What do I use to polish me bass...?

[Bassmurf]

Don't know if I've posted this in the right section but I have a Fender Geddy Lee jazz bass and I was wondering what the best stuff to use to polish it with?

[Bilbo]

A friend and I once walked into a top banana guitar shop in London with the guitar roadie of a name rock guitarist. The man in question would, at every available opportunity, drop into the conversation that he was '*****'s guitar roadie.

After looking at the guitars on show with unmasked derision, the man in question asked the (very knowledgeable) guitar tech what he should use to polish *****'s guitars.

The (very knowledgeable) guitar tech nonchalantly answered 'Pledge.'

My friend and I nearly p***ed ourselves.

[Jobiebass]

whats wrong with pledge? hahahha.

Personally I dont use anything, just buff it with said Musicman duster.

[john_the_bass]

microfibre cloths are very good as well

[Prosebass]

[quote name='Bassmurf' post='216748' date='Jun 11 2008, 11:58 AM']Don't know if I've posted this in the right section but I have a Fender Geddy Lee jazz bass and I was wondering what the best stuff to use to polish it with? [/quote]

Pledge is fine providing you don't use it on the fretboard.........personally I prefer "Sparkle"

[yorks5stringer]

Fender do a kit with fingermark remover, swirl remover, polish and cloth made by Meguirs who do car polish and the like. I don't think you need a Fender to buy it!

[The Burpster]

PRS and Ernie Ball make some exellent cleaning products as do
Clover,
Warwick,
Fender.

[7string]

For small areas, try to fog the area with your moist breath like you would clean a pair of glasses. If you run into something you can't clean with that, then get some siliva on your finger and rub that in.

Another way is to grab 2 clean rags. Take one of them and put part of it in very hot water, then make sure it's totally squeezed out and crush the rag into a little ball. Take the other rag fold it to a small rectangle and press the crushed, hot rag against it to make sure that all of the excess water is out of it. Wipe the hot rag onto a small area of the body and immediately follow it with a clean rag.

Between moist breath, saliva and the hot rag trick you can really clean a bass well. Also, make sure that the bass is clean before you polish it as you'll just be polishing the dirt in otherwise.

When polishing, try a furniture cream polish instead of a spray. But whatever you use make sure that it has [b]no silicones [/b]in it. The silicones make a film on the surface which is hard to get off.

All of this info came from the Dan Erlewine DVD's on maintenance for electric guitars and basses. I'll be using all of Dan's tips when my Tyler bass turns up [u][b][size=5]TOMORROW !!![/size][/b][/u]

Edited June 11, 2008 by 7string

[steve-soar]

Windowlene spray, to get the crap off, then Autoglym paint restorer, to remove any surface scratches.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

But surely the dirt keeps the funk in the bass.

[bassboy115]

for the body a dry cloth when i put some lemon oil on the neck or when i change the strings. Other than that i generally dont clean it anymore, sometimes it gets a little wipe with the bottom of my tshirt but thats about it.

[EBS_freak]

The Clover cleaning products are great!

[Hiperi0n]

microfibre and nothing more works perfectly for me

[beerdragon]

I wonder if Jaco or Rory Gallagher ever cleaned their guitars, they must have looked at them and said,look at the state of this, b...s to cleaning it.

[AREA]

I use Gibson Guitar Polish. Works very well and the Bottle lasts for Years....



I like my Basses polished and shiny...before the Gig. On the other Side you may say: "The Dirt keeps the Funk."....but i still like it clean....

Edited June 12, 2008 by AREA

[mrhectic]

I just clean by bass with dunlop guitar polish. Its the only stuff my local guitar shop sell. I never used anything else so I cant really say if its the best/compared, but it seem to do the trick for me!

[Jobiebass]

[quote name='7string' post='217108' date='Jun 11 2008, 06:49 PM']The silicones make a film on the surface which is hard to get off.[/quote]

not good to have silicone based things anywhere neer anything when your spraying either, if you spray a silicone areosol in a garage, you'll be lucky if you can get the silicone out of the air in years! if it is in the air, your spray job will look like it was done in a sandstorm. I know from experiance.

[SteveO]

You all sit and polish your basses???

You need to get out more.

[Delberthot]

I used to use autoglym polish but I've not owned a bass long enough recently to warrant polishing it

[Prosebass]

[quote name='beerdragon' post='217263' date='Jun 11 2008, 10:53 PM']I wonder if Jaco or Rory Gallagher ever cleaned their guitars, they must have looked at them and said,look at the state of this, b...s to cleaning it.[/quote]


Looking at the unfortunate state Jaco was in before his horrible untimely death I doubt he thought too much about about cleaning himself let alone his bass.
Its a bit like cars I used to polish mine every week now its about once every 6 months but the interior is always spotless and the mechanics looked after.
I think a good setup and good strings are much more important than the depth of the shine.....
A favorite saying of mine is "you can't polish a turd" but thats not appropriate here obviously, I just like it.......

[Jono Bolton]

[quote name='steve-soar' post='217134' date='Jun 11 2008, 07:40 PM']Windowlene spray, to get the crap off, then Autoglym paint restorer, to remove any surface scratches. [/quote]

Does the Autoglym work then? I was looking at something similar the other day in Halfords, I forget what, but it said it was an abrasive, and I'd be too scared to use it in case it makes matters worse, but there's a little bit of buckle rash on the back of my Precision that I want rid of.

[The Burpster]

Nearly all polishes contain a mild abrasive so dont be put off by Autoglym. It would be an excellent 'rejuvenator' polish.


if they dont have a mild abrasvie then they havve silicon- as you've seen above not such a good thing on basses....

If you want to know how good autoglym is, PM kennyrodg who has the Ibanez that I .....ermm, renovated.... It was dull and matted when I got it. Its shiny and happy now!

Bob.

[johnnylager]

Water & vinegar with a microfibre cloth. Don't f***ing blame me if it all goes wrong though.

[thebeat]

I use refined monkey sp**k...it's pretty hard to get hold of though...both the monkey and the sp**k...little bastards squirm like no-ones business.

[7string]

I had to add this to this thread....

Last night I was cleaning and polishing one of my basses and my wife reminded me that I had a pack which I'd bought from Gibson. In the pack are 3 small bottles, one each of fretboard conditioner, string cleaner and high gloss polish.

The fretboard stuff was good, but the high gloss polish was b****y amazing. Really brought it up a treat. It even managed to turn the pickup covers from a light grey back to black again.

OK, I know it's only a polish but I it helped turned an OK bass into a stunner.