Rust removal
- Thread starter AlexLee
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Crawldaddy
New member
Hmm.
Sanding and polishing are two ways to go about doing it.
For your frets I'd suggest a fine-grit sandpaper (grade 1000), followed by metal polish (brasso).
Pickup screws and tremoloes are a trickier issue, but a rougher sand-paper to remove the rust would be a wise move, followed by a cleaning with naptha (lighter fluid) and a once-over with metal polish.
After you're done with that 3-step with the screws and tremolo I'd suggest you get a can of clear lacquer and give the screws and tremolo (I'm thinking you're talking about the saddles or the tremolo body individually right?) a thin coat of lacquer for individual parts.
Remember: lacquer for individual parts ONLY. Lacquer helps prohibit the growth of rust due to the isolation of the metal parts from moisture.
Sanding and polishing are two ways to go about doing it.
For your frets I'd suggest a fine-grit sandpaper (grade 1000), followed by metal polish (brasso).
Pickup screws and tremoloes are a trickier issue, but a rougher sand-paper to remove the rust would be a wise move, followed by a cleaning with naptha (lighter fluid) and a once-over with metal polish.
After you're done with that 3-step with the screws and tremolo I'd suggest you get a can of clear lacquer and give the screws and tremolo (I'm thinking you're talking about the saddles or the tremolo body individually right?) a thin coat of lacquer for individual parts.
Remember: lacquer for individual parts ONLY. Lacquer helps prohibit the growth of rust due to the isolation of the metal parts from moisture.
Crawldaddy
New member
Hmm.
Put it this way. The methods I have described above are pretty effective because I had learned them from guitar maintenance books borrowed from the library and I tried it out on my own guitars to good effect.
Using of dunlop products is akin to washing dishes with soap. They're bound to get dirty again after a meal which means you have to keep using soap to wash it. Is there a cleaning product which allows you to have perpetually spick and span crockery?
I have yet to see it.
Metal parts aren't like meat whereby you just have to 'season' it with sauces and it'll be ready for cooking. If your metal frets rust or tarnish, unless you maintain them religiously they will tarnish again and again.
Lacquer is pretty much for rusty parts which do not come under alot of wear and tear. Spraying lacquer on your frets would not be that great a thing because once you bend a string, the metal strings scrape away the protective layer.
For example, my old acoustic guitar had those open-back tuners which could be dismantled. Since the tuning pegs were super rusty, I took the tuners apart, secured the tuning peg in my dad's hand-drill and used one hand to press the "throttle control" (with the main drill body lying on my knee) while the other hand used a piece of sandpaper to evenly scrape off the rust.
After I was done getting rid of the rust, I polished it up nice and proper (with metal polish), and gave it a nice coating of lacquer. Rust problem solved, but due to the fact that those tuners weren't that well made, I soon gave up on them and boguht myself a set of die-cast tuners to zhng my old acoustic.
Put it this way. The methods I have described above are pretty effective because I had learned them from guitar maintenance books borrowed from the library and I tried it out on my own guitars to good effect.
Using of dunlop products is akin to washing dishes with soap. They're bound to get dirty again after a meal which means you have to keep using soap to wash it. Is there a cleaning product which allows you to have perpetually spick and span crockery?
I have yet to see it.
Metal parts aren't like meat whereby you just have to 'season' it with sauces and it'll be ready for cooking. If your metal frets rust or tarnish, unless you maintain them religiously they will tarnish again and again.
Lacquer is pretty much for rusty parts which do not come under alot of wear and tear. Spraying lacquer on your frets would not be that great a thing because once you bend a string, the metal strings scrape away the protective layer.
For example, my old acoustic guitar had those open-back tuners which could be dismantled. Since the tuning pegs were super rusty, I took the tuners apart, secured the tuning peg in my dad's hand-drill and used one hand to press the "throttle control" (with the main drill body lying on my knee) while the other hand used a piece of sandpaper to evenly scrape off the rust.
After I was done getting rid of the rust, I polished it up nice and proper (with metal polish), and gave it a nice coating of lacquer. Rust problem solved, but due to the fact that those tuners weren't that well made, I soon gave up on them and boguht myself a set of die-cast tuners to zhng my old acoustic.
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