When I bought mine I was advised to use egg white to clean the soundboard, but I'm going to leave it as I think it adds a bit of character to the instrument. I was also advised not to varnish or stain the soundboard as it would detract from the sound of the instrument.
N -----Original Message----- From: John Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 13 May 2007 14:54 To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Novice question - cleaning a soundboard. Hi - this is SO basic that I'm ashamed to be asking... but here goes. My little student lute has an unvarnished spruce soundboard. I wash my hands before playing, but because spruce is so light in colour and there's no varnish to repel smudges, I can already see that it might eventually end up looking pretty grubby. Am I right in thinking that taking a damp cloth to the thin unvarnished wood would not be a good idea? Failing that, is there any recommended cleaning method, or should I just come to regard some smudges as part of the instrument's 'character'? To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
