Stinky Guitar Off The Bay

[TGwaH]

The other day I bought a Washburn Rover travel guitar off the Bay for a decent price, I figured it'd be fun to take out in the backseat for when I'm not driving on road trips, and to take down to my cabin this summer, where space in the car is always at a premium and a full sized guitar is always too bulky. It came in today (fastest international shipping I've ever seen) and I played it with the strings that were on it and it plays not too bad. Definately needs new strings and a cleaning. However, it has an over powering stench of cheap cigarettes... I'm talking the kind of cigarettes you would smoke as a teenage because you couldn't afford a pack of Players. I've got it up with me in my room now, and the stench is so bad that it now has permeated every corner of my room.

I've spread the inside and outside of the case with Febreeze to air out its nasty stank, but what can I do about the guitar itself?

Edited March 20, 2006 by TGwaH

[weaponepsilon]

Such as the price for dealing on the bay.

Well, febreeze the case or perfume (or whatever) and throw the guitar in and let it set for a while. Eventually it should take on that clean odor. I have a bass that I really like and bought a case for it, but the case was a touch too big. So I was talking to this hippie girl I knew and she was throwing out this egg shell padding that she used as a matteress. I cut a chunk out of the clean half (the northend) and took it home. I trimmed it to fit the shape of my guitar and case and it worked wonders. One day I grabbed out my fav axe and it SMELLED exactly like Patchoulli! I mean REEKED. By letting your axe stew in an aroma, it takes on that exact smell.

[egdeltar]

Stick an open box of baking soda in the case with the guiotar and let it sit for a week or longer. Should absorb most of the odor.

[gripper]

Dry coffee grounds or grapefruit peels. Just depends on what you prefer as your new "odour du joir". Or sumpthin like dat.

Coffe ROCKS!

[Southpa]

Patchoulli

Shudder. Every time I walk by someone wearing that stuff I feel rage. Some smells affect people adversely, to me it is a STENCH. ...and I'm a smoker! I have to hold my breath whenever I walk into Sears dept. store at the mall because of the acre of perfume counters you have to wade thru. Its so strong that I can actually TASTE the miasma in the air.

Anyway, if the Washburn has a glossy, wipeable finish you could give it a good, quick going over with some windex. Shouldn't hurt the finish and does wonders for removing that layer of tar and nic-o-tine. I know that smell also penetrates right into wood, so the baking soda should help, but it still takes a while.

[crafty]

Dryer sheets in the case should do it. Try it for month with three sheets in the case and change 'em out about once a week. That's what my uncle used to do to get the sewer smell out of flood damaged cars before he'd sell 'em to unwitting old ladies.

On the guitar, try scrubbing liberally with Lemon Oil and a soft cloth. Don't put it back in the case until the case is deodorized.

[lovekraft]

If you can find a firm that does fire restoration work, they've probably got access to an ozone chamber - it's usually used for deodorizing expensive furniture or antiques, but you might be able to talk them into slipping the axe and case in with a bigger job. It'll definitely do the job on cigarette smoke.