Re: What polishes, waxes do you use on your guitars
Remember that a slightly damp clean rag, followed by a soft dry cloth will remove 99.9% of the junk collecting on your guitar. Water is great stuff.
If you have a finish that you are trying to restore, then the Virtuoso Cleaner followed by the Virtuoso Polish is the way to go. The Cleaner will remove fine scratches and oxidation. Careful with the Cleaner; apply as directed because you can damage a NCL finish if you rub too hard too long. I used this on a new Historic VOS Les Paul I bought and it left a beautiful finish. Leaves a great shine. Got a guitar with a sticky neck? Try this two step process and you may be amazed. It actually seemed to harden the lacquer--and the stickiness went away. And stayed gone.
One Les Paul I bought used last year probably hadn't been cleaned since the original owner purchased it. He was trying to sell a guitar with a Blue Book value of $2800 but couldn't get any takers because the guitar was in such poor condition. I was able to able to get the guitar from him for about $1700. I thoroughly cleaned the guitar, and used the Virtuoso products to restore the finish. Now, I'm not selling the guitar because it is a great guitar; but I recently had the guitar in a local store showing it off, and another customer saw the guitar and wanted to buy it--for $3000!! That's $1300 for an hour of my time and some elbow grease and some TLC! Moral: Take good care of your gear!
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The Dunlop 65 Carnauba is a cream and good for maintaining and protecting finishes. Ditto for the Planet Waves Carnauba. A carnauba wax product like the Dunlop 65 can help protect your maple fingerboard and delay it from wearing down to the wood. It's a very hard wax, and leaves a great shine. It will protect from various environment pollutants.
The Gerlitz is a soft paste. I've stopped using the Gerlitz on my NCL finishes--but I think it works great on poly finishes. BTW, Taylors are poly finished, and they recommend Turtle Wax. (I wouldn't use the TW on a guitar with a NCL finish, though--too abrasive!!)
Guitar Honey is a good product for a RW or ebony board. Many folks like bore oil. The guys on the Les Paul Forum have a product they like called Fret Doctor--and it is bore oil. Lemon oil is good, you can get it from Dunlop. They also have a kit that has their fretboard Cleaner and a Fretboard Conditioner (an oil), it works very well too.
I also use some spray polishes: The Martin pump is a good one, I like the Dunlop 65 spray and the Love Potion #9 polish. The Dunlop will remove wax, so keep that in mind. The Love Potion #9 smells great!
Preservation Polish from Stew-Mac is guaranteed to have no silicones (which can be hard to remove from a finish). Duck's AX WAX is another interesting product that can be used on the body, AND fretboard--and they claim it's a good string cleaner, too! I have not tried these, so can't vouch for them.
I would never use Pledge on a guitar. It's too soft, and it will leave a build-up. I love Howard's Orange Oil on my furniture, but it's a little too heavy for my fretboards.
I think the Dunlop 65 Cleaning Kit with the Spray Polish, Carnauba, String Cleaner, Fretboard Cleaner and the Fretboard Condition, fret buffing patch, and a micro-fiber polishing cloth is a good place to start and a good value. Add the Virtuoso Cleaner and Polish if you have a guitar with a heavily oxidized finish; or to gloss-up a satin finish, or remove the gritty component on a Gibson VOS finish.
Good luck!
Bill
