Cleaning Instruments, pianos, string instruments Options

[pianochic]

Hi, waht's the best way to clean your piano? I recently got a new yamaha..it is gorgeous, but it gets dirty with fingerprints and dusty very easily. I hate seeing the fingerprints over it...mostly on the lid, where i have to open and close it. But it just seems that i never get it as clean as i would like it to be.

on the other hand...my violin...it is almost 200 years old...i've been told never to use any polish that is claimed to be for stringed instruments, and to send it to a violin repair shop...problem is, i didn't buy my violin in my country, and there aren't any violin repair shops here. What is the simplest way to clean it? I had a venezuelan 'mentor' who used to use lighter fluid to clean his, but i never experimented with it. My pegs are made of ivory, and unfortunately, because i have sweaty palms, they're no longer white/cream, but have turned to this sort of...tainted white/yellow looking colour. It doesn't look bad..it sort of adds character to my instrument...but is there any way to clean that, or is that totally irrepairable?

i'm afraid to do anything or use anything on my instrument that with 'harm' it, so to speak. Because as you all know, a musician's instrument is his/her pride and joy.