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I don't trust youtube or reddit or snob fora so i'm asking real ones. what is like the no-bullshit way to clean your guitars--body, neck, hardware--of gunk and blood and beer splatter without harming the finish? i never learned.

edit to add: my old boss had us use Naptha for this exclusively, but he was also an absolute nutcase so....

depends on how bad it is. i usually start with guitar polish on the painted bits ahd water via paper towels or swabs on other areas. for encrusted fingerboard crud i’ve used rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush. sometimes you need a blade or utiity knife to scrape solidified goo from around the frets.

I think the Erlewine took says to use a lightly damp rag, or a rag and naphtha.

Don’t use naphtha or rubbing alcohol on the neck on a musicman USA sub, it will remove the finish.

For necks and lightly finished stuff I like the stuff Ken smith sells.

yeah, i'm not suggesting taking isopropyl alcohol to finished surfaces. i learned about that the hard way. non-finished fingerboards only! sometimes you need nuclear-level grease-cutting, though. really old fret scudge turns into a fairly solid greenish-black material composed, best as i can tell, of skin cells and oils, corrosion on the fret material, fingerboard dust, and general dirt. like a solidified version of the similarly-hued crud that gets into the nosepieces and hinges on spectacles. when i did my Epiphone acoustic, which hadn't been thoroughly cleaned in half a century, i literally had to chip crud off the joins between fret and board. yeah, eww.

For clearing out dust and what not from tight weird areas like underneath knobs and strings and such on guitars, synths, pedals, etc. I love this thingy-ma-brush.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... aning-tool

Other than that I have Dunlop guitar polish, lemon oil or whatever it is for the fretboard, and a bunch of cleaning cloths from when I worked at guitar center ages ago. I give a quick clean anytime I change strings typically.

i try to clean them before they go back in the case, but don't always make myself do it. i'm more likely to be responsible in the warm months when i sweat all over everything even with the AC on. i hate getting out a guitar i haven't played in months and having to clean it first thing.

that thing has potential for my plethora of guitars with tremolos/Bigsbys/etc., which often require gymnastics to clean between the bridge and tailpiece.

Ghost Hip wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 11:23 am For clearing out dust and what not from tight weird areas like underneath knobs and strings and such on guitars, synths, pedals, etc. I love this thingy-ma-brush.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... aning-tool

Aaaaah, yes! We had that in the music shop that I worked in from 2000 until my bosses had to close it (due to health and age reasons) in 2018. That was really a great tool and I have to order one for me next time. Thanks for that!

Ghost Hip wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 11:23 amOther than that I have Dunlop guitar polish, lemon oil or whatever it is for the fretboard, and a bunch of cleaning cloths from when I worked at guitar center ages ago. I give a quick clean anytime I change strings typically.

Guitar polish by Dunlop or Fender is good stuff. I think that lemon oil has a bad stench and I don't like the feel of it. For rosewood fretboards we always used oil for woodwind instruments. Apart from that I used the "Fret Board Juice" by the American brand Big Bends when overhauling my uncle's original Höfner 400/1 violin bass from the early '60s. Also very good stuff!

dubkitty wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 11:40 am i try to clean them before they go back in the case, but don't always make myself do it. i'm more likely to be responsible in the warm months when i sweat all over everything even with the AC on. i hate getting out a guitar i haven't played in months and having to clean it first thing.

It's also good to wipe the strings with a clean cloth. It will prolong their life significantly if you sweat a lot.

All of these are good suggestcions, but I must stress (STRESS) to recommend a quick wipe-down after a playing session. Like most things of prevention, it will not seem cool or hip or "necessary" in the heet ov the moment/cig break/what's on roku now, but an ounce of prevention, etc.

You could call your wipe-down device (rag) something cool, like The Forgiveness Towel, or the Bespoke Cleanser Of Future Woes, or "Gary". Whatever works? Your instrument & your future self are thanking you already, tomorrow.

I don't think alcohol is a good idea on an unfinished neck either as it can dry the wood out. I have used linseed oil for fretboards but im not sure how good that really is either. I just get nauseous thinking of doing anything to wood or a finish the more i learn. Though i think a damp microfibre cloth can get you a long way depending on how patient you are

I've used saddle soap and a old toothbrush on fretboards before. No idea if that's a bad move, but I figured if it doesn't fuck up leather then it's probably okay on wood.

I usually use sensitive baby wipes. Make sure to use non-plastic wipes with as little additives as possible. Works really good.