Cleaning

[chaosMK]

Before important shows, I usually do a little maintenance on my Cirrus. Remove the strings and denatured alcohol them, or just put new ones on, wipe the thing down from top to bottom.

Lately I've been using a spray cleaner for guitars, but noticed that it is specifically for cleaning the finish on guitars, not unfinished wood. I havent noticed any ill effects from using it, and it seems to evaporate and not leave a noticeable residue. This probably isnt the best cleaner I could be using.

I am kind of broke right now and was wondering what other options there using basic household products, if anything. I just want to remove the dirt/skin residue from the wood without damaging it.

[MysticMichael]

I use Dr. Duck's Ax Wax. Don't know how well it works on unfinished wood, but all my basses have paint jobs and it works great on them.

It's an all-purpose cleaner/polish/lubricant that you can use on any part of the instrument - fingerboard, neck/body, strings, hardware, etc. And it's less than $5.00. Cheap enough for ya?

MM

[darthplagis]

well i can say fender/maguires set is wonderful its pricey and lasts a while but you get the swirl removing polish (fills in all the scratches and minor dings), the standard polish (shine and smear free) and the mist (works great on the fingerboard it melts the crap from inbetween the frets as well as getting the skin gunk off the body from naked arms or even naked bass player ala flea hehe) its £20 so about $30

[62bass]

Originally Posted by chaosMK

Before important shows, I usually do a little maintenance on my Cirrus. Remove the strings and denatured alcohol them, or just put new ones on, wipe the thing down from top to bottom.

Lately I've been using a spray cleaner for guitars, but noticed that it is specifically for cleaning the finish on guitars, not unfinished wood. I havent noticed any ill effects from using it, and it seems to evaporate and not leave a noticeable residue. This probably isnt the best cleaner I could be using.

I am kind of broke right now and was wondering what other options there using basic household products, if anything. I just want to remove the dirt/skin residue from the wood without damaging it.

Try Windex on a clean cotton cloth. It's made up of water, ammonia and alcohol. It shouldn't hurt anything as long as you don't soak it in and not clean it off. Lots of painters use it for cleaning flat and semigloss latex paint in homes and if it doesn't damage that it will not hurt your bass finish.

I've used it many times on various finishes.

To remove old built up wax I use naptha. Denatured alcohol also works for wax, but it will dissolve nitro finishes (which your bass doesn't have) and nitro pickguards.