I was going to clean up my frets a little bit with a new string change, had previously used the paper that comes in the dunlop 65 kit they sell everywhere. I went to the local shop and they said they had something way better, they'd been turned onto it by Bob Dylan's guitar tech. Fifteen bucks got me Gorgomyte, the Fret & Fingerboard Cleaner and Conditioning Cloth (Endorsed by Styx - Yippee.) They said it'd clean up your fingerboard too, and this is a shop specializing in high-end vintage stuff (McKenzie river music in Eugene, Oregon) so I figured they knew what they were talking about and picked it up.
I figured it'd do the board, but I'd still need to mask my frets and do steel wool or fine paper to get em really shiny, but man was I wrong. You cut a little 2 inch square out of the stuff (there's probably enough for 15-20 uses in total) and just wipe over everything on the fretboard, wait a few seconds then buff it out with an old t-shirt.
Amazing, the frets were BRILLIANT, fingerboard was clean, it took out grime from under the frets that I didn't notice was there until I'd gone over it. All this in less than 5 minutes, I could have spent hours masking the fretboard off and scrubbing. Jazz bass control plate became a mirror in 15 seconds. Took the developing rust off the pole pieces on the pickups (covered that with some nail polish as suggested here).
I was really surprised there is no mention of it on TB. I highly recommend this stuff. Totally non-abrasive so you can use it on a maple board. I'll never have to deal pain-in-the-neck masking, dremmeling, or steel wool filings all over the place. It's so quick, it'd be hard to neglect your bass, just one use on one bass probably saved me an hour of work. (For all of you 10+ bass owners, it could potentially save you weeks
)
They have a website -
http://www.gorgomyte.com/, you can buy it direct for $15, and GHS distributes it as well. They have a ton of high-profile endorsees, including the Fender Custom Shop.
