What do you guys reccomend and how do i clean my bass all over (all maple neck?)

[AttitudeCastle]

Hey Guys

Looking to scrub my bass clean!

Recommendation?

Adam,

[Mr. Foxen]

Water, detergent, patience and effort. Just slightly damp cloth, avoid unfinished parts with it.

Edit: Or sandpaper also seems popular among the 'relic' crowd.

Edited November 14, 2009 by Mr. Foxen

[AttitudeCastle]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='654643' date='Nov 14 2009, 04:48 PM']Water, detergent, patience and effort. Just slightly damp cloth, avoid unfinished parts with it.

Edit: Or sandpaper also seems popular among the 'relic' crowd.[/quote]

Thanks!

what about cleaning the frets and the neck?

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' post='654816' date='Nov 14 2009, 08:31 PM']Thanks!

what about cleaning the frets and the neck?[/quote]

Same, its all lacquered, frets just ned to get a nail behind the cloth to go along the edges of frets. Go to a model shop and get a track cleaner, for model railways, good for polishing frets.

[Davo-London]

I wouldn't let water anywhere near a guitar. What's wrong with guitar polish?

Davo

[bigjohn]

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' post='654816' date='Nov 14 2009, 08:31 PM']Thanks!

what about cleaning the frets and the neck?[/quote]



Best way to clean frets is by masking the fretboard and using wirewool.

You can mask em with masking tape, or if you're lazy, cut a fret width hole out of sheet of plastic, the length of the longest fret. You can use that to protect the wood / lacquer.

[7string]

Just my 2 cents:

For the body (and back of the neck if it's the same) use a cloth dipped in very hot water and squeezed out to hardly wet at all. Do a small area at a time and follow with a dry rag straight away. Any dirt that isn't moved by that can be treated with saliva (which works a treat), de-ionised water (if the saliva thing is not to your taste) or naptha (lighter fluid). A combination of these 3 will usually do the trick.

For the bridge parts, take them off the bass if you can, grab a toothbrush and use naptha to clean. For smaller parts, dip them in a mixture of naptha and 3-in-1 oil, then into acetone (nail varnish remover), then into another bath of acetone. This works really well, cleaning and lubricating the parts at the same time.

If you have a unlacquered board (rosewood etc), then clean it with naptha and those cotton cosmetic pad things. It's amazing how much stuff comes off a board. As others have said, use 0000 grade wire wool for the frets and either mask the board off completely or use something so you don't hit the board. Don't use anything but 0000 as it'll leave big scratches.

All this will take quite a while, but it'll be so worth it when you've finished.

Edited November 17, 2009 by 7string

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='7string' post='656609' date='Nov 17 2009, 12:46 AM']As others have said, use 0000 grade wire wool for the frets and either mask the board off completely or use something so you don't hit the board. Don't use anything but 0000 as it'll leave big scratches.[/quote]

Don't let wire wool anywhere near your pickups. Tape over them just in case.

[chris_b]

.....or you could use Dunlop 65. It was made for this job.

[hillbilly deluxe]

Pledge/Cloth.

[bigjohn]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='656620' date='Nov 17 2009, 01:21 AM']Don't let wire wool anywhere near your pickups. Tape over them just in case.[/quote]

True, but to be honest, new wirewool should cut to the chase without shedding anything much. If the frets are so dirty that this is gonna be an issue, it might be an idea to remove the neck whilst you clean it anyway.


[quote name='chris_b' post='656628' date='Nov 17 2009, 02:15 AM'].....or you could use Dunlop 65. It was made for this job.[/quote]

I love the 65. but it's not for use on maple boards.

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='7string' post='656609' date='Nov 17 2009, 12:46 AM']Any dirt that isn't moved by that can be treated with saliva (which works a treat)[/quote]

+1. I once had a long conversation with someone who worked as a conservator for museums. They said the number one safe solvent for paintings, statues, pots, whatever, is a dollop of spit!
A bit of water is fine on a bass as long as it's dried off thoroughly - it's long-term storage in a wet atmosphere that causes problems. Water is safer than many other solvents - if basses had water soluble finishes they'd run with the sweat from when you played.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='656691' date='Nov 17 2009, 09:26 AM']Pledge/Cloth.[/quote]

Fairly sure that is a big no, think Pledge has silicone in it, which will ruin everything if you ever want to refinish your bass.

[MoonBassAlpha]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='657156' date='Nov 17 2009, 04:19 PM']Fairly sure that is a big no, think Pledge has silicone in it, which will ruin everything if you ever want to refinish your bass.[/quote]
How?

[MoonBassAlpha]

[quote name='7string' post='656609' date='Nov 17 2009, 12:46 AM']Just my 2 cents:

For the body (and back of the neck if it's the same) use a cloth dipped in very hot water and squeezed out to hardly wet at all. Do a small area at a time and follow with a dry rag straight away. Any dirt that isn't moved by that can be treated with saliva (which works a treat), de-ionised water (if the saliva thing is not to your taste) or naptha (lighter fluid). A combination of these 3 will usually do the trick.

For the bridge parts, take them off the bass if you can, grab a toothbrush and use naptha to clean. For smaller parts, dip them in a mixture of naptha and 3-in-1 oil, then into acetone (nail varnish remover), then into another bath of acetone. This works really well, cleaning and lubricating the parts at the same time.

