Professor Woozle

To quote Baldric, "I have a cunning plan" - it's occurred to me that probably the best non-aggressive means of cleaning the fingerboard gunk will be lemon juice on an old washing-up scourer (well worn so it's less scratchy) and elbow grease. If that does the trick and gets the grot removed then I'll give the surface a rub-over with fine scotchpad, and then give it a good application of linseed oil. If my suspicions about the wood are right, then that'll hopefully show up if there's subtle grain pattern and confirm whether or not it's a lightly figured piece of Brazilian Rosewood. I'll take some before and after photos too.

Xylene is the last resort, it's a good solvent and shifts most things but as is often the case with the best solvents, it's not good for your health - one to definitely use outside or wear an activated charcoal filter mask! I'll try the stiff bristle brush with soapy water first, it almost seems like the former owner not only nearly killed a fine guitar by putting the wrong strings on, but they regularly played with sugar-sticky fingers... Yes, I do use linseed oil on fingerboards after I've cleaned with lemon oil or suchlike. I generally leave it on for a while and keep topping up the coating until the wood doesn't seem to be taking any more in , then wipe clean and give it a good rub with a lint-free cloth.

Thanks for the comments both, looks like diluted PVA will be the way to go, and I do somewhere have a syringe from an old inkjet cartridge refilling kit that would be spot on for injecting it deeper into the crack. I did wonder whether CA might soak in and discolour the timber, and I really don't want to spoil that nice mahogany! Another thing I didn't mention was cleaning the fingerboard - I don't know how it got that way, but there's a load of grey-black gunk clagged all over it which resisted a wipe with white spirit. I may try warm soapy water and a stiff bristle brush, and if that fails the xylene will be coming out! I'm not quite sure what wood the fingerboard is, colour-wise it's the same tone as the rosewood back and sides (where it can be seen under the aforementioned gunk) but with a lot less figure to it. As for finish, I'll keep chewing over what will be best - I do have a spraygun that I haven't used in around 20 years that I keep meaning to dig out, strip down, clean and try. on the other hand, maybe there is some merit in repairing the original finish. The machine head gears look a bit worn too, so I'll keep a look out on fleabay for a decent second hand set of Schaller or Gotoh classicals

Hi everyone, I've been lurking on this site for quite a while now and it's time I finally emerged from the shadows. I've just picked up an Ebay gamble, in the form of a 1970s Giannini classical guitar which has a heel crack, but the draw on this old girl is a Brazilian rosewood body and mahogany neck. The heel crack is courtesy of someone who failed to realise what they'd got putting steel strings on it, resulting in this - So...I'd greatly value opinions from the site membership on the best way to fix this. I'm wondering about mixing up some cascamite and dribbling it into the crack then clamping, or would thin CA be a better bet? I'm also wondering whether to take the heel cap off and put a brass screw or two in to make totally sure the crack stays closed. The other thing I'm chewing over is refinishing it. There are a lot of knocks and dinks in the varnish so I was thinking of stripping back but question then would be nitrocellulose or oil? I've been impressed with the results some builds I've seen here have got with oil, thoughts/opinions anyone?