I have a HB Fusion-T guitar (a Tele type of instrument) with a roasted maple neck and fingerboard. On traditional porous materials, such as rosewood, I use lemon oil every now and then to clean the finger board and prevent it from excessive drying. Now I wonder whether I should apply the oil on the roasted maple. Any advice?
Doesn’t most maple have a poly finish? Is yours bare wood?
I hope this helps ,Greetings
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No finish, just bare wood.
I have a HB roasted maple neck. Always put a bit of lemon oil on it when I change the strings. It’s fine 
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From what I get, it comes down to whether or not the fret board is finished or not.
If it’s got a finish on it, ya don’t put oil on it. Myself, I have one that way, I use guitar polish on that one.
If it’s bare wood w/o finish, ya do put lemon oil on it. I got 4 of them, they get lemon oil on them, when I change the strings, which is when I break one string, whenever that happens.
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Thank you all for your replies. As I said, the fretboard is bare wood, no finish, so I think I’ll apply a small amount of the oil, as the humidity in my flat is pretty low, especially during the heating season; certainly not each time I change the strings since I change them quite often… 
Hi Tomasz - if you are concerned about low humidity, then I would suggest you address that with a humidity pack in the case or humidifier in the room. If the wood dries then it will lose water, not oil.
Personally I don’t use lemon oil, but I’m sure occasional light use will be fine, but it won’t humidify your guitar.
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I don’t have any maple fret boards, but I thought oiling maple causes it to darken.
Hi Tomasz,
I recently got a traveler guitar* and was surprised to find the maple fretboard bare wood!
Paul, you’re certainly more knowledgeable than I am, but doesn’t the oil act a bit like a barrier, so the wood takes and gives humidity slower than without?
At least, I personnally like the oil because it adds a bit of smoothness to the fretboard.
- I hope I’ll be able to keep it - having to sort out intonation issues before the 30 days to send it back are over.
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Hey Dominique, I suppose it’s possible in theory, but I suspect you’d need a lot of oil to prevent dehydrating the guitar and that wouldn’t be a good idea. Personally I would get the environment right and not worry too much about oil - although a little now and again won’t hurt.
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Plenty of food for thoughts, guys… I’ll definitely have to think about humidifying the air in my room. However I must say in the case of porous fretboard materials the lemon oil did a good job. This is the first time I’ve had a guitar with the fretboard made of roasted maple, hence the question in my OP.
I have a tele with a roasted maple neck & fretboard, and I treat it with nothing. As far as I’ve understood, the roasting process makes for dry wood (sounds logical), so it’s supposed to be dry.
Roasted maple is never finished, and usually not oiled either. ‘Unroasted’ maple is finished. Whether oiling roasted maple would make it darker, I don’t now, but oiling ‘unroasted’ maple probably would as the wood is a) light coloured and b) more porous. Roasting it makes it darker and harder. Or that’s at least what they told me 
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I suggest you contact the guitar manufacturer and get their recommendation.
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Maple = NO OIL
Please don’t.
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Thanks again, as I can see new replies and recommendations. Luckily, I haven’t done anything yet that might turn out stupid The guitar is quite new; I replaced the factory strings with a set of Elixirs which typically last about 3 months on my instruments, so I may be changing them again around the end of January… I preferred to gather independent users’ opinions before making a decision.
Thanks a lot!
A quick search on the web seems to suggest you shouldn’t oil a regular (finished) maple fretboard, but many suggest it’s fine for unfinished (roasted) ones.
Interestingly, both my electrics are maple (one of each)- I always put a bit of oil on my HB roasted neck, but it never occurred to me to oil the finished satin G&L. That would seem weird and pointless.
Maybe also a good time to remind folk that the appearance/feel of fretboards are really just eye-candy anyway 
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