I have used both Fender (Meguiar's) Swirl and Haze Remover and Planet Waves Restore Deep Cleaning Cream Polish. Of the two, I think the Fender product is gentler and is the one I would recommend. The Planet Waves contains petroleum distillates and reads "Harmful or fatal if swallowed".
I had excellent results using the Fender product on my '71 Jazz bass. I removed the pickguard, but not the metal control plate. The swirl and haze remover has no effect on metal, at least as far as I could tell.
I finish up with Martin's guitar polish, which I think is also "gentler" than some of the other guitar products I have used, especially suited to nitro, but good with any finish, once it's clean. I also like the way the Martin polish dries, nice and hard, as well as shiny.
I guess the tortoise guard looks nice too. It's just that both my J-basses have tortoise guards so I wanted something different on my P-bass. I thought that a '72 P-bass was only available with the tortoise anyway.
Then again, I wasn't aware of the light-colored fingerboard/dark headstock thing either, so what do I know!
