Dunlop Formula No.65 Guitar Polish & Cleaner

The Dunlop Formula 65 polish and cleaner is designed to be used on guitars and basses with a polyurethane finish. As with any product of this nature you should first dust off any large particles, like pick dust debris, which may mark the finish first. It is designed to be sprayed on a high quality cleaning cloth and applied to the body of the guitar. Then flip the cloth and wipe the excess off which will also buff the finish to a shine. It can also be used on fully finished necks as long as they have been sealed with polyurethane.

I purchased this product when I was unable to find my usual brand in the local guitar shop. At first I was a bit disappointed with it because it did not seem to bring out a high quality shine as my normal polish did. I did initially notice that it did clean the instrument very effectively however so I did use it again on other instruments as the need arose. It was after a few weeks that I really did take to this product. I found that although it did not provide as brilliant of a shine it had a much more valuable aspect that I might have missed if I stopped using it and just ordered my usual cleaner. The finish this provided seemed to somehow resist finger printing and that dull haze you get from a sweaty forearm on the lower bout. I also noticed that any dust or debris just blew off easily with a small puff of air.

I will continue to use this product as my new go to cleaner and polish just because it saves me work. Any saved effort in my life equates to more playing time and at my age I need all the time I have left to enjoy instead of maintaining my instruments. If I need a higher gloss for any reason I can always apply a coat of my other brand but that need rarely arises and I really only care that my gear is well cared for at this point.

I will stress this in caps "DO NOT USE THIS OR ANY SIMILAR PRODUCT ON NITRO FINISHES". These types of products will soften and wear away your precious nitro finishes because they never fully harden. They are intended only for polyurethane so simply make sure you know what you have before applying this family of products to an instrument.

This is your standard polish for daily use if you are one of those types that like to keep your electric guitar shiny and clean, fingerprint free. By this I don’t mean to clean a guitar that you just discovered in your uncle’s garage or basement from years ago, that amount of gunk takes a lot more than the Dunlop 65 to clean up with. The Dunlop 65 is used primarily just to keep your guitar clean on a daily basis, without too many fingerpring and smear marks, to remove very light surface scratches and so on. It can be used on both acoustic and electric guitars of course and gives the same result on both. Also use a good cloth to get it done right! One that doesn’t leave little cotton balls on the finish or one that doesn’t scratch the actual guitars if rubbed too hard! I’ve seen some people use paper towel to wipe the guitars with and although it depends on every guitar, paper towel is generally too rough and can give scratch marks on the guitar with something as noticeable as a black finish. You can see EVERYTHING on a black guitar, it’s probably horrendous to work with for a complete mark-free shine. As for polish it's a daily polish that I think works better on poly-finished guitars than the rest, not saying it won't work but it just seems to rub on and off better with poly. I would generally use this with newer instruments that still seem to have their thick coats of poly on'em as it seems more effective. On say, satin finished guitars or vintage instruments where there's no real glossy look to it, the 65 formula polish doesn't seem to do anything at all but cause more of a mess if anything by making you endlessly wipe and wipe and wipe with smear marks ever revealing.