Removing Grunge From Old Guitar

An old Louis Sutz 00 from the Roaring 20's with a hundred years of fore arm grunge on the top. How do I clean this up without resorting to Homer Formby's Refinisher juice?

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Permalink Reply by Kerry Krishna on October 12, 2014 at 4:02pm

No offence intended, but going from water to alcohol as a cleaner in a single step seems way out of left field to me. I would have tried the 'few drops of soap in hot water' thing next, and that would have likely got most of it. If I have a big cleaning job on an old axe, I use cotton rags, warm H2O and a few drops of soap. With some elbow grease even the worst 'smokey guitars' will eventually all come clean. It seems to me you are not so much cleaning the guitar as stripping the whole top layer off of it.

Like you said though, this is your guitar and you did post here and ask our opinions too.