About rust on poles

[Jotapi]

Hi,

Some little spots which seem to be rust appeared on some poles of my pickups. I was not able to attach pics to show how it looks. The guitar is a Fender American Special Stratocaster. I bought it two years ago. The name of the pickups is "Texas special".

Please, I would like to ask if I should try to remove the rust from the poles?
If yes, how should I proceed?

Yours sincerely,

Jean

[Dan Graves]

Personally i'd leave it, but if it bothers you you can remove it.
A little fine gauge steel wool will do fine, just give them a light scrub with it.

[shadowscott007]

Do you worry about steel wool bits sticking to the pick-up?  Would some of that microfiber cloth be better?  Just asking.

Shadow

[Borodog]

That's patina, bro. People pay extra for that.

And whatever you do, if you take steel wool to the pole pieces, don't scratch up the pickups or the pick guard, and do not try to remove steel wool bits from the pole pieces with a magnet, as you can demagnetize the pole pieces.

[TB-AV]

Leave it the hell alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.and NEVER use steel wool around pickups... there are modern non-magnetic materials that would be equally suitable should you wish to go to that part of town.... but don't go there!!

LEAVE IT ALONE !!!! it's normal.

Dan..... have you still got that Trout handy.... please smack yourself with it for me. If it's frozen... all the better.

[justinguitar]

bit of rust is nothing to worry about at all. I recommend just leaving it!

[Dan Graves]

@ TB-AV : I've used fine steel wool (AKA 0# grade) plenty of times on pickups for local guitarists who didn't dig rust (which they get from time to time, living near the coast and all), if you use the fine grade there'll be no problem.
It's not as if the magnets in a pickup are so strong that the steel wool becomes this unremovable mess IF (and that is a big IF) any bits come off onto the pole pieces.
I'm also not suggesting the OP should go nuts on them, a slight rub is all that's needed if it bothers him.

And no, i will not smack myself with a trout, that would be severe animal cruelty, and since PETA already wants me dead for wearing leather boots and a leather jacket, the last thing i need is them breathing down my neck for abusing a fish 

@ Borodog : agree with never ever using a magnet to remove bits of steel wool from the pickups, as it's just a bad idea, but i must partially disagree with 'demagnetizing the polepieces' bit, as that would depend on how the pickup is constructed.
See this image for example : https://d2wvyzrb6llnwb.cloudfront.net/article_images/large/1118576_com_magnetswap.jpg
Humbuckers (and quite a number of single coils these days) are constructed that way, the polepiece screws and slugs will simply be ferrous.
See also : https://www.google.com/search?q=anatomy+of+a+humbucker&safe=off&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=QLPqU8eGGIniOs6TgKAG&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAA&biw=1920&bih=870&dpr=1
And for sake of information, here's what a P90 looks like : http://www.planetz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/CoAxe-Bobbin-Assembly4.jpg

@ shadow : for slight patina, yes, for actual rust, the microfiber cloth will not do much if you really want to get rid of it.

[TB-AV]

Well, I'll tell you what... at one time I had the only guitar in town with steel wool whiskers on the pickups and took me forever to get it all off.

There is nothing steel wool can do that you can't do with 3M pads.

you might get by with #0 which is actually medium-fine but you go to extra fine 0000# and you will have metal wool dust everywhere.

ETA.. btw, you could screw up the magnetism if you get a strong enough magnet to pull steel wool dust off the pole pieces. Normally to remagnatize pickups you use two magnets N and S. I'm not sure what happens if a strong single pole field comes into play... but probably nothing good.

Normal

Strong North|   PICKUP  |Strong South   that will re-magnatize the pickup.

PICKUP |Strong South  --- not sure what will happen here but it could impact the pickup as a whole. Regardless of how the pickup is made.

[Borodog]

Tape.

[TB-AV]

Razor Blade.

[Dan Graves]

I can agree with the razorblade, if the rust is new enough.
It it's been building for a few weeks, it may take a lot of scratching with a razor to get it off.

As for the magnetic changes, do take note i agreed one should never, ever bring a magnet near the pickups, i just disagreed with demagnetizing the polepieces, as one can't demagnetize a ferrous polepiece that never was magnetic to begin with.

Also, are you sure steel wool 0# is medium fine ?
I remember that being 1# (going off the U.S. measures here, in most of Europe one tends to just get fine medium and coarse).

[TB-AV]

I can agree with the razorblade, if the rust is new enough.
It it's been building for a few weeks, it may take a lot of scratching with a razor to get it off.

Oh, I didn't mean to use it for rust... I thought we were into thread drift and simply naming inanimate objects on our desks.

As for the magnetic changes, do take note i agreed one should never, ever bring a magnet near the pickups, i just disagreed with demagnetizing the polepieces, as one can't demagnetize a ferrous polepiece that never was magnetic to begin with.

I think he meant the pickup in general. As in the pole pieces are the part that ultimately pulls on the strings. We don't say 'move your magnets closer'... we say 'adjust your pole pieces closer'

Also, are you sure steel wool 0# is medium fine ?
I remember that being 1# (going off the U.S. measures here, in most of Europe one tends to just get fine medium and coarse).

Ah the life of the under privileged... how easily I forget.. ... three grades of steel wool... how barbaric.

0# steel wool is a transition grade from medium into the finer stuff. It's like 120 grit sandpaper. Very few companies have the same system for grit grading like diamonds and things. They all tend have a system based on something but 0# is your transition from medium grades into fine grades... and for instance 000# will remove rust from stainless.

But again, when working around magnets most everyone would choose to use the modern products.

Like this... http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Sanding/3M_Flexible_Polishing_Papers.html


Also I have a couple of these hanging around. They feel like a slightly gritty/rubbery/slippery regular eraser.

I've cleaned up tools and stuff with these. http://www.amazon.com/Super-Premium-Polishing-Eraser-Single/dp/B001DMX6OG

I have never used one on a guitar because I would never clean a guitar.... I mean what's next... first you clean it then people are going to expect you to tune the damn thing.

[Jotapi]

Hi everybody,

Thank you very much for your answers!

Jean