JF65 vs D30 - Which one to buy

I would never use 0000 wool on a guitar. I tried it once on a cheap solid body that was too shiny. It is far more scratchy than you might think no matter how soft or finite your pressure is.. You cant clean the pores of wood with abrasive anyway. It seems that logic is "I will sand away wood until I reach the bottom of the grain pores". Bad logic. The surface can be cleaned with oil or etc without abrasive.

I don't use 0000 steel wool on my GUITAR. I use it on my fretboard lightly every 3-4 years or so to polish up the frets a bit. It's pretty standard practice in the guitar world. I also clean it with a damp soft cloth and then dry it with a dry soft cloth. After it's dry, I put a few drops of Bore Oil on a cloth and wipe it down. After a few minutes, I wipe it dry and buff it. My personal guitars don't get very dirty and I "play clean". Keeps them up very nicely and it's the recommended way on many lutherie sites. Those inlays are pretty sturdy stuff. I don't HAMMER away with the steel wool, just lightly buff. It's fairly accepted practice. If you choose not to, that's fine as well.

Stu, if the dirt and grunge on the fretboard is not coming clean easily and you don't want to use steel wool you can use NAPTHA, which is safe on the finish and cleans super dirty guitars really well. Either way. Once you get that thing cleaned, all you have to do is use regular maintenace. Also, I take ALL strings off at one time for access and cleaning/conditioning. Then put new strings on. It won't hurt your guitar to do that. Nope!!

yeah, swiveltung... wool is absolutely NOT for the body of the guitar! I was talking about the fretboard. Sorry if I was unclear about that.

For the body, soapy water has always been just fine for me and your favorite guitar polish once it's clean. Tom is also right that naphtha is a good cleaner if you need that which will not hurt guitar finishes.

I was talking about the fretboard too. I guess I dont understand what benefit it could have there. It's an abrasive not a cleaner. Non flat abrasives on wood often gouge out the softer wood in the grain leaving the harder wood outside the grain. I refret my own guitars, and there is no need for it on frets either , although it can be used for deep cleaning the frets if you want. If you want them like a mirror use 3m Finesse it or similar at the last stage. For leveling work you need wet paper prior.
I was trying to make a shiny guitar body satin finish the time years ago I tried wool on the body.

swiveltung, you said you used it on a cheap, solid-body because it was too shiny. Were you talking about the fretboard?! I'm very confused.

Whatever it is you're trying to say, using wool doesn't gouge out the wood. I wouldn't use wool on a finished fretboard (say maple), but unfinished wood? Gouging? No.

swiveltung said:

I was talking about the fretboard too. I guess I dont understand what benefit it could have there. It's an abrasive not a cleaner. Non flat abrasives on wood often gouge out the softer wood in the grain leaving the harder wood outside the grain. I refret my own guitars, and there is no need for it on frets either , although it can be used for deep cleaning the frets if you want. If you want them like a mirror use 3m Finesse it or similar at the last stage. For leveling work you need wet paper prior.
I was trying to make a shiny guitar body satin finish the time years ago I tried wool on the body.

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It's funny, I remembered this thread a couple of times over the weekend and my real reason for never even wanting to try it is exactly what you're saying:
Bottom line, no matter how fine it is, steel wool's a metal abrasive material and why would I ever want something like that coming into contact with my fretboards?

Then I remembered Jimi Hendrix's scathing denouncement of people who clean their marijuana with metal strainers:
"Shame, shame! You die like a rabbit beneath the wheels of a Mac truck!"
:glee: