Hello everyone, I'm new here in this forum (and German -- so excuse my English, please).
I had the same problem and I did use the original Gibson metal cleaner. First of all, DON'T APPLY IT TO GOLD HARDWARE.
After cleaning the golden tune-o-matic of my pretty Les Paul Studio (wine red, very nice thing), the following happened:
1. Although I precisely followed Gibson's instructions on the bottle (you know, this "apply small amount .... rub to shine" thing), the gold coating almost immediately disappeared, exposing the silver metal underneath it.
2. Meanwhile the exposed silver surface has become almost black (due to oxidation or whatever). Shame!
So Gibson's advice not to use it comes a bit too late for me but fortunately, it's a relatively small black spot (and invisible when I'm playing because it's then hidden under my palm).
Of course, my Les Paul was a bit more "flawless" before, but in my opinion, the sound is much more important than perfect looks.
By the way: So far, I've applied Gibson's metal cleaner to the chrome bridge of my SG two or three times with absolutely no problems, so for chrome hardware the Gibson stuff seems to be OK.
What about this Dr. Duck's Ax Wax? Has somebody tried it?
Kind regards to all of you!
