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Post subject: Rust on pickups
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:45 pm
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What does rust do to the 3 single coil pickups? Over time will it kill the pick up? And what will it do to the bridge?


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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:19 pm
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Other than looking like crap, the rust on the pickup pole pieces usually will not hurt the pickup, or it's sound. As for rust on the bridge, aside from looking bad, the only issues is it can eventually seize the adjustment screws in the saddles for string height and the intonation screws if it gets REAL bad.


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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:57 am
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The rust can get down into the pickup and could cause the coil to break which would kill the pickup. At which time, it'll need rewinding or replacing.

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:11 pm
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Yeah, but that would have to be an extreme case of rust. Almost all of my guitars have the pole pieces rusted or at least tarnished. It is almost unavoidable. I did take some sandpaper and knock some of the rust off of some pickups once, and didn't notice it harming anything...........I guess a fella could use a Q-tip coated with WD-40 or a light oil to swap the pole pieces each time you change strings or clean the instrument.....


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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:41 pm
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orvilleowner wrote:
The rust can get down into the pickup and could cause the coil to break which would kill the pickup. At which time, it'll need rewinding or replacing.

Thats right orville especially on the old Fender pickups that are direct wound to the magnets rust speeds up the chemical reaction between the winding and the pole. Only way to fix is rewind.

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:18 pm
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Does anyone have a picture of what would be considered severe rust?


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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 1:40 am
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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 1:50 am
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Shockwarrior wrote:
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Definitely "road-worn"!

:lol:

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:03 am
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If its 10 times worse than this its getting bad but it they start to rust you can do some preventative maintenance.

On single coils where you can get the pickup covers off. I would carefully tape off (with low tack masking tape) the whole pickup aside from the exposed bobbins. Then I would use a cutting compound on a Dremel polishing bit to rub off any surface rust and perhaps use a rust inhibitor on it and let it sit. Afterward coat it with some clear lacquer or varnish to water proof it remove the tape and pop the cover back on.

Keep in mind it will probably devalue your pickups if they look spanking new again.
If anyone has any better suggest I'm interested. I've tried using caustic chemicals to dissolve the rust but its really messy and worked poorly. Using sandpaper or steel wool without taping off all the pickups can make a mess.

Whatever you do see those thin wires? Those break easily so be careful.
You might pull a rusty pickups cover off and find that it breaths its last breath.
You can always get them rewound if the wire is really bad.

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 5:41 am
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I had the same problem on my 2004 DLX when I got it.

Now before you go taking any form of powertool to the pickups. Be aware that if you cause excessive heat, the magnets will lose their magnetism. You've gotta cause vast amounts of heat though.
All I did was use the metal covered paper, from the inside of a cigarette packet. Spent a bit of time rubbing that over em. It's not perfect, but is gentle and free.
If you're going to use files, sandpaper or anything coarse to knock the bulk of the rust off the polepieces. You will need to shield the coils to stop debris getting in. :wink:

As an interesting aside on old pickups. I got the Kinnman newsletter t'other day.

Chris Kinnman wrote:
While I have your attention I want to announce the release of an important new Kinman Strat pickup, the Impersonator 54. This pickup represents a major milestone in the evolution of hum-cancelling design for Fender genre single coils because it is the first to achieve non-aged sound.

Non-aged means scooped mids (high transparency) and brilliant highs with gun-shot attack and wide dynamic range where the sound does not break up under heavy pick attack.

The impersonator 54 is such a revolution because all existing noiseless Strat pickups with Alnico rod magnets (regardless of brand) deliver Aged sound where the midrange is more prominent, the highs are not as brilliant, the attack is softer and the sound breaks into crunch under heavy pick attack.

First let me explain Aged Sound with this rather interesting experience I had some years ago: a customer sent two 1964 Stratocaster pickups for repair, both were open circuit with broken wires in the coils. In one pickup the break was near the termination point and I was able to repair it without rewinding. The other one could not be repaired and had to be rewound, which I did using the original Formvar HF42 wire type. I wound it to the same DC resistance and tension which I judged from the repaired pickup. It looked identical and the resistance measured identical to the repaired pickup. But when I tested them in a guitar they sounded very different.

