Abalone

[warbears]

Hi everyone,
I have a 710 with abalone snowflakes on the neck.  I noticed that one of them is a beautiful white, another is almost the same, but the others appear to be discolored. One is so dark it almost matches the ebony. I have never used anything, nor the luthier that keeps my baby happy, anything but lemon oil on the neck. Any tips to clean or restore the discolored snowflakes?

Mike

[Strumming Fool]

I would cease using lemon oil on the fretboard. On your next string change, trying using 0000 steel wool to clean your fretboard.  (This can be done every time you change strings - the Taylor website will elaborate.) Once annually, you could use some boiled linseed oil to condition your fretboard. This process might reverse the condition you describe, which I presume was not present when you first acquired the guitar. Hope this helps...

[Raven]

If you could post a photo ! Abalone has various colored attributes to it ! Mother of Pearl is usually White ! A photo would better help with the issue !

[ctkarslake]

Ditto the above, I thought the fretboard inlays were MOP (white, neutral), not abalone (multicolored).  I imagine there are differences from piece to piece as well, which is why it looks so good/interesting.  Do the inlays have the same look as the soundhole inlay-pretty sure it's abalone on a 710?  I've haven't had fretboard conditioner discolor any inlays (yet).  Not sure if it ever will.

[warbears]

Will attach a few pictures this weekend.
Thank you for your time.