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I have read here that naptha, denatured alcohol, and acetone are used to clean guitar. Are there substances interchangable or is one the best to use?

If you are talking about just cleaning the guitar, ie getting dust out of
pores and the like, naptha is your best bet. It is a very mild solvent
and won't damage things like CA or perfling material.. I used to use
denatured thinking it was safer but I'm not sure that's the case. I'd
stay away from acetone as it will soften CA and can make a mess of
any plastic you might have on the guitar (binding etc). Naptha is your
best bet for this purpose.

I am sure there are a bunch of guys here that know all the chemical properties of solvents but you gotta be careful with which jug you reach for.

Depending on your finish, you could have a real mess if you use the wrong stuff

Alcohol and acetone with melt into lacquer. Shellac will disolve with alcohol.

I use laquers so I don't know about all the different fishishes but I have heard that waterbase products don't like alcohol either.

I have used naptha to "clean up" stuff on lacquer with no problems, but it may not be good with varnishes or oils (I don't know)

As far as the tone robbing bullet-proof finishes that come on cheap import guitars, you could probably use some solvents but why???

When in doubt ... test it out.

And yea don't drink the stuff either

   Naptha ( ligher fluid) is the best solvent to clean grime and dirt of your guitars finish and fingerboard. It will not react or reamalgamate the finish.
   Acetone lacquer and butyle somthing or other are used to desolve the lacquers
   Denatured alcohol is a solvent for desolving schellac

   When working on a guitar I will use one or all three depending what I am doing. Achohol will not react to lacquer.

   NEVER USE FURNITURE POLISH ON A GUITAR.

If you are cleaning a guitar naptha and some water is all you need. A good quality past wax will halp protect the finish but be sure there are no silicones in it. Carnuba wax is one of the harder ones.

If you are refinishing a guitar you will want to wipe with all 3 after getting to bare wood. Each will remove certain things.
   Naptha take out some grease and plain dirt
Alcohol take out wax and some oils
naptha takes out some oils and grease

[QUOTE=tippie53]    Achohol will not react to lacquer.

    [/QUOTE]

Is that right?

I always keep alky away from lacquer but maybe I am just being extra careful

John o

What they all said. Naptha is the best all around "wipe down" solvent. It doesn't pull out oils from oily wood so it won't discolor inlays or light colored bindings. It removes lubricating oils like walnut or olive oils if you are a french polisher (alcohol just smears it). In my experience it doesn't effect nitro,F.P., or KTM-9.

I found a really good product years ago that does a great job cleaning old very dirty finishes and grimy fretboards. It is Furniture Cream sold by Stanley Home Products. It is sold in a 22 fl oz bottle so it will last a long time. It is mineral oil based and I have been told it does not have silicones in it. I use naptha for some applications, but I try to limit my exposure to solvents, so I use it sparingly.

Thank you all for the great info.