Pickups..

Author
Discussion

esselte

Original Poster:

14,626 posts

273 months

Sunday 19th July 2009
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My son has an Ibanez bass,last year at uni his house had a basement which he and his housemates used as a music room,problem is it must have been a little bit damp 'cos the pickups appear to have gone a bit tarnished...does anyone have any recommendation as to what is best to use to clear this off..I've stuff in the garage that I use on the shiny bits of the cars..would this be OK or is it best left alone....any advice from anyone ....?

Evangelion

7,903 posts

184 months

Sunday 19th July 2009
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Bit difficult to give advice without knowing precisely what model of bass we're dealing with or seeing a photo but here goes (fools rush in, etc ...).

I'm assuming the pickup covers are metal of some sort; usually they're chrome or nickel plated brass. Nothing wrong with using whatever you use to clean the chrome bits of your car, or ordinary metal polish or even T-Cut. Probably best to remove the pickups first to get at the covers better - probably no need to disconnect them electrically, just unscrew the surrounds from the guitar body, this will also avoid getting polish where you don't want it.

On the other hand if it ain't broke don't fix it! If the pickups continue to work as they should you could just leave them. After all many people prefer an instrument that looks used, over one that looks new.

gbbird

5,193 posts

250 months

Monday 20th July 2009
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As above, i would have thought any domestic/car polishing stuff should so the trick. The Duraglit wadding stuff is excellent for this sort of thing - have used this for years to clean my frets, and it does a wonderful job.

g