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My brothers guitar was left in a less than desirable environment and now has a strong musty smell. Oddly, his dobro was in the same place but doesn't have the smell, only a stripped hanger bolt hole.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

The vintage guitar case people always have interesting ideas around this. Search YouTube for musty guitar smell and see if any of them are appropriate for instruments too.

Maybe just a sock with baking soda?


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Is there visible mold? If it smells like mold or mildew, there probably is. You would want to remove all the mold with a wipe down of vinegar water, at least. I have placed many a stick of Nag Champa incense in many a guitar/ case to freshen up the vintage "aroma".

Thinking out loud;
I have never done this in a guitar but there is no downside. It will likley not remove the moldy odor but will kill living spores:
Wine makers burn sulphur inside wine barrels for centuries to kill mold and mildew.
https://youtu.be/3a7wEFhMt8c?feature=shared
While you probably don't want to burn sulphur in your guitar, you could use Sodium Metabisulfite in water, in a glass bowl. Sodium Metabisulfite is common and cheap compound use in wine, and in wine barrels and wine bottles for sanitation. When it reacts with water, Sulphur dioxide is released.

You would add a pinch (rice grain or smaller) Sodium Metabisulfite to a 1/4 cup warm water (glass bowl) and the sulphur dioxide vapor is released. Campden Tablets are cheap and available from any brew shop. You will only be using a rice sized chip off the tablet. It is also in powder form in a little bagget. Your brew shop may even give you a tablet.

Place the water in the glass bowl, the bowl in guitar, add the metabisulfate then cover the sound hole(s)- just add the Meta powder last. Leave for 24 hours, then discard the water down the drain. I've never applied it to a guitar but I've used it extensively, for sanitation, in wine making. The gas is pretty strong, can cause allergic reactions, and is not pleasant to breath, so don't breath it. I would try it in a guitar in a heat beat to kill mold.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

If you have a southern facing window, sunlight will help.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I didn't see any visible mold and the guitar is currently in the hands of a professional. He claims he can get rid of it but just in case he can't I wanted some other options. The baking soda sounds like a good choice to try first. Can't do any harm with that.

Karl's science project sounds like a last resort but if I have to, I'll go down that path.

Thanks for your suggestions.

BTW, the case was thrown in the trash. I hope that wasn't a mistake but it's too late now.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

The only time I ever recommended trashing a case was in the rare circumstance of a cat urinating in the case. That stuff NEVER comes out.

And it wasn't musty, but I had an old Gibson case that had held a freshly painted guitar for a long time that reeked of cheap spray paint. I poured a whole box of "Fresh Step" kitty litter in it and shook the case around and turned it over every day for a week or so. Then I poured out all the kitty litter and blew the case out with compressed air. Now it smells like laundry soap, but it's an agreeable odor - not one that makes you gag.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Yeah, that would only kill mold.
A spritz of unscented Dead Down Wind will kill odors originating from mold, mildew and bacteria too. I've never sprayed it in a guitar....but I would.

https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Down-Wind-F ... r=8-8&th=1

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I bought a 1976 Gibson ES 175 several years ago. It was/is mint but it stunk like an old, musty instrument. The case was the worst offender.

For the case I bought a bottle of Poof from Amazon (as seen on TV) and it eliminated 90% of the case smell nearly at once and it's stayed that way over a year now.

The guitar was not so easy... I tried dryer sheets, forced air in one F hole and out the other for months and months and surrounding it with air fresheners.

I tried activated carbon bags on strings inside the instrument.

What resulted was a stinky 175 that not only smelled old but now smelled like dryer sheets

Dave said hang it and give it time. So I did and in about one more year's time with some gentle air movement past it it no longer stinks as bad and only has a hint now. The case I only keep for vintage purposes and will not put the guitar back in this case because it still stinks just not as bad.

The experience that I had is it takes time and any fast remedy may impart it's own smell to it and that could be worse. I stayed away from ozone as that can make an instrument fall apart.... and I did not want to spray Poof inside a vintage guitar not fully understanding how or why Poof works.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I remember that many years ago on the OLF there was thread about this. It's probably very deep in the archives…

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

My daughter's dog got into a carton of milk in her car a couple of years ago. She vacuumed and shampooed the rug etc. but it still ended up smelling godawful. She checked with some detailers who quoted her $250 to de-odorize. She managed to get the one detailer to sell her the product they used for $50. I mixed it up for her. A two part mix if I recall in a small container. It even came with hazard signs to hang on the car windows for the 24 hours that was recommended it sit in a closed car. It was unbelievable how well it worked. Not sure if having a guitar in the car during the process would have helped or damaged a guitar, but it had no effect on anything in the car other than removing the rotten milk smell.

A shop I knew that rented "Band" instruments used - Windex - to clean and deodorize the plush lined cases and then allowed them to dry in a sunny spot. This seemed to work pretty well.