Hey guys, I am making a trip to the music store today and plan on grabbing on polish. What do you guys use to shimmy your guitars up nicely? Is the Dunlop 65 stuff pretty good? Thanks

Most guitar finishes, whether vintage nitro or poly, are basically automotive paint. The Fender Instrument Care Kit contains three products made by the the same company that owners rely on to clean, polish and protect multi-million dollar collector and exotic vehicles. The company that makes the components in this kit is Meguiar's.

This 3-step system, created by Meguiar's chemists, works on both acoustic and electric guitar finishes -- new or vintage, nitro or poly. First, start with a light spray of Fender Mist & Wipe finish enhancer and then wipe your axe dry. This safely cleans the finished wood surfaces of dust, oil, and fingerprints.

Fender Swirl & Haze Remover is a deep cleaner for fine-finished woods. It can be used to remove light pick marks, sweat stains, and scratches on your guitar's body and pickguard. It restores the original luster and depth of finish by removing hazy chemicals and cloudy swirl marks.

Lastly, an application of Fender Polish and Conditioner nourishes your guitar's finished wood surfaces and makes the plastic and metal surfaces shine.

The only thing left to mention is fretboard care. For maple fretboards just clean with a soft cloth, but for rosewood fretboards there are several schools of thought on fretboard cleaning and conditioning. Some use the Dunlop 65 Fretboard system. Some recommend 30 or 40 weight non-detergent motor oil, I know that sounds crazy but motor oil is what some people say works best. I prefer to just clean it with a dry cloth then apply a lemon oil product, let it soak in overnight, wipe off the excess and then restring and you're done. Whatever you use to condition your fretboard should be silicone free. If it comes in a spray bottle, spray onto a cloth and then apply the conditioner. Avoid getting any fretboard conditioner on any painted surface. Ernie Ball makes little fretboard conditioning wipes with lemon oil and they work well for what they are, convenient and fast. Whatever fretboard conditioner you use on a rosewood board requires removing the strings. You don't want to get any conditioner on the strings. All excess that doesn't soak in must be thoroughly wiped away before restringing.

If your frets are especially nasty you may want to do some polishing work on them before the fretboard conditioner is applied. A good tutorial on how to do that is here:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/sevenstring-org-workbench/8862-tech-how-fretboard-care.html