What to clean a cello with?

Question

What's the best liquid to clean the fingerboard and strings of a cello? Obviously, not water! Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Clean the cello by rubbing gently with the dry cloth: Water is bad for the cello, but alcohol-based cleansers are much, much worse. You should never try to clean the cello with any type of liquid.

Ideally, the cleaning cloths should be of two different colors, so they won't get mixed up. One piece is for wiping the fingerboard after each music session (or before or during, if it feels sticky). The other is for wiping the rosin dust from the cello and bow stick after each session. The reason you need two pieces of cloth is because you should never wipe the fingerboard with a cloth that contains rosin dust. Doing so will make the fingerboard extremely sticky, which will make playing difficult.