how to remove rust form guitar hardware, screws and pick-up pole pieces?

[Santuzzo]

Hi,

I had left my black Sterling JP70 in a case for a few months, and oddly enough, even though I had left two packs of silica gel in the case with the guitar, when I opened the case a few days ago, the strings, the hardware (tuning heads), neck screws, back plate screws, pick-up pole pieces were rusted.
The hardware is painted black, but it seems underneath the black paint there is some rust.
The frets have some kind of greenish-oxidation on them as well, not rust, though.
I attached some pics:






What would be the best way to remove the rust from the pick-up pole pieces, the neck screws, back plate screws, etc?
How would I best clean the frets from the oxidation?
I assume there is nothing I can do about the rust that's underneath the black paint of the locking tuners?

Thanks!
Lars

PS: Sorry about the typo in the title ('form' instead of 'FROM', happens to me all the time...lol.) I wanted to edit it, but I can't change the title once it's been posted.....

 

[Adieu]

Cant do anything

Sanding corroded metal parts helps but itll be back with a vengeance on a few months... however you don't have unpainted metal here.

That's shit tier metal bubbling up from underneath the finish. It's probably pressed half-melted powder underneath, which is pretty much unsandable

 

[Santuzzo]

Cant do anything

Sanding corroded metal parts helps but itll be back with a vengeance on a few months... however you don't have unpainted metal here.

That's shit tier metal bubbling up from underneath the finish. It's probably pressed half-melted powder underneath, which is pretty much unsandable

Thanks.
I can easily replace those back plate screws with chrome ones, probably the neck screws as well, I just have ti find the exact same size in a hardware store.
The tuners I may have to live with then. That or replace them.
But what about the pick-up pole pieces?

 

[bostjan]

Frets: Painter's tape and scotchbrite. Screws- new screws to replace the rusted ones. Tuners - probably new keys. Pickups- not sure/it depends. I'd recommend new pickups anyway, but you might be able to get in there enough to make them look a little better if you mask off the plastic and scotchbrite the poles, although it'd take a certian balance of strength and finnesse. Strings- replace 'em. If that's corrosion on the neck plate, you could take it off and try CLR or something similar, but there is a fair chance it could make it look worse if it's some sort of chrome-plated potmetal (which it might be), so you might want to just leave it as-is.

 

[Santuzzo]

Frets: Painter's tape and scotchbrite. Screws- new screws to replace the rusted ones. Tuners - probably new keys. Pickups- not sure/it depends. I'd recommend new pickups anyway, but you might be able to get in there enough to make them look a little better if you mask off the plastic and scotchbrite the poles, although it'd take a certian balance of strength and finnesse. Strings- replace 'em. If that's corrosion on the neck plate, you could take it off and try CLR or something similar, but there is a fair chance it could make it look worse if it's some sort of chrome-plated potmetal (which it might be), so you might want to just leave it as-is.

Thanks!
The pick-ups are not the stock PUs, these are DiMarzios I swapped the stock PUs with.

 

[Adieu]

Stilll.... that is so weird

It's a new-ish guitar right? Are you somewhere super-humid?

 

[thriveNSuffer]

CLR and qtips bro

 

[Santuzzo]

Stilll.... that is so weird

It's a new-ish guitar right? Are you somewhere super-humid?

It's not super new, no, I think I have had it for 8 years or so. However, this rust accumulated only from the guitar being in a case for a few months. All my other guitars that have been in their cases for even longer are fine (no rust or any other issues, I checked all of them), only this one. And what makes it even more weird, this is the only guitar that had silica gel packs in the case with it.....

CLR and qtips bro

Thanks! CLR is a cleaning agent?

 

[Adieu]

More of a reagent/solvent for mineral deposits and rust stains

 

[bostjan]

Those silica gel packs don't make that much of a difference, unless they are used properly. For one, they can trap about 40% of their own weight in water, but they act very quickly, usually becoming saturated in 15-20 minutes. So, if they were not freshly opened packs going right into the case before you sealed the case airtight with the guitar, they probably didn't help that much. In fact, if they were old packs that were already saturated (say you opened them up on a warm humid day and didn't use them within a few minutes, and then the temperature of the inside of the case got cooler during storage), the silica packs could have actually made the humidity in the case worse.

But my guess is that the case doesn't seal air-tight anyway, so the packs probably did nothing long-term.

CLR is a mixture of low-toxicity acids (lactic acid, gluconic acid, etc.) and detergent, marketed at consumers who want to remove rust stains from their bathtubs or whatever. It works reasonably well and is not as dangerous as industrial products (but still handle it with caution, as it is caustic). If you use it on your pole pieces, you'll want to make sure you don't get it inside of the pickup, because it will be impossible to remove the acid without taking the pickup apart, and leaving it inside of your pickup could easily cause irreversible damage to the potting and wiring (thus the q-tip).

 

[Santuzzo]

Those silica gel packs don't make that much of a difference, unless they are used properly. For one, they can trap about 40% of their own weight in water, but they act very quickly, usually becoming saturated in 15-20 minutes. So, if they were not freshly opened packs going right into the case before you sealed the case airtight with the guitar, they probably didn't help that much. In fact, if they were old packs that were already saturated (say you opened them up on a warm humid day and didn't use them within a few minutes, and then the temperature of the inside of the case got cooler during storage), the silica packs could have actually made the humidity in the case worse.

But my guess is that the case doesn't seal air-tight anyway, so the packs probably did nothing long-term.

CLR is a mixture of low-toxicity acids (lactic acid, gluconic acid, etc.) and detergent, marketed at cunsumers who want to remove rust stains from their bathtubs or whatever. It works reasonably well and is not as dangerous as industrial products (but still handle it with caution, as it is caustic). If you use it on your pole pieces, you'll want to make sure you don't get it inside of the pickup, because it will be impossible to remove the acid without taking the pickup apart, and leaving it inside of your pickup could easily cause irreversible damage to the potting and wiring (thus the q-tip).

Thanks again!
Yes, I was actually thinking the same, that those silica gel packs were probably causing the humidity, they were old and probably fully saturated and then at some point probably released humidity.
I looked it up and I'm not sure CLR is available over here in Europe, but I'll look for something similar.

 

[bostjan]

Jenolite is a somewhat similar product, but it is much more corrosive (so it will probably work a little faster). If you resort to that, make sure you get the thixotropic or the jelly, not the liquid, so that it won't work its way into crevices as quickly, and also make sure to wear protective equipment (gloves, safety goggles).