Cleaning Black Guitars

[Ted Kritikos]

I don't think it can be done. Over the years, I've experimented with every polish, cleaner, and chemical known to man. There's just something about black guitars, especially vintage Gibsons, that makes them impossible to clean. So, here's a two part question for the forum: what, in your opinion, is the best way to clean (not necessarily polish) a guitar, and what is the most difficult guitar to clean?

Here's a partial list of stuff I've tried:
Martin, Dunlop, Preservation Polish, Gibson, Fender, plain water, water with dish soap, windex, water with windex, novus 1, 2, and 3 (watch out for that 3!).

[Tim Mace]

Do you subject your instruments to a good buffing wheel or just rub 'em a lot?

[Ted Kritikos]

I work with a lot of $$$ vintage guitars that I wouldn't dare buff out. I'd like to be able to clean the oil and dirt off of a guitar, leaving just the old finish behind without making it too overly shiny. Old black gibson finishes seem to be the hardest for me to achieve this.

[Ron Frazier]

Try some simple green

Ron