Speaker Polish? REVISITED

I have been an amateur furniture and cabinet maker for over 30 years and have done some custom work for clients occasionally.
The recommendations to use wax touch up sticks and felt marking pens is very good advice. It is cheap, effective and most importantly, you can remove the product if it does not blend in correctly. With the permanent markers be sure to try them in an inconspicuous place first. Test it for color matching and then quickly wipe it off off see if it leave a permanent stain. If it does, then wipe it off with mineral spirits and a rag or paper towel.

Tung oil is not really a polish. It is a wood finishing product similiar to varnish. In fact marine spar varnish gets its durability and weather proof ability because it contains more tung oil in the formula. You would use tung oil products to finish a piece of furniture after final sanding and staining. Usually applying two or more coats and lightly sanding (600 grit) between coats.

I have applied tung oil (Formby semi-gloss tung oil varnish works well)over existing finishes with good results. Just be sure to test it in a hidden spot first. The more coats of semi-gloss you apply the glossier the finish will become.

I have tried many different furniture polishes and quite frankly the best I have found is common old Pledge. Quite a few excellent cabinet makers around the country use this as a final touch up on very expensive custom made products.

Go slow, take care and good luck.

Dave
Regarding polish.....Goddards is good, I use Pledge, to be honest almost all the commercial stuff will work. Manufactures of wood polish products would have you believe that you must polish furniture to protect it and regular polishing is necessary for proper care of the finish. But when you cut through the hype, people apply polish to make the finish "shine" more. A well applied varnish finish over veneer (your case) does not need anything applied to protect it.
Your original question was "anybody know how to buff that nasty scratch out". What you have learned here Dave is that you "should not" try to buff the scratch out. In doing so you risk cutting through the entire varnish finish down to the wood. Yes, you would have "removed" the scratch but this would leave you with a major refinish job on the entire surface.
Just hide the scratch as you propose, put a coat of polish on the entire speaker to even out the appearance and call it a day.
If this is not good enough then send me an email and you can call me on the phone and I'll give you other options.
For what it's worth I fixed a scratch on my Vienna Acoustics Mahler speakers(rosewood veneered, gloss varnished)using a wax stick, touch up pens and Pledge. The scratch is still there but you would have to know where to look to find it.

Happy Holidays