Smoke damage

JJunkie

JJunkie

Power User
Hey guys,

There was a fire in my buiding earlier this week. No one was hurt but all our possessions are smoke damaged. Amongst sorting everything out, I was just wondering if anyone can share knowledge about what I should look out for, and if there are any particular cleaning / restoration methods I should request from the restoration guys for my music / electonic gear (i have insurance). I've been chasing up the manufacturers this week, but they so far haven't responded

All my guitars were in closed hard shell cases. I think they should be OK, but does anyone know if the finish can react to smoke soot? I have a Gibson LP sudio with nitro finish, a '94 epiphone LP standard with (poly??) finish, ebmm JPX with poly finish and Maton EMC 325

Axe-fx, obviously...

Dynaudio BM5a monitors.. I know the tweeters are pretty sensitive, Im guessing soot on the woofers wont do the paper any good either.

Anyway, all info / advice appreciated.

Cheers,
Justin
 
I'm glad you're alive, my brother.

I'm no specialist in smoke damage, but here are a few ideas.

Lacquer finishes react with just about everything: sweat, water, and I'm sure soot, too. The longer something stays in contact with a lacquer finish, the further the contaminant penetrates into the lacquer. Fortunately, the damage is only cosmetic. Finishes don't affect tone very much, unless they're ridiculously thick. So clean your lacquer guitars as soon as practical. Isopropyl alcohol is a safe solvent for this.

Poly finishes are pretty inert—they don't react with much. It's still a good idea to clean them up early rather than late.

Depending on what burned, the soot may be acidic or contain other reactive chemicals, or your equipment may have been exposed to reactive vapors. If they were my guitars, I'd strip all the parts off and clean them, using an ultrasonic cleaner where practical.

Soot can form an insulating blanket on electronics, leading to overheating. Isopropyl alcohol makes a good cleaner for electronics, too.

These are just my first-pass thoughts. It's worth seeking out the opinions of people more knowledgeable than I am. Good luck!
 
yes guitars are all good now thankfully.

In all it took about 6 months before we could move back into our home (good job we had insurance, it would have been brutal otherwise)

Oh and in the time that the home repairs were taking place, some complete f*cknut actually broke in and set our place on fire with petrol.

But he forgot to leave before lighting the match so he got burned in the process and ended up in jail (via hospital).

So I ended up having a few more worries than just my guitars.

All good now....
 
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