Getting rid of vintage/used guitar smell

[Scootch]

This thread reminds me of an old joke.

A man went to the doctor for halitosis. His doctor about fell over when he smelled his breath.

After thinking for a few minutes the doctor said, "Do this three times a day: Eat one whole raw onion, two whole cloves of garlic and three cat nuggets from the litter box."

The patient looked at the doctor and said, "THAT will cure my bad breath!?!"

The doctor said, "No, but it will help a little."

[guitar george]

Find a safe place to leave the guitar outside for a few days, such as on an upper balcony, and most likely all the smells will disappear. Make sure it is protected from the weather and robbers. Do this when the humidity level is about 40 - 60 %. This also works well for foul smelling guitar cases.

[docwatsonfan]

air hose

seriously... you need to blow that stuff out of the guitar

then I would put that guitar in a case filled with coffee grounds...

my recently bought used 2001 D28 stunk from tobacco.....not anymore after 3 or 4 months in a
case with coffee grounds scattered about randomly....

[ChrisE]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I ended up going the semi-easy route and combined the rice with the baking soda method. I dumped in a decent quantity of rice and poured in a generous helping of baking soda on top of that, put in a rubber sound hole cover, put a piece of tape over the string holes and shook it up intermittently over the course of a couple of days.

Then I vacuumed it out as much as I could (I got all the rice out but there is still some baking soda residue in some hard to reach spots) and then....(drum roll, please)....

Now it smells like wood!

Hopefully whatever was causing the funk was scrubbed off by the rice and went out with it and the baking soda absorbed any other yuckiness. I like to go with the simple option first and it seems like it worked this time.

[SMan]

I bought a Gold Tone Guitar/Mando that had a nasty smell and stuck dryer sheets in the sound holes for a few weeks. Same for the case. Not sure what the funk was but gone now.

[Pitar]

Originally Posted by fazool

Common topic. You will hear lots of wacky ideas (coffee, febreeze, baking soda, etc.)

None of those work.

The only way you can really remove odors is to oxidize the odor particles.

Get an ozonator (ozone generator). A real one, not a toy. You can buy one on Amazon for about $120 or rent one from a tool rental store for about $30/weekend.

This is what hotels use to remove smells (like cig smoke) from rooms and it is the only scientifically-foundational way to remove smell.

I've used one and it was nothing short of miraculous.

There are cautions however. The ozone is a serious respiratory irritant (not deadly just irritating) and it removes breathable O2 from the air (converts it to O3) so pets can suffocate if enclosed with it. I would put my guitar/case/whatever in a car and run it for 4-8 hours. It makes the car smell clean too.

You have to leave a window slightly open so there is a source of oxygen to supply the ozone.

The ages old method of neutralizing stink-foot is a teaspoon full of bicarbonate soda into each shoe, shaken (not stirred), and voila. The first day all odor will vamoose. It tends to make the feet sweat but the compromise is acceptable. Sixteen hours a day in combat boots, the barracks smelled like a hen house until word got around about the bicarb trick.

[guitar george]

Originally Posted by Pitar

The ages old method of neutralizing stink-foot is a teaspoon full of bicarbonate soda into each shoe, shaken (not stirred), and voila. The first day all odor will vamoose. It tends to make the feet sweat but the compromise is acceptable. Sixteen hours a day in combat boots, the barracks smelled like a hen house until word got around about the bicarb trick.

What do bowling alley workers use to keep shoes smelling clean? It's something in a spray can. Might work in a guitar.

How about "Eau de Mahogany" or "Eau de Rosewood"?