July finished out as our best month ever at TGW. Despite the gas prices and gloomy economic news, we saw a steady stream of very nice guitars and made many new friends for the shop. My personal favorite guitars include a gorgeous Martin 000-21 from 1942. I want that guitar, NOW! The other standout was a spectacular Brazillian Rosewood/Italian spruce 000 built by South African luthier Mark Maingard. Maingards are rare as paisley Yetis in the U.S. but very impressive. The example on my bench had a spectacular fretboard of bookmatched Brazillian!

Some of our customers told us that TGW has received some praise on the Acoustic Guitar Forum in a couple of threads so thanks for those kind words. That kind of notice is invaluable in building our business.

OK, enough of that, let’s get back in the shop and shine up a filthy flattop. Questions about how to keep a nice instrument looking its best come up all the time, so I’ll let you in on my methods and materials.

When I need polish and clean up supplies I don’t go to a guitar accessory supplier, I go to an automotive detail specialty shop. For light clean-and-shine tasks on glossy finishes NOTHING beats a high grade auto detail spray buffed with a microfiber towel. My snake oil of choice is Meguiars Pro Final Inspection. This product is great for fingerprints, beer drool, and all the other routine crud; it’s non-abrasive and has no silicone content.

Stubborn cloudiness and fine pick scratches need a more aggressive cleaner and once again Meguiars has a terrific product called “Deep Crystal” that can be found at Kragen Auto. Deep Crystal is a 3 step system…just buy the Step 1 product. I apply it with a paper towel, rub till it squeaks and buff with microfiber. Deep Crystal #1 is close to magic and has no silicone.

Silicone is a major disaster as it compromises all finish and repair procedures. Nothing will stick to it, ever. Silicone contamination from those silly Lance Armstrong “Live Strong” wristbands became a problem at a certain well-known guitar maker whose name I’ll never mention. It seems many employees on the final sanding line were dragging these wristbands over raw wood just before the finish process began. The manufacturer paid out many many thousands of dollars in warranty claims and lost productivity to repair finishes that would not adhere to the wood.

One last thing for shiny surfaces……sometimes we see sticky residue that standard cleaners or polishes won’t cut. A common solvent available at Home Depot and paint stores is naptha. Naptha is a standby, constant use solvent in all guitar repair shops and it will not damage normal guitar finishes. A few drops on a cloth or paper towel will cut most all gooey, sticky residue. Old fashioned liquid lighter fuel, like dad used in his Zippo, is the same stuff.

The raw wood on fretboards lives a harsh life: skin oils and acids, salsa from that burrito, and more beer drool will take a toll. If you see a little bead of this nasty DNA building up along the frets, it’s time to put on the biohazard suit and get the decon unit ready. Naptha is the frontline. Use a stiff bristled toothbrush (for you gun nuts, grab an M-16 brush… they’re perfect), dampen the bristles with naptha and start scrubbin’ right along the edge of the frets. Wipe off the sludge with a paper towel, let it dry and repeat as needed.

The clean fretboard may look a little dry, so a sparing application of a moisturizing oil is needed. Every guitar tech has a favorite fretboard treatment: lemon oil, orange oil, linseed oil, they all work fine but the key is to just use enough to darken the raw wood slightly. Too much is a bad thing. Just use a little and don’t let it remain on the board for more than a minute, then buff it off with a paper towel. It’s not a turkey so don’t baste it, ok?

Frets often get corroded but can be cleaned up nicely with fine grade woven abrasive (Scotch Brite), but only use fine grades. Grey is the color of the most useful. Stay away from maroon unless you really know what you’re doing. Abrading the fingerboard is not the goal, just a light polish on the frets. Stay away from steel wool… that stuff leaves metal particles EVERYWHERE, especially in the pickups of your electric guitar. I won’t allow steel wool in my shop. Lots of techs use it but they won’t be working at TGW. If you choose to polish up your own frets, mask the fretboard off with low tack tape first. If this seems like too much tedium……it is. Just bring your guitar to me and I’ll make them shine.

There are many cleaning and polishing products marketed especially for guitars and most all of them are just fine. A little trade secret is that many, if not most of them are actually automotive products in a different package, perhaps with a different scent and priced way up there. What you choose is not the issue as much as how you use it.