Rust

[thesilence]

I pulled my old Fender mim Jazz out of the closet yesterday to donate to the youth group at my church. Upon inspecting it I saw it needed new strings which I expected; however, what I did not expect was what appears to be rust on the pole pieces and also a greenish/bluish substance on the higher frets. The bass has been in its case in my closet for about half a year without being played. What can I do to remove the rust and this other substance?

 

[ewimsatt]

Use 0000 Steel wool lubricated by a bit of olive oil for the frets. If the fingerboard is rosewood or ebony you can just go back and forth up and down the next hitting all the frets. If the fingerboard is maple or has a finish on it, you need to tape everything but the frets and then get to polishing. For the pickups, pull the covers off so you dont scratch them. You can use steel wool the get those clean as well, but you might want to try a dremel with a white wheel to get in the tight spaces.

FYI, the rusted pole piece is what is going to eventually cause the most trouble. As the pole rusts, it gets to the magnet wire and will eventually cause a short. This may be a decade off or more. Most all the pickup repairs I get into the shop for pickups made before 1970 are from this. (Except for people trying to remove humbucker covers.)

 

[thesilence]

Thanks. So if i go ahead and get rid of this rust now the pickups should be alright?

 

[ewimsatt]

Yeah, provided it doesn't extend past the flatwork.

 

[Pilgrim]

To clarify - don't go NEAR the pickups with steel wool - the broken fragments will stick to them (magnets, y'know). If you use steel wool on the frets, lay the bass flat so the broken fragments cannot drop onto the pickups.

A 3-M abrasive pad works as well and doesn't generate steel fragments that the magnets in the pickup can collect.

 

[ewimsatt]

I use steel wool on magnets almost every day. They collect on the poles. then all it takes to get it off is touching tape to them. The tape removes all the metal flakes stuck to the magnets.

I tried scotchbrite and a few other pads, but none of it worked as well as steel wool.

 

[testing1two]

To avoid the risks of steel wool, just mask the fingerboard using blue painters tape and polish the frets with metal polish and an old t-shirt. You can do the same thing with the pole pieces on the pickups although this may require removing the pickup from it's plastic cover, which should be done with care. If you don't want to use any compounds, Micro Mesh abrasives are fantastic for this kind of work. It's like super-fine sandpaper but feels like a cloth (I'd use the 1200MX grit which is made for metal polishing or the regular 12000 grit which works on metal but also on plastic, wood, paint, etc.). Invalid Link Removed

 

[DRafalske]

You might try bronze wool. It's more expensive, but won't stick to the magnets.

 

[ewimsatt]

You might try bronze wool. It's more expensive, but won't stick to the magnets.

Excellent idea. I'll have to try that.