Fret Polish?

CavemanGrogg

The strings that are on the guitar in need of a fret polish, something I never actually do, or have done, I just wait until the guitar needs a refret instead of polishing frets.

KrisGee

fretfinder said:

KrisGee said:

Steel wool grade 0000 for frets and gaffa tape to cover the fretboard and all metal parts. 

Just be careful not to inadvertently wrap that gaffa tape round the back of the neck.    

Murphy Lab?

Seriously though can't see a problem with my method. Yes @hassleham I use gaffa tape, it works great for me, as far as I can tell I'm not the only one in the world using it successfully so each to their own. I use two pieces of tape to cover area around the fret I'm polishing and move the same pieces as I'm going up the fretboard. It's durable, can be reused multiple times and leaves no residue on fretboard if you don't press it down like mad and don't leave for hours. Steel wool is very effective so it takes few gentle moves up and down the fret to make it look and feel like new, wipe with a microfibre cloth after. Ernie Ball fretboard conditioner to finish the job off and I'm done in around an hour. 
Took a delivery of this 2nd hand cu22 last Friday, frets and setup done on Sunday, guitar now looks and plays like it has just left Maryland. 

OilCityPickups

I've been using a tube of this for pretty much all metal polishing duties for the last fourteen years ... yep it's that economical.
It's used to restore and remove scratches from pickup covers and chrome/nickel work, remove scratches from plastic parts, and the odd scratch from a guitar. It smells of lemon and you need to wear nitrile gloves to use it as it dries your skin like a bastard. Needless to say ... if you use any cream product to polish your frets you need to mask the fingerboard. 


PS ... if you play enough your frets polish themselves :-) 

Oh and if you must use steel wool on your frets MASK YOUR PICKUPS. All sorts of issues including muffling and loss of output can come from coils smothered with tiny magnetic steel particles! I keep a large lump of bluetack in the workshop to clean up contaminated coils ... it's a pain in the arse! 

DrJazzTap

If i feel the guitar needs it I'll use 12000 grit sand paper. 
I have been thinking about using some form of paste or polish and then buffing with a dremel.

freakboy1610

Another vote for Gorgomyte here. Very easy and effective.  If my sheet ever runs out, however, I'll use Miracle Cloth which is the same thing for about a third of the cost.

bacchanalian

Anyone aware of where to buy Gorgomyte in the UK. I had previously bought it direct from Gorgomyte but they will no longer ship direct. 
Currently using daddario fret papers

Offset

freakboy1610 said:

Another vote for Gorgomyte here. Very easy and effective.  If my sheet ever runs out, however, I'll use Miracle Cloth which is the same thing for about a third of the cost.

Do you need to mask off the fretboard when using Miracle Cloth???

digitalkettle

I would...even with the polishing paper that I mentioned above.

In fact, if I didn't have the slotted guards, I'd blue-peter one up out of plastic or cardboard to save the masking tape

freakboy1610

Offset said:

freakboy1610 said:

Another vote for Gorgomyte here. Very easy and effective.  If my sheet ever runs out, however, I'll use Miracle Cloth which is the same thing for about a third of the cost.

Do you need to mask off the fretboard when using Miracle Cloth???

I use those slotted guards which give enough coverage.  You get blackish residue on the cloth which I try to avoid rubbing onto the fretboard.