Whats good to polish the finish?

[Lonely Raven]

I'm picking up some used JS-1000s, and I was wondering whats best for polishing up the finish, taking out scratches, and protecting the finish?

Recommendations?

Thanx!

[rikkbeatty]

Well I was told by my luthier that the best non abassive polish for a guitar surface is spit. I happen to prefer carnuba wax myself though. It leaves a mirror like surface that is easy to clean sweat marks from after a show!! :-)

[EKG]

Steel Wool..KIDDING!!!!!

Rikk's wax method is a good one if it is just to polish it up. But first, I always use a clean soft cotton cloth to wipe away the "gig sweat" with no spit. Maybe fog the surface a little with your breath :wink

There are other methods for trying to remove deeper scratches.

[Kev Brigden]

Originally Posted by rikkbeatty

Well I was told by my luthier that the best non abassive polish for a guitar surface is spit.

Hawk it up everyone!!!

[rikkbeatty]

There are different rubbing compounds that you can use for deeper scratches that go through the clear but not into the paint. I am not sure what they are though. But when all else fails............ have the paint stripped and swirl it!! lol

[Lonely Raven]

Well I'm going to paint one of the two guitars.

I've decided to do a color changing (like the JS-90 I think it's called)
tribal tatoo look on a dark background. I've not decided what colors yet,
but I'll do some tests in photoshop first to see if I'm insane or not.

The other guitar is a JS-1 Inferno Red that is supposed to be a KILLER
player, but I don't care for red guitars, so I'll probably just trade it off
or something.

[Kremlin]

Spit works well on rosewood fretboards but I still wouldn't put it on any guitar worth more than a couple hundred bucks. I use Dunlop polish, forget which number.. It works pretty well. For fretboards I use a qtip and lemon oil, or if it's REALLY grungy (or has mold like one of my boards did) I use mineral spirits, let it dry for 10 minutes, then lemon oil it.

[Rich]

Never use spit on unfinished wood, and it's not a polish, it's just a cleaner

[Kremlin]

I don't personally spit on my guitars.. Well I did once on an old piece of crap that's long gone.

Sorry, the "Dunlop 65 Polish&Cleaner" label led me to believe that it could do both jobs

[Rich]

Most polish/cleaners are petroleum based, and leave this oily residue that takes a long time to fully remove (spit will clear it quickly though). I have several different polisher/cleaners, spit leaves no residue.

(you don't spit on the guitar, you lick the rag )

[Kremlin]

I used to spit on a rag to scrub crap out of my fretboard.. But it started to smell funky after a while, so I just started scrubbing my hands religiously before playing anyways.