Cleaning Products

[backer_bassist]

I was wondering what would be the best polish, fretboard cleaners etc to use on a maple (neck and fingerboard) american standard jazz bass???

[62bass]

I like to clean fretboards with naptha (lighter fluid is naptha). It's good at cleaning gunk and grease and evaporates quickly. I use it on bass bodies too sometimes. It won't affect paint or clear finishes, even nitro. But it will remove wax so don't use it if you want to avoid rewaxing. Most of the time I just use water with a drop of dishwashing liquid and a cotton cloth. It is safe for most finishes but I wouldn't use it on real nitro finishes as it could soften them and cause a white stain.

There are a lot of products sold in music stores with fancy names and exotic (according to the manufacturer) ingredients. Most of them are designed to relieve you of your money when the easily available and much lower priced home variety stuff will work just as well. What I just said will inflame a lot of people who swear by the expensive formulations. But I've been playing bass since 1961 and have looked after a lot of basses. If you want to pay for the exotic stuff, that's fine. Most of it won't hurt.

However, avoid using any cleaner or wax containing silicone. Pledge spray wax and most other spray waxes contain silicone. They look nice and shiny for a short while before you have to apply more. But they make future refinishing very difficult as the silicone is almost impossible to remove and paints, varnishes and lacquers won't stick to it. Fine for a cheap instrument with one of the bullet proof finishes that you'd probably never bother to refinish.

I don't wax the back of necks but I do use wax on some body finishes for looks and the slight extra protection wax affords. I use a good furniture paste wax, like Briwax, for that. I've also used Kiwi neutral colour shoe wax and got a very nice shine. Wax has to be removed for refinishing, but it's relatively easy to do with alcohol, naptha or mineral spirits (paint thinner)

[backer_bassist]

my position is that ive never really had to care for a great instrument... only really owned dinged up pieces of crap with "bulletproof" finishes lol...
So i've just gone out and bought this USA Fender.... (I'm in Australia btw, therefore when it comes to generic brands i guess its probably going to be different lol..) and obviously i really want to care for it... i've read somewhere that you should use different products for different finishes, woods etc... is there nothing specific to maple? or even some fancy expensive stuff?

umm these are the specs...
Tinted Neck,
Maple Fingerboard Neck: Satin Finish on Back, Gloss Finish on Front;
Graphite Reinforced Maple, Modern “C” Shape,
(Gloss Headstock Face with Satin Polyurethane Finish on Back of Neck)
as far as the finish goes... im not actually sure what it is... ive just got a black glossy color...

lol i really have no idea

if nothing came up i was just going to buy the fender instrument care kit... but i dont know how good it is etc.. or what im really buying... argh!!

[daffy]

Hi,

The guys at Lakland recommended Howard's products, specifically Orange Oil for cleaning and buffing and Feed 'n' Wax for rosewood fretboards (once a year or so).

I bought one of each - they are about AU$30 each which is very expensive, but they will last years and years.

Best thing I ever did, the finish is fantastic and my fretboard looks and feels great! I also treated my acoustic and electric guitars and they came up as new (I haven't cleaned/fed them for 20 years or so now!)

[Stumbo]

Be sure and use a micro-fiber cloth.