Nitro cleaning frequency

[Danny W.]

When I'm done playing I've been using the same two-step process for at least sixty years. I wipe the neck, strings, metal parts and playing contact areas (if I'm in a short-sleeve shirt) with a piece of natural chamois, then I put the guitar back in its case or on its stand. Most of the time that's it.

If there is some buildup of oxidation in the arm area I'll spray with Mist & Wipe, wipe dry with a piece of very old and well-washed flannelette and then buff with a chamois.

I have several brands of polishes and a couple of haze and scratch removers. I very rarely use them--they're mostly old enough to be breaking down. I do keep a 40-year-old bottle of Gibson spray polish in my gig bag in case the neck gets sticky. It's still does the job.

I bought 5.5 square feet of natural chamois at Costco many years for about $12 but they no longer sell it. I have a square of it in every guitar case, plus each of my home guitar areas. My experience is that it's much better than microfiber for dry wiping a guitar. For polish I always use old flannelette. I like microfiber cloths, but not on guitars.

If you neglect regularly polishing your nitro guitar, this is what it might look like after twenty years:







Danny W.

[starjasmine]

Cheapest cloths that will never leave swirl marks? I don't get how other people just use t-shirts and don't get them...I'm cursed

This might be obvious, silly, stupid (your choice) but could you be applying too much pressure (or not enough wax/polish)?

I use squares taken from VERY old flannel shirts. IDK how many machine washes it takes to break down the roughness of the fibers. Years ago, I bought a couple of new flannel pillowcases expressly for the purpose of creating some new guitar-cleaning rags. Ive washed them countless times and they still are not soft enough for me to want to use them on a guitar. Fortunately, I still have pieces of flannel that are probably 40 years old now :-)

I wash hands before playing and wipe down the strings and finish with a clean dry flannel after I play. I polish rarely. My 74 Byrd looks super clean.

For polishing, I use Meguiar's Swirl Remover 2.0 and Meguiar's Show Car Glaze. I've also got a can of Gibson spray polish from umpteen years ago that I will occasionally use on the LP (which is not a nitro finish). Even though it is widely accepted as "not good for your finish" it seems to do a nice job on that guitar.

HTH

[joe2758]

I might have pressed too hard i'm not sure. I am having good results with these new rags now though

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Cheapest cloths that will never leave swirl marks? I don't get how other people just use t-shirts and don't get them...I'm cursed

I think the most important thing is to be sure the cloth is completely clean. The tiniest dust particles on a cloth will leave swirl marks. Even dried polish or cleaning agent can act as an abrasive on nitro, French polish etc. So you should never use the same part of a cloth twice. For removing small areas of fog, fingerprints etc, I start with one corner of a freshly washed cloth and move around the outer edge so that an unused section touches the finish every time.

When cleaning or polishing an entire section, i fold the cloth so that only a few square inches contact the finish at a time. After wiping an area no more than twice the area of the part of the cloth being used, I refold the cloth to expose a fresh section the same size. I may use 3 or 4 cloths to do an entire top, back, sides and neck.

I also shake out the cloth before starting, to free up any dust or other debris that may have drifted onto it.