If you have a unlacquered board (rosewood etc), then clean it with naptha and those cotton cosmetic pad things. It's amazing how much stuff comes off a board. As others have said, use 0000 grade wire wool for the frets and either mask the board off completely or use something so you don't hit the board. Don't use anything but 0000 as it'll leave big scratches.

All this will take quite a while, but it'll be so worth it when you've finished. [/quote]
May sound obvious, but don't get acetone anywhere near painted/lacquered parts, unless you WANT to remove the finish.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='657825' date='Nov 18 2009, 08:59 AM']How?[/quote]

If it gets to the wood through a dig or scratch, it will make fisheyes in any attmpt at refinishing. [url="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=2n3&q=silicone+fisheye&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq="]Loadsa references on google.[/url] Also checked and Pledge does contain silicone. Anyone involved with wood finishing, or painting shudders at the thought of silicone contamination.

[erisu]

I should add T-cut for cars are excellent for cleaning frets BUT do mask off the fretboard before doing so as others have suggested too! Grab a clean cloth, dab some T-cut on and rub away I've done it before and will do it again.

[Johnzy]

I use the dunlop lemon oil on the front and back of all of my bass necks now. If its really dirty I will apply the warwick wax and leave to soak the impurities out, then wipe down and lemon oil it!
maple fretboards are completely different bag of frogs. never clean mine, just give a wipe down with a clean jiffy cloth when changing strings. love the way maple necks get dirty. but I'm a sucker for vintage and relic gear!!!!

[WarPig]

[quote name='Johnzy' post='659035' date='Nov 19 2009, 11:15 AM']love the way maple necks get dirty.[/quote]

+1 FUNKY! Although after alot of build up it feels so good to give the bass a total clean. Infact, im going to go clean my bass now!

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='657939' date='Nov 18 2009, 11:28 AM']If it gets to the wood through a dig or scratch, it will make fisheyes in any attmpt at refinishing. [url="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=2n3&q=silicone+fisheye&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq="]Loadsa references on google.[/url] Also checked and Pledge does contain silicone. Anyone involved with wood finishing, or painting shudders at the thought of silicone contamination.[/quote]


+Lots to that. Silicone is evil with a capital E.

It doesn't even need a nick or ding - it'll soak through most finishes & once it's in the wood, you're stuffed. Bad contaminations can push the finish off.

If you've got a car body shop that does resprays ask them about Silicone Contamination, the guys I know have some horror stories.

If you do want to wax polish, use something traditional like Antiquax (blue tin, most of the supermarkets have it) that are just beeswax & turpentine.

Pete.

[noelk27]

For heavy-duty grime I use a citrus bio-solvent, a couple of drops neat applied and worked over the surface with an un-dyed cloth, and almost immediately wiped off and buffed up with a clean polishing cloth. This only on lacquered finishes. For lesser grime I use D65, applied in much the same way. For rosewood or ebony touchboards I use linseed oil. For raw maple necks or touchboards I use a slightly damp cloth and elbow grease. Wood toothpicks are also very useful for getting into small, hard to clean, areas.

Edited December 3, 2009 by noelk27

[basshead56]

If you are going to use any store-bought guitar cleaning agents/polish, stay away from anything that isn´t Martin!
Our guitar tech (who´s about the same age as the sun) swears by it and wont use anything else as, apparently
it is the only one around that doesn´t have even a trace of detergent in it. This is harmful to lacquer, especially older or thinner finishes.
Oh, and it shines up anything a treat!

[Al Heeley]

Not sure about all this furniture polish spray phobia - I've cleaned off guitar bodies loada times in the past with pledge-type products. My lacquer-finished guitars are PU or acrylic and they are entirely impervious to furniture polish. The silicone-phobia thing is all about getting traces into pores which can then affect the surface tension and adhesion of any subsequent layers. thats all fair enough but we're not talking rspray of steel or wood here, we're talking about cleaning a bass. I don't think Pledge-type sprays are anywhere near aggressive enough to get under a coating blemish and cause delamination of a cured 2-part acrylic or PU lacquer.
If the thread was entitled "How do I best clean my guitar ready for respraying" then i could understand everyone saying "No Silicone!"

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='673051' date='Dec 3 2009, 12:25 PM']Not sure about all this furniture polish spray phobia - I've cleaned off guitar bodies loada times in the past with pledge-type products. My lacquer-finished guitars are PU or acrylic and they are entirely impervious to furniture polish. The silicone-phobia thing is all about getting traces into pores which can then affect the surface tension and adhesion of any subsequent layers. thats all fair enough but we're not talking rspray of steel or wood here, we're talking about cleaning a bass. I don't think Pledge-type sprays are anywhere near aggressive enough to get under a coating blemish and cause delamination of a cured 2-part acrylic or PU lacquer.
If the thread was entitled "How do I best clean my guitar ready for respraying" then i could understand everyone saying "No Silicone!"[/quote]

Its considering the ongoing life of your instrument. It should probably outlast you, and there are plenty of 40 yr. old instruments that are due a refin.

I've seen the horrible mess an attempt at finishing the top of an acoustic that had fairly severe contamination caused hanging in Tom Waghorn's shop.

[Duarte]

Ernie Ball Wonder Wipes.

Made for the job