Is there a way to prevent a wooden guitar from picking up ambient smells?

Question

I played a show last night with my acoustic guitar in an environment that was thick with the smell of fried food, and as a result this morning my guitar smelled like fryer oil. This certainly isn't a problem when I play coffee houses or even roadhouses since I don't mind the smell of coffee or stale beer, but I'd like to draw the line at smelling like old McDonald's.

Is there a way to either safely treat my guitar before a show to prevent smells from setting in, or something I can do when I get home to try and detox it?

Answer 1

Letting it "air out" afterward is probably the best suggestion so far. I wonder how much the smell is getting into the grain of the wood and how much it's actually in the fabric lining of your guitar case? During the gig, can you store your case somewhere safe from the smell? (At the weirdest, stuff it into a giant garbage bag?)

I've have some products that are just small cloth bags of activated charcoal, meant to be put into shoes. They have no perfume of their own and don't seem to "leak"; they ought to be safe to put inside the instrument.

I'd steer away from the thinking you seem to be hinting at about "treating" the guitar before the show—I doubt there's any substance you could spray, rub, etc inside the guitar that would be "safe."

And I guess the obvious recommendations are too obvious—bring an electric, or stop playing shows in Dunkin Donuts/KFC.

Answer 2

The old trick for getting cigarette smoke smell out of your stage suit was to hang it overnight over a bowl of vinegar. Don't suppose that would do a guitar any harm.