded on the inside? And how long does it take for the soot smell to go away? Are we talking years or months? Because in principle the guitars can go back, but we wouldn't want to take the gamble if no one ever wanted to play on a smoke-smelling guitar again. And if the soot cannot be removed from the bodies.

How long does the smoke/soot smell stay in guitars?
And if someone has experience with it, is this even cleanable?

All information is more than welcome and helps us a lot!

Pictures of the damage:
https://imgur.com/a/6siYbEW

[JayBee1404]

Sounds like an insurance claim to me.

[Jamolay]

Wow, what a loss! I imagine they will be quite time consuming to clean cosmetically, and virtually impossible to clean inside.

I agree with the insurance claim. Get what you can, clean and sell at a discount.

[tadol]

I would start with a simple gentle soap/water wipe down - see how clean you can get the exteriors. The smoke smell is going to be hard to remove, maybe impossible to remove entirely, but there have been a number of threads about removing smoke smell from guitars, and you might look for those and make some determinations as to which techniques are worth trying, especially when applied to a large number of guitars.

If the finish is damaged, you’re probably looking at full or partial refinishing, and whether thats worth it would probably be a case by case determination.

Your insurance company may decide to just write all or some of them off. I’d figure that out before going too far -

[drive-south]

I agree with soap and water in the outside. If that doesn't work naphtha would be next.

Inside the guitar, rice or baking soda would absorb some of the smoke and odor.

[AcousticDreams]

Before trying anything...I would give Stewmac a email.

If there is a specific cleaning agent for this type of situation...they will most likely know. But even if they have never come across this type of need before...I would still bet, with all the years of knowledge and situations they have been through, that their suggestions will be one of the best.

I am not affiliated with them in any manner. But I have watched many of their repair videos and purchased some of their luthier tools.

[weltyj]

I had a les paul electric I bought used, previous owner was a smoker.

It took about 5 years for most of the smoke odor to go away from the case and guitar. By that I mean when I opened the case it was just a faint odor.

After 10 years the odor was completely gone.

HTH

[rmp]

I'm one who's HAD a house fire (March 2020) I can tell ya soot is not all that easy to clean off. Luckily for me, the only items that were exposed to soot / smoke damage was electronics.

I too think you are looking down the road of an insurance claim



The chore of removing the soot from my sound board (which was new at the time) pedals, and some small amps I had to use Magic Eraser nothing else worked. Some of the things I didn't toss till later on, still smelled, over a year and half later

In your dad's case, the soot will have gone everywhere places you can't even reach. That stuff is insidious.

unsealed things like rosewood fingerboards, bridges, inside of the guitars, frets,, ugh..

[smittybat]

I would clean them thoroughly and run a few sessions with an ozone generator.

[kmtyb]

Commercial Ozone Generator, 5000mg/h O3 Machine Home Air Ionizers Deodorizer for Rooms, Smoke, Cars and Pets, Blue

This will work and you can purchase this from Amazon for less than $100

[rmp]

Originally Posted by smittybat

I would clean them thoroughly and run a few sessions with an ozone generator.

so... did you ever try to clean soot from a house fire off things?

I'm telling ya,, it's not anything at all like you can even imagine

[ewalling]

I read that as 'snot-damaged' first time round. Now that would have been grim!

[Peter Z]

I might be the only one here, but I loved camp fires and BBQ since my childhood and wouldn’t mind the smell. Of course the guitar should be structurally ok.

[baseball]

First; I have been painting things for close to 40 years. Lacquers, clears epoxies and regular House paint, modern conversions etc.

I had a piece of furniture from a home that had a fire.
The home owner asked me if I could refinish AND get the smoke smell out of his favorite desk. It was a roll top with a bunch of little drawers and compartments

Ordinarily we use Metallic paints to get rid of smoke but this was a 100+ year old heirloom

I disassembled it as far as I could, and I sealed everything in SHELLAC. it locked the 'stank' in there.

Shellac is one of those old fashioned forgotten about magic things. It is one of the best sealers in the world, is sandable, lasts for a long time and sticks to almost anything. AND it is one of the best 'Vapor locks' in the world.

I have experimented a lot with it...it even sticks to Lacquer and other clears. I sealed one of my bats with it and save a small worn spot on the sweet spot, looks great after 18 months and I even accidentally left it in the rain once

So...if after cleaning they still smell I would roll (they make really little ones) a super thinned out coat of it carefully in the guts. Like 60/40 Alcohol/Orange shellac.

Just an idea. I have used it on inexpensive guitars for repairs after glue and sand jobs.. never had problems with it.

Never done it on an expensive guitar BUT I would if I had that problem. If it's a question between losing it or not being able to play it. Also, it doesn't seem to inhibit vibration.

[baseball]

Oops . I didn't see the photo link. I would add the asterisk being "That was for a regular flat top guitar with a soundhole"

i don't know anything about getting access to the guts of ES style, old school guitars.