Care of your guitar's finish

[stratman50th]

There's been a lot of questions lately on how to care for the finish on your guitar. I'd like to get some input, and when we're done, I'll move this to Trade Secrets so people can look it up any time.
I'll start with what I use.


There's two products that I use when I want to clean everything up and get all the scratches out. Not deep to the wood stuff, but those fine swirly ones you get from rubbing some dust or dirt on the finish. It will also get rid of Buckle Rash if it isn't too deep.
This is for the new poly finishes. I don't vouch for what it will do to the old nitro finishes.

For removing scratches, and generally getting a clean smooth finish back, I use Meguiars Scratch X. It's polish designed for black automotive finishes and clear coat. It's also prismatic so if it can't remove the scratch, it kind of does a fill and matches the surrounding paint color.

After I finish polishing and all the scratches are gone, I'll use Meguiars Gold Class clear coat liquid wax.

Both are available in any auto supply store. I'm pretty sure it's available in Canada and the UK. It's expensive for a car care product, but cheap when you compare what you pay for products made specifically for guitars. You get enough to last a lifetime if you only use it on your guitars. The products made just for instruments come in much smaller containers and cost more.

[Slipstream]

I use Meguiar's too, but I got the "Deep Crystal System" that comes in three steps. Cleaner, polish, and wax. The care pamphlet that came with my new Les Paul Custom says it has ". . . at least eight coats of hand-applied nitrocellulose lacquer . . .", and to use a fine carnuba wax to protect it.

The Meguirar's wax is a carnuba wax with no silicon. Many automotive waxes have silicon in them. I would stay away from those.

Usually I wipe down or buff with a clean terry cloth towel (also available at the auto parts store) each time I put my guitars away. Since I change all my strings at once, when I change them I can wax and buff the area around the pups and bridge, and also the head stock face where the strings would normally be in the way.

When the wax builds up, or if I see any scratches I'll remove the old wax with the cleaner (step 1), then buff with the polish (step 2), and finally apply the wax (step 3). By this time I'm transfixed, and just stare at my guitar. :)

I'm not sure what kind of finish is on my SG. Probably the same. The Epi and the Squire are probably polyurethane. I use the same process on all my electric guitars - the acoustics don't get the same care.

http://www.alvarious.com/graphics/ThreeAmigos.jpg

[reeced]

I use Meguiars Scratch X (after a recommendation on this forum). It really is a wonder product. Not just on guitars - try it on your pedals (plastic and metal), brings 'em up like new.
If I've got deep scratches, then I first use Autosol Metal polish (comes in a tube, consistency of toothpaste) to eliminate the scratches and then the Meguiars to bring the finish back.
Up to now I've used Gibson or some other proprietary guitar polish. To be honest they don't seem to do a lot, and as soon as you put your fingers on the guitar you can see the marks. I might give the Meguiars wax a shot.

[stratman50th]

Thanks for the contributions Slipstream and reeced!
This has been up for over a week and it's only been the three of us who have contributed. I can't believe that everyone uses the same products and procedure as we do to clean up and protect the finish. I'll leave this open for a little while longer in hopes that someone else has something to add. If not, I'm going to put it in trade secrets with what's here.
Thanks for the input guys!