Discard

Folks, a gentle reminder not to be sentimental with expendable hardware. These screws were downright rusty & should be discarded. Why you shouldn't continue using them: 1) Rusty screws are fragile, they might snap in the midst of removing them. This becomes very expensive to remove as most of us do not have the proper tools for such extractions 2) Rusty screws are sometimes immovable, you might strip / round the slots while trying to unscrew them & once again, it becomes an expensive endeavour.

You'd be surprised at how affordable these screws are at your neighbourhood hardware stores. These are also available at electronics shop in Sim Lim Square. Bring samples if you are unsure of which replacements to purchase. If you think screws from a Gibson guitar for instance, should be retained & revived for value retention, ask yourselves if Gibson makes such screws to begin with.

Re-string Thursday: Anni Greenie

I'm in one of those mood swings again; rejecting anything with tune-o-matic in the mean time. This Greenie here got some playing time today; the entire morning, in fact.

But not without a re-string first. Look at those rusty strings & I kept this in its hard case all along. The fur / lining that came into contact with the strings caused this to happen. To think that the hard case was supposed to prevent such things from happening.

Darco to the rescue. The pickups in this guitar: SD Jazz (n) / Ibanez default (m) / SD Custom (b).

Tight

It's not until the recent volume pot replacement of my Ibanez SV5470 that I discovered these rusty/ corroded screws. Still wondering how they deteriorated this bad since the probability of moisture entering those small cavities are remote. Whatever. These were replaced.

This is the cavity view of the said Ibanez SV5470. It's definitely a tight space in there housing 2 control pots, a very big capacitor an a 5-way selector switch. Note that the volume pot there is a push-pull coil split feature which is a little long but it would definitely fit if you designate it at the volume position. I'm saying this because there are techs out there claiming such pots won't ever fit into the shallow cavity of an S-Series guitar. Of course, if you bought the longer shaft version, it won't fit for sure. Stick to the standard version. 

Internal decay

I cannot recall the day when I have issues raising the guitar's string height. Last weekend, when that happened due to a stiff trem post, it's not a good sign. Some contact spray was used to get things moving & that was a rather easy feat. A little probing using cotton buds revealed a serious case of internal rusting as seen above.

Two cotton buds & four very rusty tips later, surprisingly, things got cleaned up. The culprit post was throughly cleaned & oiled before reliving its days in that cavity. I couldn't imagine introducing so much moisture in there for this to happen. In fact, I didn't remove the post at all so there's no handling on my part which left two possibilities: 1) A rusty part was used to begin with 2) Someone at the factory handled the part with sweaty hands. Hmm...

What?

I managed to drop by Beat Spot yesterday after work. They are clearing their Laney amps & they were displayed proximate to the store's entrance. Majority of the amps had moldy covers so that would put potential buyers off but prices were good. Moving to the guitars section at the glass panel showcase, the instruments were evidently not taken care of. Hardware was visibly oxidized & some guitars had rusty pickup pole pieces (no, they were not relic models). 

I have no idea if the store is on the verge of calling it quits judging by the state of their wares but it's a little disturbing considering the fact that they are actually intended for sale. To think that this used to be one of my favourite haunt some time ago (when Beez was around).

Unworthy (strings content)

This happened yesterday. Showing only one of the strings, yes, the rest were rusty as well. All trashed.

So I thought the coated version wouldn't be rotten but hell no... the irony of it all; coated set to retard corrosion but they died even before putting them into action.

I have given up on Ernie Ball years ago, this is the reason why you don't see my re-string updates featuring EBs. I gave them a second chance ibecause they made effort to have the strings in sealed packs as depicted here but that guarantees nothing. As far as I'm concerned, EB strings are not worth the trouble & I need not worry about alternatives because there are plenty out there. 

For the record, D'Addario & SIT strings are the more reliable ones in this aspect. Come to think of it, I started with EBs, loved them for their crunchy freshness which was very addictive. D'Addario, on the other hand, was a frustrating affair; they started to corrode the moment I had them in my guitars. Years later, it's a reversal of reality, EBs are hype & their standards in preservation are much to be desired. D'Addario had become a very player-centered company, they listened to feedback & tried their best each & every time. Salute!