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Location: Central Oregon | I've been using Dr. Duck's Axe Wax & Sting Lube on my guitars for a few years now. It's great for string lube & it seems to be a good polish, but it has zero cleaning action. On the other hand, it doesn't leave any waxy build up either. For cleaning & waxing I use Lemon Pledge. It removes the sweaty smudges from the front of my guitars where my arm touches the front of it on these hot days. Dr. Ducks won't touch it, but the Pledge takes it right off. This seems to be working ok for me but I'm open to suggestions.
What do you guys use?
Nils |
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Location: Netherlands | Last week as I was cleaning the pot of my ultra, it occured to me that if contact cleaning spray makes rust go away from electrical contacts, it does the same to guitar strings, so i tried on an old set of strings (strung my Ibanez with those) and it seems to work. No lubrification however, 'cause it degreases as well. Just put a little on a cloth and clean them one by one.
Oh, BTW, it makes a terrible squeakin'noise, something like scratching your nails over a blackboard.
Martin |
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Location: Scotland | Lemon Pledge & similar products should not be used on instruments as they contain an abrasive, try a proprietary guitar polish such as Dunlop.
Most of the commercial string cleaners like FastFret & the like leave behind a residue which actually attracts crud to the strings. The best thing I've found is Stringlife.
www.stringlife.com
I have very acidic sweat & can kill a set of strings in a matter of minutes. With this stuff I can get 3 gigs out of a set of strings. |
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Location: NJ | I used martin guitar polish for years and still have a couple of bottles os the "old formula" my new fav is dunlop. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I'm using lemon oil, and was using fast fret on the strings. Have to reconsider that fast fret now in light of PT's comment. |
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Location: Scotland | Lemon oil is good for occasional use on unfinished wood such as bridges & fingerboards but shouldn't be overused. |
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Location: Central Oregon | Thanks guys. I'm going over to pick up my Elite this evening, I'll see what they have in the way of polish while I'm there. I'll also give my new O a good looking over before I leave the store, it better still be pristine.
Nils |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Dunlop 65.... you'll never use anything else after you try it. |
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Location: Central Oregon | While I was at the shop in Bend picking up my Elite I asked Steven what he had in the way of guitar polish. Guess what? He had Dunlop 65, so I bought a bottle :) (Only $5.95, I was surprised.) I'll try it out after while.
I wish I'd had it last night when I cleaned & restrung my 175 but oh well, I'll use it next time. It's been getting Lemon Pledge for 15 years so I don't suppose one more time will hurt it. It did do a good job of cleaning it.
I put the new 12's on it while I was at it. It's a *tad* harder to play, but not much, & it sounds quite a bit better unplugged. I haven't tried plugging it in with 'em on there yet.
I played that blue Adamas again while I was there, damn that sucker sure sounds nice! Steven told me to give him a call an hour before I come back over & he'll have it set up when I get there. He also said they could sell it for a lot less than it was marked. Uh oh.....
Btw, I have really learned a lot from this forum & I would like to thank all of you who have given your help & advice! Thanks folks! :D
Nils
P.S. I mentioned the OFC to Steven & he has heard of us but I don't think he's been here yet. I'll have to figure out how to send him a link. |
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Location: Central Oregon | I tried some of the Dunlop 65 on my Elite. Great stuff, thanks!
Nils |
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Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | I've used a couple of product from the fine folks at FORMBY'S for years on my guitars with great results!!
http://www.formbys.com/maintenance.html
I use the Build-up Remover with an old t-shirt to remove & clean any dirt,grime,wax,sweat,snot, drool,etc. everywhere on the guitar then I use the Lemon Oil Treatment on the fretboard!!
I use to use a guitar polish after cleaning but it always seem to leave a "film" on the top so now I just wipe the "crud" off with the Build-up Remover and keep a piece of the old t-shirt in the case so I can wipe the smudges off before I put the guitar away! Works Great!
. . . . . . .
Care & Common Sense when using these products means just "dampen" the cloth to clean with. Don't use a "sloppin wet" rag and "drench" the guitar (especially the fretboard)but gently clean the surfaces - Then you can apply polish if you like - Give 'em a try (You can find FORMBY's products at Home Depot or Lowes - A 8oz bottle goes for about $7.00 each and lasts FOREVER!!)
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Mike :cool: |
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Location: Wooster, Ohio | I know I will probably get pounded for this. I use Trewax clear paste wax on my neck as per Ovation's instructions. I have used it on the sound board as well and it worked very well. I have a 1993 collectors with a satin finish and the wax seems to keep it nicer longer.
Steve |
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Location: San Bernardino, California | GUACAMOLE!
Sorry, couldn't resist. |
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| I recommend reading this before smearing anything on your guitar.
Mike
From Frets.com |
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Location: Central Oregon | Interesting reading Mike, thanks.
Nils |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Terrible guilt
I haven't used anything except cleaning with paper towels when they get messed up, on my vintage guitars for years, I used to use Martin's polish, but I lost it or something 20 years ago. Should I throw those neglected instruments away (they still sound and look good)? |
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Location: Central Oregon | Originally posted by Bailey:
Terrible guilt
I haven't used anything except cleaning with paper towels when they get messed up, on my vintage guitars for years, I used to use Martin's polish, but I lost it or something 20 years ago. Should I throw those neglected instruments away (they still sound and look good)?
