Mandolin dust - what is it?

[Nashville]

Every couple days I notice that dust has accumulated on my mandolin under the strings; on the fingerboard, in front of the bridge and behind the bridge. By the 3rd day it looks like it snowed. Does anybody else have this or is it just me?

I thought it was my callouses getting ground off but I can't see any difference on my finger tips. My skin isn't flaking on my hands. My head isn't snowing. And how could my left hand finger tips account for all the dust on the top. I'm using a BC pick and it doesn't wear too much that I can see.

Sorry for the silly question, but it's bugging me. I keep a can of air close by so I can blow it clean every couple days.

Theories? Any fellow dust brothers out there?

[Astro]

Exfoliated skin.

But I prefer your term--mando dust.

Coated strings can leave residue as well.

[Marty Jacobson]

Yep, it's skin. Careful with the canned air, that's what they use for checking finishes artificially. If it comes out cold, wait for it to warm up before using it again. And never tilt it far from vertical.

[bigskygirl]

Yuk!

[foldedpath]

Yuk!

Well, at least it's dry. Try playing tin whistle or flute, and you get some wetter byproducts. It's really just condensation (mostly). But try telling that to the person next to you at a session, when you accidentally drip on their leg. Or worse, their pint of beer.

[Ellen T]

The notes accumulate in the air when you play, and when you have finished, they descend again to rest until the next time you pick it up. We all know music is a living thing.

[Bertram Henze]

The dust on the fretboard mimicking the strings seems to point to quiet settling (electrostatically guided) rather than spraying in action. Where is that mandolin when it's not played? Does it lie on its back in the open, rather than in its case where it belongs? And what does the rest of the room look like?

[Ivan Kelsall]

It does seem rather a lot of debris to simply come from exfoliated skin, & it's distribution seems odd as well. If you keep it in it's case,i'd check the inside for any sign of similar debris & definitely give it a good going over with a vacuum cleaner. I'd bet a wad of cash that very nearly all of us have a similar build up over time,but nothing to that extent.
Bertram's question re.where it's kept is appropriate as well. If it's kept outside it's case,it could simply be house dust,but only a Lab test could determine absolutely what it is,& hopefully there aren't any cracks in your ceiling yet ?,
Ivan

[Bertram Henze]

hopefully there aren't any cracks in your ceiling yet ?

Pets make a good dust source, too. Place a cage with a parrot beside your mandolin...

[journeybear]

It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

[Timbofood]

JB, now you're joining in an the "Bogey" appreciation society with Jaycat, JeffD, and I!
The following line is...
"Huh?" Delivered by Ward Bond

Now to the dust issue
I don't know how much is exfoliated skin and how much is pick dust but, both are certainly within the realm of possibility. I would be very leery of using canned air on it, soft artist brush would be safer, no possibility of "freeze burn" or finish damage of any kind.
I used to worry about it but, I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

Eddie- "Mr. Johnson, you're just unlucky."

[Bigtuna]

A little camera brush with the air bulb on it works great for getting it off.

[Bertram Henze]

the "Bogey" appreciation society

Well, Bogey would have had something to say to dust on a mandolin

[Tobin]

I get the same thing on my mandolin, although not nearly to that extent. I just blow it off or dust it off with a microfiber towel.

As far as I can tell, it's just dead skin cells. You'd be surprised how many skin cells you shed during a normal day. You just normally don't see it accumulating because it gets scattered. But much of the "dust" in your house is actually skin cells. It is all in your carpets (if you have carpet), in your bedding, in your car, everywhere. If the internet is to be believed, we shed about a million skin cells per day.

What kind of strings do you use? When I was using Elixir Nanowebs, the coating would start to flake off where my pick hits the strings.

[Nashville]

The notes accumulate in the air when you play, and when you have finished, they descend again to rest until the next time you pick it up. We all know music is a living thing.

I think this must be it! But then my notes are not so cute...

My mandolin is kept in the case always but I've got 8 guitars out on stands in the same room, which don't show much dust, so what's on the mandolin can't be normal room dust.

It must be skin being shaved or flaked off my hands and I can't tell by looking. Maybe where my right hand rests on the bridge, coupled with the pick motion is just shaving skin cells off continually. I have been playing 3-4 hours a day and it accumulates rather quickly so that's why it started to wonder.

[Bertram Henze]

It must be skin being shaved or flaked off my hands and I can't tell by looking. Maybe where my right hand rests on the bridge, coupled with the pick motion is just shaving skin cells off continually. I have been playing 3-4 hours a day and it accumulates rather quickly so that's why it started to wonder.

If that's the case, i.e. the bridge scraping skin off, a ray of sunshine into the room should reveal a cloud of particles around your right hand. We could call it handruff Also, your hand should have developed some sort of callus where the bridge goes.

[OldSausage]

I don't know how much is exfoliated skin and how much is pick dust but, both are certainly within the realm of possibility.

Pick dust? You have 20 square feet of skin surface on the average body, and one square inch of pick at best. But sure, all that dust probably comes from a tiny pick. Why not?

[CelticDude]

Well, at least it's dry. Try playing tin whistle or flute, and you get some wetter byproducts. It's really just condensation (mostly). But try telling that to the person next to you at a session, when you accidentally drip on their leg. Or worse, their pint of beer.

My guitar player sold municipal plumbing for his day job. I told him to come up with a spit-valve, similar to a trumpet's, for my whistle. He never did, though.

[jaycat]

. . . The following line is...
"Huh?" Delivered by Ward Bond

That's the line no one ever remembers.

I'd be careful with the canned air too. Fresh is better for you. Just blow hard on the area. "You just put your lips together and... blow."

[darrylicshon]

Well, at least it's dry. Try playing tin whistle or flute, and you get some wetter byproducts. It's really just condensation (mostly). But try telling that to the person next to you at a session, when you accidentally drip on their leg. Or worse, their pint of beer.

I have played a lot of instruments since started playing violin when I was 11 but i could never get past all the wetness of a woodwind of brass instrument, playing in orchestra i saw them blowing out their spit value, i will keep my beer away from that

[Steve Ostrander]

Maybe it's rattlesnake dust.

[Timbofood]

Sausage, I used to eat up a purple Dunlop in three sets at the saloon, but, you are right far more area on a body. I have a hard,time holding a pick with my derrière and getting any accuracy or volume from a mandolin played back there though. Sometimes it sounds like that's what I'm doing though
When it looked purple and I had not been drinking the Kool-Aid, I was fairly sure it was pick dust.

"Mr. Johnson, are you a good swimmer?"

[Hadji36]

We could call it handruff

Bertram wins. "Handruff" (however gross) it is!

Nice...

[Timbofood]

I like it! Delightfully disgusting!

[JeffD]

Are you using a room humidifier and keeping the mandolin outside of its case? Some of those atomizing humidifiers leave a mineral residue on stuff in the room. Just a thought.