Virtuoso

About The Virtuoso Group

The Virtuoso Group, Inc. has been active in the vintage and boutique guitar industry since 1995. The genesis was Virtuoso Vintage Guitars, Inc., which was started in a quest to provide a better alternative to serious collectors who sought out world class instruments. Virtuoso's specialty was pre war Martin and Gibson acoustics, Custom Color Fender instruments and rare Gibson's.

In the years that Virtuoso Vintage Guitars was in business, their offerings (and subsequent sales) included pre war Martin D-45's, OM-42's and OM-45's, civil war era Martins, numerous Fender Custom Color and maple neck Strats and Teles. The Gibson offerings included everything from Orville period mandolins, Style O's and Harp guitars to "59 Les Paul Standards, dot neck ES-335's and rare limited editions like "The Les Paul". Other notable instruments include the last guitar signed by C.F. Martin the III, a rare 10 screw pickguard '59 Stratocaster (Custom Color, birdseye maple neck, no neck date), The Gary Josey D-45 and Mike Longworth's employee 1968 12 fret Slothead D-45.

Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner grew out of the need to care for these instruments. Even though they may have been world class instruments, when we got them they weren't always in world class condition. The guitar care products available in 1995 would not clean the finishes without either (a) adding to the grime or (b) damaging the finish.

We set out to find a chemist capable of helping us develop a guitar care system that would allow us to clean years of accumulated dirt and grime without lifting or damaging the finish and also help protect the finish and wood underneath going forward. After numerous attempts and formula changes we arrived at the products now known as Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner. It is the only two part cleaning system designed specifically for nitrocellulose lacquer finishes. It also works wonders on polyurethane and UV cured finishes found on newer instruments.

The products were designed and developed to help prepare our instruments for sale, not specifically as a resale item. Only after numerous requests at vintage guitar shows did we decide to offer Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner for sale to the public.

Try some and find out why serious collectors around the world won't use anything but Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner on their instruments.

Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner are two superior musical instrument care products that were especially developed for vintage guitars and other musical instruments. Vintage instruments with nitrocellulose lacquer finishes require more care and attention than modern polyurethane finishes that are being produced today. The polish and cleaner are different than any other polish or cleaner that you may have used with your musical instruments in the past.

If you are interested in reading the most current product review on our Polish and Cleaner, please visit Musicians Hotline Product Review January 2001.

Virtuoso Premium Cleaner was created to cut through years of build up whether it is wax, sweat, spilled beverages or cigarette smoke.

If your musical instrument is already clean, we suggest you use Virtuoso Premium Polish. In addition to offering your instrument a high luster, fingerprint resistant finish, the Virtuoso Premium Polish also provides a very high degree of UV protection.

Both the Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner use a chemical reaction to break down residues. We do not use abrasives, which can harm the original finish of your instruments. Please check out our Directions For Use page, which will give you detailed instructions for use.

Why would I spend $10.00 on a bottle of musical instrument polish? This is a question we are often asked by people who have never used our product. We are the first to admit that Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner are the most expensive products in their respective categories. If we could manufacture and sell it for less money, we certainly would. At $10.00 per bottle we are limiting our potential customer base and as anyone in business will tell you, you want to appeal to as many people as possible.

Having said that, let us tell you a little about why our products cost what they do. First of all, our ingredients are unlike the ingredients used in other musical instrument care products on the market today. Most musical instrument polishes you buy are using carnuba wax to achieve the shine on your instrument.

Carnuba wax have no inherent cleaning capabilities. You are removing fingerprints and dust more from the friction of rubbing the polish in than any cleaning function of the product. Another downside of carnuba wax is that it builds up on your finish.

As the years go by, the chemicals in your sweat react with them and you wind up with a hazy finish in the area where your skin comes into contact with your musical instrument. This is readily apparent in the lower bass bout of most vintage instruments, especially in ones with dark finishes.

How many black Les Pauls and sunburst acoustics have you seen with a hazy half moon where your arm rests? Virtuoso Premium Polish and Virtuoso Premium Cleaner are different. Virtuoso Premium Cleaner is designed to attack any organic based substance found on your finish and remove it. Virtuoso Premium Polish does the same thing, although it's cleaning properties are not as strong as Virtuoso Premium Cleaner.

Virtuoso Premium Polish is more of a protection product. During an application the polish seals your finish with a strong glaze that helps slow down the oxidation of your finish and protect the color of the wood or the pigment in the painted or stained finish with an inherent UV filter. This will help your musical instrument look new longer or help keep your vintage musical instrument from fading. This glaze is also fingerprint resistant, allowing you to go weeks or months without another application. Simply get a clean cloth and wipe your instrument to restore the brilliant luster. Prior to bottling our polish, our bottles are fluorinated. The process of fluorinating creates an invisible barrier between the PVC bottle interior wall and the chemicals in bottle. The PVC plastic that 99% of plastic bottles are made from tends to react with the chemical used to suspend the actual particles in the polish. This is known as "leeching". The visible result of leeching is the sides of the bottle begin to collapse inward, giving the bottle an hourglass appearance. While a narrow waist may be good on a human body, it is not a good thing for a bottle of polish.

The invisible result is the change in the chemical composition of the polish itself. As the leeching occurs, the PVC releases chemicals of it's own into the polish, which changes the chemical formulation of a polish. Such a reaction can have adverse affect on your finish if an altered polish is used. It is an additional step we choose to take to improve performance of our products.

Even if you didn't spend $10,000 on your instrument, shouldn't you treat it as if you had?