The one with the original coil which I repaired sounded dull and lifeless, it also had comparatively low output and the sound broke into distortion when I picked it strongly. The rewound one sounded just like a great NEW Strat pickup, bright, spanky, alive and loud and no matter how forceful the strings were picked/strummed the sound held together and did not break up.

With my curiosity aroused I measured the magnet strength and found them to be the same as a new pickup. I re-magnetized both pickups anyway but the sound did not change from either pickup. This experiment exploded the myth that aged magnets were the reason for this massive difference in sound. So I concluded it had to be the coil itself since there is nothing else to explain it. Another well known pickup manufacturer claims weaker magnets are the reason that old pickups sound sweet, but I can not confirm that claim when I deliberately degauss magnets.

To confirm my suspicion about aging of the coil I ran some analytical Q plots on both pickups, see the image below. To obtain absolute conclusive proof I also rewound the second (excessively aged) pickup. It then sounded identical to the first rewound pickup and returned an identical Q plot.

It turns out that Formvar insulation is not age stable, it’s an unsophisticated old technology coating that degrades over time, unlike modern Polyurethane coatings which seem to go on forever. Formvar is also sensitive to heat treatment so depending on the length of time spent in, and the temperature of the wax pot at time of manufacture, it took longer to degrade. That’s the reason some old Strat pickups aged more severely than others over a similar time span. Those with slight to moderate aging lost some ice-pick brittleness and sound sweeter than examples of new pickups. Those with excessive aging, like the one I repaired, sound so dull and lifeless as to be unusable, something like turning the tone control down to 3.


What I want to know is. In the 4th paragraph, he claims the repaired pickups sounded completely different to before. Well how does he know if they were't working before? Or does he mean different to eachother?

You can't trust any of em can you? Despite Kinnman making great pickups.

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 5:47 am
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Another preventative measure I've heard is clear nail polish.

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:11 pm
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What ever you do DON'T! get wire wool anywhere near the pickups, the filing's will get inside the pickup an kill it, making it virtually imposable to get them out if not imposable!

What i use on all my guitars an basses is a pencil eraser, it can be a slow process depending on how bad it is but well worth the effort if its not going to do any damage.
Then to finish it off i put a small amount of gun-stock oil on to a cotton bud an apply it to the pole pieces, then wipe the excess off with a dry cloth, as with most things "less is always more"

I generally do this about once a year to keep on top of it but as an when needed is never a bad thing.
Hope this was some help

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 4:06 pm
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fendersonly wrote:
Does anyone have a picture of what would be considered severe rust?


I'll have to search for an appropriate pic, but my vote goes to Richard Thompson's workhorse strat. That is a well played strat... :shock:

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:35 pm
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fendersonly wrote:
but my vote goes to Richard Thompson's workhorse strat. That is a well played strat... :shock:


+1
And Rory Gallagher's Strat, I heard that when the Custom shop got there hands on it to make the tribute model that nobody was willing to touch it for fear of breaking something it was/is that rotten/corroded ! :P

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Post subject: Re: Rust on pickups
Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 9:47 am
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Steve-oh-no wrote:
Yeah, but that would have to be an extreme case of rust. Almost all of my guitars have the pole pieces rusted or at least tarnished. It is almost unavoidable. I did take some sandpaper and knock some of the rust off of some pickups once, and didn't notice it harming anything...........I guess a fella could use a Q-tip coated with WD-40 or a light oil to swap the pole pieces each time you change strings or clean the instrument.....


DO NOT .....use WD-40 on anything on your guitar other than a seized screw, and only then after having removed the entire offending unit from your guitar.
WD-40 is extremely harmful to plastic, rubber and especially paint.
It is designed to break up corrosion and the chemical in it are extremely aggressive towards any other material other than metal.( that being said, it will lift off plating from parts if there are minuscule cracks in the plating.)

In addition since it infiltrates into minuscule gaps it will work it's way down into your pickup bobbin and very likely damage the inside

I use WD-40 in my job but would never use it for anything but its intent. Especially not anything as fragile as a guitar's guts...

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