Polish/cleaners for tarnished nickel parts?

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Sun Jun 30, 2002 4:55 pm

OK, collector types, and polishing freaks, here's a little survey/questionaire; What, if anything have you found that Actually cleans up tarnished nickel plate? You know the look; grubby Kluson bass heads, that have seemingly permanent fingerprint marks on them, or 360 style Kluson Deluxe heads, that have tarnish that looks like
badly weathered aluminum window casings.I personally have tried Nearly everthing that would seem to remotely work,and almost universally Nothing does, save for possibly Simichrome polish and the use of a Dremel w/ buffing wheel.Silver polish, Tarn-x, Brasso,Turtle wax,Oxy clean,Bon Ami,Soft Scrub.The list goes on.....The couple things that Have worked at all[kinda] required Loads of elbow grease and much frustration.I've inquired at plating shops,car supply stores, guitar repair guys, even guitar company CEOs, and No One has offered a suitable product.So start talking; What has anyone/ Everyone ever tried???

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Mon Jul 01, 2002 1:39 am

Don: I use Mother's Aluminum Wheel Polish, which comes in a little jar like cold cream; in fact, the stuff has the consitancy of cold cream. I have a Hofner 500/1LH '63 re-issue, which has nickel plated p/up covers as opposed to the original 1960's Hofners which were chrome plated.

In a nutshell, the stuff works.The Hofner cleans up like new.

I have never let the covers get too far gone. In retrospect, I think I may have tried it on Kluson bass keywinds(my 79 4001LH) and the results were so-so...Give this stuff a try and see what you think.

grsnovi · Post by **grsnovi** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 3:56 pm

I use a metal polish called: "Flitz" which I think you can find in most hardware stores.

ricnvolved · Post by **ricnvolved** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 4:06 pm

Don-- There is a polish that (I think) is made by a company in Illinois, and it does a great job for me. It's called "Maas" and comes in a blue & silver tube; around my area it usually sells for about $5 or $6 a tube (when you can find it.) If your tuners are badly gunked up, the way mine were on my '66 Fender P-bass, then it WILL take some extensive elbow grease to get them really clean. But the result is worth. The biggest thing, as John says, is not to let the tuners get so far gone in the first place. I ALWAYS use a quality polishing cloth when I'm tuning; this little bit of preventive maintenance is the best thing you can do to save the nickel or chrome on your guitar or bass.

Another metal paste is from Germany and is very similar to Maas. It's called "Wenol" and is great to clean up metal trim.

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 9:39 pm

There is a polish that (I think) is made by a company in Illinois, and it does a great job for me. It's called "Maas" and comes in a blue & silver tube; around my area it usually sells for about $5 or $6 a tube (when you can find it.) If your tuners are badly gunked up, the way mine were on my '66 Fender P-bass, then it WILL take some extensive elbow grease to get them really clean. But the result is worth. The biggest thing, as John says, is not to let the tuners get so far gone in the first place. I ALWAYS use a quality polishing cloth when I'm tuning; this little bit of preventive maintenance is the best thing you can do to save the nickel or chrome on your guitar or bass.

Jeff; this is nuts: the day after I posted this thread, I was at the local hdwe. store and "accidentaly" ran into the Maas polish.Easy to say",Don't let the parts get that bad in the first place",but how many guitars have we bought that were woefully undermaintained Long before we got them? I had to buy the stuff when I saw what the box claimed it worked on; there it was; "nickel".I was stiil skeptical, but $5 seemed a cheap gamble.I pulled out my old Guild Starfire bass whose Kluson heads looked beyond help.To my complete amazement and delight, the Mass creme had them looking like brand new again and the imbedded fingerprints and tarnish were gone in 30 seconds or less!I can't recommend this stuff highly enough.I put it through one more "acid test:" the box said it cleans badly spotted shower doors. I haven't got those here, but my 2 year old Subaru I got when I moved here to Hawaii had a Lot of indelible water spots and
stains on the windshield.Windex,or Any other glass cleaner that anyone suggested to me to try did Nothing.I tried the Maas creme on a small corner of the windshield and voila!! No More water spots!! Go check the Maas website at: http://www.maasinc.com I also tried the stuff on the
Bigsby on an older Gretsch I have, and Wow!, that aluminum just Gleams!!

ricnvolved · Post by **ricnvolved** » Thu Jul 04, 2002 7:44 am

Don-- You make an excellent point about getting guitars in which the tuners have been "woefully undermaintained". That's the way mine were for over 25 years on my P-bass. But at least you discovered the Maas metal polish and found out for yourself just how well this stuff really works. There MIGHT be a higher quality metal polish, but I haven't found it yet. And until I do, NOTHING beats Maas.

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Thu Jul 04, 2002 10:25 am

Exactly. I told Arnquist about this after I found it, and he was heading out to find some.He's usually my source for finding stuff that works, and I've found that if he hasn't heard of something, even if it exists, it must be a pretty well kept secret.The Maas creme as a nickel plate
cleaner is akin to "GOJO" in a machine shop, for cleaning all manner of grease and sludge.In a word; WOW!!

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 8:23 am

Flitz works very well, and so does Buckaroo Cymbal polish that you can find in the drum sections of music shops. After cleaning up the chrome or nickel parts with one of these cleaners, I wax the parts that I can with Meguiars car cleaner wax.

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 10:41 am

I've tried Flitz and Simichrome, and Maas beats them Both!!

basshawk · Post by **basshawk** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 6:26 pm

I gotta say guys, I found some MAAS at my local Wal-Mart and wow! this stuff is great. I've been fighting to get the tuners on my 4000 shined up since I bought it 20 years ago and basically just gave in. Then I read this post, went out and found some MAAS, spent an evening with the polishing cloths and now I have tuners that look new. Thanks Jeffery and Don. Like you, I can't recommend this stuff enough.

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 9:17 pm

went out and found some MAAS, spent an evening with the polishing cloths and now I have tuners that look new. Thanks Jeffery and Don. Like you, I can't recommend this stuff enough.

Isn't it fun finding stuff that works? Especially after years of not having Anything work.Finding this stuff made my day!