Polishing a bass, or anything come to that

[Grangur]

Hi there,

So you want to keep you bass looking good and shiny?

This thread has come out of my reading another thread on here and I read with total horror that a good BCer has polished his Warwick bass with Pledge.

[b]Pledge / Mr.Sheen and all of that stuff is EVIL[/b]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]They are all the work the work of the devil. If you ever want to do anything with the wood after using this stuff it'll take ages of hard work to get rid of Pledge. [/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Pledge seals the wood against oil and beeswax. It coats the wood with a sticky coat that causes the wood to attract dirt and grime.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]On lacquered surfaces if you ever want to re-spray it, simply sanding wont get rid of Pledges magical way of resisting lacquer or paint from sticking to the surface. Sanding simply contaminates the sandpaper and the Pledge stays on the surface. To re-spray a Pledged surface the only way is strip the surface with stripper of a heat-gun.[/font][/color]



[b]Polish to use:[/b]
[b]Only ever use beeswax or a polish from a specialist guitar cleaning kit. [/b]Or on sealed finishes (not oil finish) simply wipe over with a soft damp, maybe slightly soapy cloth.

Whatever you do though, NEVER use anything in the way of polish from a spray can. This includes your furniture.

Thanks for reading.

Richard

[Musky]

Hmmm... Polishing basses. It'll never catch on.

[molan]

Dr Duck's Ax Wax is your friend - use it on just about any part of the bass

[squire5]

I'm into rocket polishing myself.I only use a tissue.

[Jimryan]

Or lighter fluid. I've yet to try it myself, but apparently it works.

I'm currently using a bottle of guitar polish and a micro-fibre cloth and it works great.

[LITTLEWING]

Yeah, lighter fluid works a treat, no damage to anything. Gets all grime and beer/snot/jizz off dead easy. Personally I then follow up with a decent car polish but only one where you dampen the cloth first. Comes up like a mirror.

Where necessary, any scratches or swirls can be taken out beforehand with a mild car paint renovator. (Autoglym is good stuff).

NB. ALWAYS,ALWAYS,ALWAYS use a new clean soft cloth. If you ain't got one, then DON'T. You WILL be sorry, guaranteed.

[LukeFRC]

most Warwicks are a wax finish - so you want something like Warwick wax -
Pure beeswax is ok but I find it a bit sticky on the hand. I've gone for Briwax which is a blend of beeswax and carnauba so a bit harder and not as sticky.

[bassmachine2112]

Rickenbacker used to recommend turtle wax for a car