Yes, I think you should send them to me for proper disposal.
Nils |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Nils
I must warn you, I worked for 18 years in a nuclear plant building reactors and other strange stuff. If I send you my neglected instruments and your house starts emitting a blue glow like our TRIGA reactors did when we pulled the control rods, all I can do is tell you it is a form of radiation where subatomic partcles approach, or exceed, the speed of light. It may be too late to save those exposed to this phenomena. I think it was called Cherentkov radiation if you have to put a name to what ravaged your family. I missed the spelling on cherentkov, but he theorized, with full acceptance in the scientific community, that some particles could EXCEED the speed of light in a reactor under certain conditions, and it is accepted that he was right, the blue flash proved it.
Bailey
PS A TRIGA reactor was designed to shut itself down if the moderation (control rods) failed. The fuel, a mixture of Zirconium hydride and Uranium had a characteristic whereas the loss of moderation created a reaction that in microseconds shut down the reactor. We built close to 100 of these for universities all over the world. The fun part was that the reactor was submerged in a pool of pure water and the control rods were designed with a compressed air system that would blow them out of the reactor. Immediatly the water would turn a BRIGHT blue and for a few milliseconds enough energy to power New York City would be released along with boucoup nuetrons whic are useful for converting various elements to useful isotopes. Something universities find very useful. |
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Location: Central Oregon | Aw c'mon Bailey, you're just trying to scare me. I know that Cherentkov was the navigator on Star Trek, Zirconium is them there fake diamonds they sell to old fat ladies on the shopping channel & TRIGA was Roy Rogers' horse. I ain't a'scared!
Nils
P.S. Is your real name Homer Simson? |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Nils
Doesn't everybody on this board have 3 hands with 4 fingers that they use to count in 12 bit binary (like the old PDP 8's). I can scratch my ass and never miss a beat in Orange Blossom Special at full speed. There are some advantages to 17 years in the nuclear industry. Sometimes it's not so good, I wrote a song called "I Don't Think Hank Done it Thisaway" and it was turned down by Waylon. He didn't like MY line:
"a five piece band looking at the back side of me
and me staring back with my eyes on the backs of my knees"
Some other guy made a few changes and it became a hit. |
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| Bailey,
Have you ever spend any time at Diablo Canyon, SONGS, PVNGS, ANO, Comanche Peak or Indian Point?
Mike |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Mike
No, those are conventional nuclear sites. We were designing High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors with graphitic fuel as the next generation of nucleur power, these would operate at temperatures much higher than the GE boiling water reactors using superheated steam just like modern coal and gas fired generators. We built a demo 33 megawatt at Peach Bottom, PA that went through it's cycle and was demoed because under modern rules it was on a flood plain. We built a 330 megawatt at Ft. St Vrain, CO near Denver that was more modern but I hear was dismanteled. We, at the time I left in 1979, were owned by Gulf and Royal Dutch Shell oil who came to our research facility and assured us that they wer counting on us to keep them in the energy business when they ran out of oil. The business plan was to design an 1100 megawatt Gas Cooled reactor, get the design approved, and assembly line produce the approved design, therefore avoiding the 10 to 20 year approval process that was stifling the industry. The middle east discovered a 100 year supply of oil and Gulf and Shell lost all interest in nuclear reactors, especially since every mention of nuclear power brought out the bird brains who thought every reactor was an atomic bomb. I quit in 1979. |
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| Bailey
Who! You guys were out their on the edge. Kind of like the Fermi Labs and Hanford bunch. I’m suppressed DOD didn’t have their hands in that action.
I worked for Bechtel from 70 to 89 building coal fired and nuke plants. When the construction boom was over I started job shopping as a startup engineer.
After TMI I was afraid to tell anyone what I did for a living. The work really started to suck as the industry went down from the bad reputation it was getting but I rolled my wheel barrel up to the man every week and he filled it with money till sometimes It was to heavy to push home. I had become a Nuke whore with a frontal lobotomy. I got out of the business on December 28, 2000. Thank god for my guitar.
Mike |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Mike
I can feel your pain (to quote a much quoted quote), I got out because the NRC had people following us around as we worked, hoping we would give them a chance to put us in jail.
The founder of GA was Dr. Freddy De Hoffman, an original from the Chicago graphite pile. We did a great deal of gov't work, including building the fuel for the NERVA atomic powered rocket engine. I was in R&D and did a lot of testing at super high temperatures on that stuff. It used weapons grade uranium and we had to account for every gram, for security as well as cost. That uranium cost $11 a gram in 1960's, close to $5000 a pound and a pound of uranium is not much material. Even worse we did a big R&D project for the French on what was called Pebble Bed High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors, and in the end gave Europe a big lead on the use of nuclear power.
I appreciate my guitars greatly also, I worked more overtime a few of those years than I did regular time, If it wasn't for pickin' I'd have been a basket case. truthfully, even with pickin' I was a basket case. |
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So what do you smear on yours?