see doing pro car detailing for many years pays off with guitars too...all my guitars look like new and i play the piss out of them all...you just need to know how to care for them to keep them looking new. if you leave them covered in grime and sweat and such it just eats through the finish after a while and makes it even harder to clean later and destroys the chrome also...so take 2 minutes after playing and wipe off the heavy stuff with a soft microfiber cloth, that's all (a quick mist of spray polish can't hurt eithe lazy people hehe). as for the swirl marks in your black guitar...no problem what you need is 3M swirl mark remover...apply it with a foam auto detailing applicator pad in a circular motion in small areas at a time...then buff it off with a microfiber towl...after your done with that use some good car wax (3M is also good for this) with another new clean foam applicator pad and buff that off with a clean microfiber cloth. now your guitar (any color) will be glowing and the wax will help protect a bit from future swirl marks...but they still will happen no matter what, the key is knowing how to get rid of them! some guys say just play it leave it dirty blah blah blah...character yadda yadda...but if you want to sell them down the road you get more cash for mint or near mint than you do rusted and stianed with hazy scratched and swirled paint! the more you take care of it from new the better it stays...there is no magic cure for bad paint and hardware, if you let it build up it just gets worse...you can't clean 6 month old crud off a guitar and get it to look flawless as easy as you can clean off smudges and stuff from a day of playing.
-Mike
