There is only ONE way to take good care of your Dingwall: ship it to me!!! Ask those who have done so!!! Seriously speaking, if you wipe the body and neck after using it, taking care of the fretboard with lemon oil and the oil finished bodies with carnauba wax and avoiding extreme changes in temperature and/or humidity are of utmost importance (as well as avoiding abuse, falls etc).

Like Fullie says, Wipe it down, keep the fingerboard clean with lemon oil, occasionally treat neck with wax (think Sheldon uses Kiwi shoe polish) as needed, avoid severe temp. changes, you should be good to go. Try this forum links that I've bookmarked on my computer, they are quite helpful - Sheldon's Setup Guidelines: http://www.dingwallguitars.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=530 Back of neck care: http://www.dingwallguitars.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=684 Some misc. threads I have found interesting: http://www.dingwallguitars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21 http://www.dingwallguitars.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=929 http://www.dingwallguitars.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=218 http://www.dingwallguitars.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=407 http://www.dingwallguitars.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=610 I just bought a 8oz bottle of this stuff: http://www.amazonpp.com/lemonoil.html - looks like it will last me forever. Brim

I use orange oil (no pretroleum distillates) on my fretboards. If you have an Afterburner, make sure you don't use anything but a dry cloth on the headstock face. Some of the printing was done with paint pen and is delicate.

There are some places on my ABII where I've just noticed "sweat stains." How should I clean this? I was thinking removing some of the old wax with 0000 steel wool and then refinishing with whatever Sheldon uses. And Sheldon, do you use Kiwi shoe polish for everything on the ABII, including the body, or is there something else? I'm kind of planning on taking everything apart, using the steel wool on the whole thing, then refinishing, and then putting everything back together with an updated pickup (FD-3 4L in the bridge) and some rewiring.

Another thing to be careful with is the lemon oil around the pickups. I used it on my first Dingwall to clean the pickups and it removed the matte finish. I only noticed what happened when I ordered a Mach II bridge pickup and it didn't match the neck pickup. When I removed the original pickup I could see that the unexposed parts were still matte finished. Then when I got two more Dingwalls I saw that their pickups had a matte finish, too. My ABII now has one shiny pickup and one matte pickup.

[quote="nastyn8c":2mcfnxg4]There are some places on my ABII where I've just noticed "sweat stains." How should I clean this? I was thinking removing some of the old wax with 0000 steel wool and then refinishing with whatever Sheldon uses. And Sheldon, do you use Kiwi shoe polish for everything on the ABII, including the body, or is there something else? I'm kind of planning on taking everything apart, using the steel wool on the whole thing, then refinishing, and then putting everything back together with an updated pickup (FD-3 4L in the bridge) and some rewiring.[/quote:2mcfnxg4] Isn't the ABII finish oil, not wax? I would post this in the "Ask Sheldon" thread to be sure. You don't want to trash the finish on your AB. Mark

hmm.. for the ABII body & pickups: probably just a slightly damp warm water rag? Lemon oil will do a number on the pickups as stated above. I use the pure Brazilian lemon oil for the neck and it works great (the fingerboard I mean). Let's see what the man says (Sheldon).

I'm definitely going to wait for Sheldon's reply. I haven't even bought supplies other than the steel wool. I'm planning on replacing my bridge FD-1 with an FD-3 4L. I'm moving the mid freq switch to a push-pull pot and using the switch for the FD-3 4L. I might also install the #1 neck shim (1/64"). With all of that going on, I'm just going to remove both pickups, partly to clean them, partly so I don't have to worry about getting anything (especially steel wool) on them. My goal here is to have a bass that's basically "good as new" - in playability, functionality, feel, and appearance.

Currently we use a polyurethane gel finish for all necks and oil finish ABII bodies. In Canada it's under the Lee Valley brand. In the US and abroad it's under the Behlen Master Gel brand. http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... ,190,42942 http://www.garrettwade.com/jump.jsp?ite ... mID=103633 A little 0000 steel wool (watch that the steel wool dust doesn't get into the pickups or crevasses) and several coats of the gel rubbed in every 4 hours until the finish looks right. Wax is optional. Some like the feel, others find it too sticky. We found that it picked up too many fingerprints so quit using it.

Sheldon - thanks for the answer. My ABII is an older one with the wax neck. Prior to rubbing in the gel, do you recommend getting the wax layer off first? Ive had my ABII for almost 2 years now and have yet to clean the back of the neck. Thanks.