Help! JP12 finish cleaning and polishing

[Lax]

Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask a question about my guitar's body care :
I usually wipe it with a soft cloth and when I do upkeep I spray and polish with a fender polish for guitar and a guitar polish cloth (and it shines).

I have always been frustrated of the difficulty to see my guitar's sparkles, but now I wonder if I don't have a coat/layer of something between the finish and the shiny polish appearance.

Should I do something to "clean" any layer of products/etc that could have formed and see more of the sparkles ?

Cheers

 

[johnnyboogie]

It's only a matter of lighting. The JP12 won't show it's sparkle unless under stage lighting.

 

[tbonesullivan]

That's a pretty dark finish, and really requires quite a bit of light to make it really "pop". Most guitar and/or car polishes should be find for the finish.

 

[Etudica]

I use regular car care products on my JPs with great success, and many others on here do as well. That's one thing I love about my EBMMs... the poly clear coat they use is fantastic. On my JPXI onyx I polish it using Menzerna compounds and then use Poorboy's Black Hole Glaze topped off with Menzerna Color Lock pure carnuba wax and it looks freaking unreal. Just be careful if you use any swirl removers or compounds and make sure you mask off all hardware. Otherwise, if you don't have any swirls or defects to fix, you can probably just give it a good clean with an IPA solution (I use CarPro Eraser personally) to remove any oils or sweat from it before applying a glaze or wax. Basically, same principles that apply to car clear coats seem to translate well to the gloss EBMM finishes.

 

[guitarheadhunt]

I have the same guitar. The finish is awesome. One of the reasons I bought the guitar. I use Ernie Balls guitar polish on all my guitars. This particular model does need adequate lighting for the sparkles to shine. Even on stage you won't see it very well. That is unless the bright lights are shinning right on it. Bring it in the sunlight and wow!!! In my studio I hang it on the wall with a light shinning directly on it. Looks fantastic. Take a picture with light shinning on it and post it. It is a very dark color so it eats light up.