Mineral spirits or naptha?

[Ignatius]

I see several threads here that mention the use of naptha for cleaning gunk from a gunky guitar.

Are mineral spirits essentially the same thing? Or not? I have mineral spirits here in the house but no naptha.

The guitar in question is a mid 90's standard American Tele, so it probably has some kind of bulletproof plastic finish on it.

[boris bubbanov]

I use mineral spirits.

If I ran out and all I had was naphtha, I would use that, instead.

They're fairly closely related substances.

[Ignatius]

Thanks Boris!

[gitlvr]

What Boris said, but opposite for me. I use naphtha, but if I ran out and all I had was mineral spirits........
Have you tried a cotton cloth(old t-shirt) moistened with warm water and some elbow grease? You'd be surprised how much gunk you can remove like that. Then hit the tough stuff with the chemical fluids.

[Ignatius]

Haven't tried anything yet.

I also saw another thread that suggested using warm water, a sponge, and a drop of mild dish soap, as wild as that sounds ;>)

Maybe your suggestion is good - go at with the mild stuff first.

Thanks.

[gitlvr]

When I wet sand prior to buffing the finish out I use a tiny bit of dish liquid in the water, so I doubt that would hurt anything. One thing I would caution is that whatever cloth you use, wring it out well. It should be damp, not soaking wet. You don't want to flood the thing with water. If you go this route, you can follow it with a soft, dry cloth and buff the surface to a nice shine. I seldom use polish anymore. In fact, whenever I work on a guitar, this is how I clean fingerprints and smears off of it before returning it to the owner. I've had them say things like, "Hey, you cleaned it! Thanks! What did you use to get it so nice?" When I tell them, they get this confused, sheepish look on their face. Kind of a "Doh!" moment.

[ramseybella]

Liter Fluid is naphtha based cheap too!

[jaydawg]

Naptha is the most commonly used among repairmen but mineral spirits also works well.