shnaggletooth
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HB's on my 339 have scuffs/cloudiness. Tried Brasso on them, but no improvement. Should I spring for MusicNomad guitar polish, or is just the same as Brasso?
Polishing scuffed hambuckers
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Noodling Guitars
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Autosol or similar products and lots of elbow grease would do the trick! If you have a polishing wheel (just one that attaches onto a drill is sufficient), just apply a dab or two of autosol and a quick zip thru the wheel and you'll be all good.
Like the Noodle guy just wrote 
, it will need a lot of buffing action to get it nice again. A wheel is not a bad idea. It would get less messy if you took out the pup from the guitar, or at least tape the rings and cover the body.
You could use car paint polishing compound, but Autosol (I never used) sounds fine too.
, it will need a lot of buffing action to get it nice again. A wheel is not a bad idea. It would get less messy if you took out the pup from the guitar, or at least tape the rings and cover the body.You could use car paint polishing compound, but Autosol (I never used) sounds fine too.
imnotcreative
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As stated above, probably just about any metal polish will suffice.
Just don't overdo it. The plating isn't that thick of a layer so there will come a point where you will rub through the nickel plating.
When i put a cover on the humbucker in my LP BFG i scratched the inside of the cover slightly to make the solder stick better, took very little for the coper underneath to show up. The nickel layer was probably no more than 2/1000th of an inch thick. Polishing compounds aren't as coarse as scraping with a pair of tweezers, so you won't rub through as fast, but eventually you will
Just don't overdo it. The plating isn't that thick of a layer so there will come a point where you will rub through the nickel plating.
When i put a cover on the humbucker in my LP BFG i scratched the inside of the cover slightly to make the solder stick better, took very little for the coper underneath to show up. The nickel layer was probably no more than 2/1000th of an inch thick. Polishing compounds aren't as coarse as scraping with a pair of tweezers, so you won't rub through as fast, but eventually you will
Noodling Guitars
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btw... just because 
BlueSquirrel
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I've used Music Nomad's Pro Strength guitar polish on a very soft piece of microfiber cloth on nickel hardware. It has made some improvement but I've used it extremely gently. Be very careful with it.
Btw, the bottle reads:" Do not use on gold hardware". It would probably damage it!
I've never tried Brasso, so can't compare it to Music Nomad's stuff!
Brasso is for tarnished silver. I don't think it does much for anything else.
Noodling Guitars
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Gold hardware is one of those dilemmas. You'd be better off just cleaning it with a soft rag without any chemicals or abrasives. A small amount of naptha can help with rubbing off gunk - but even then you'd want to just do this sparingly. Your best bet is just to gently wipe down after playing.
BlueSquirrel
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Thanks for the naphtha trick!
BlueSquirrel
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I took some before and after pics using Music Nomad's Pro Strength guitar polish on the side of a dirty pickup.
I very gently rubbed it on the pickup cover with a clean soft towel.
Then I've tried to resize the pictures with an app called Picture Resizer. Let's hope it works!
There should be one 'before' pic on the left, and two 'after' pics on the right.
Could you tell me if you can see them, please?
I very gently rubbed it on the pickup cover with a clean soft towel.
Then I've tried to resize the pictures with an app called Picture Resizer. Let's hope it works!
There should be one 'before' pic on the left, and two 'after' pics on the right.
Could you tell me if you can see them, please?
Attachments
Yes I see the images. What you cleaned there on the sides is dirt, not scratches like the tops. That Music Nomad's stuff is made to clean and polish fragile nitro finishes. I wouldn't think it's going to cut those top scratches.
Or.....simply replace the pickup covers with brand new nickel silver covers and save yourself a whole lot of work trying to polish away those scratches. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...313&_nkw=nickel+silver+pickup+covers&_sacat=0
BlueSquirrel
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I also used that 'Pro Strength' polish to remove some micro scratches on a guitar's poly finish (they were caused by strumming with a guitar pick), then I applied carnauba wax and buffed it to restore a bit of shine to the guitar's top, but I didn't take any before and after pics back then so I can't show you the result.... in my opinion it did have some effect but it didn't remove all the scratches. On top of that, you have to be careful when applying it. If you press too hard, you could add more scratches.
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Noodling Guitars
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I can see the pics. Those look nice and clean now. For pickups with covers, I like getting that slightly aged look where you can see dulling around the shadow of where the strings are. So unless there's something that's ugly dirty (like a fingerprint smudge or something oil or stuff like that), I usually just leave them be.
BlueSquirrel
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Good idea but how would you do it? My luthier believes that once you have removed the old covers and before adding new ones, you have to pot the pickups once again to avoid any microphonic effect so if he is right, it might not be that simple.
Noodling Guitars
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He's right if you think about it from a time cost perspective for him. This is one of those things that you don't want to have to pay someone to do because its just not that economical, but maybe ask him how much he charges?
Removal: 1. soldering iron to pickup cover joint, 2. cut open, 3. ??????, 4. profit.
You could just take a grinding wheel and cut apart the joint as well if you have a vice and do it carefully. But the above method is the more traditional way of to doing it.
Installing covers: 1. apply tape on the slug side, 2. put silicone caulking on tape, 3. install cover (the silicone is there to prevent the cover from vibrating), 4. solder cover to baseplate, 5. repot.
In both cases, when heating the baseplate, it's likely you'll get a bit of wax flowing all over the place, so keep that in mind.
Potting takes an hour or so (including cooldown time) and is fairly easy to do if you have the tools (i.e. a crockpot with temperature control, paraffin wax and a handful of marbles).
Here's a few videos showing the steps above (except the potting step):
Removal:
Installation (before potting) - note that he's making vintage PAF style pickups, so likely he won't pot them anyway:
Phil McKnight's version - Phil is just fun to watch. Lots of lyfe hacks too.
BlueSquirrel
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A guitar tech charges about 80 / 90 euros to change covers here (they said they have to send the pickups to somebody else to pot them so it takes a long time as well). I live in a city center where apartments are very small and people have long commutes which prevent them from both storing tools and devoting time to DIY stuff. I guess they just ask a guitar tech to change covers for them, whatever the cost.
Thanks for all the videos and all your great tips, they are very interesting. It might try it some day.
Thanks for all the videos and all your great tips, they are very interesting. It might try it some day.
I've not heard that at all. I replaced those on the P90s of my former ES339 P90/Pro and never re-potted the pickups and I've replaced them on others as well the same way.
Noodling Guitars
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Oh wait.. P90s?? I thought he was talking about hums... if P90s the covers just pop on like single coil pickup covers (and are usually plastic anyway) - I don't think people even bother sticking them on with anything
Noodling Guitars
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I live in an apartment too and feel for you. Now, the real question isn't the tools (soldering irons are pretty compact) or even space - rather it's whether your family is okay with you doing this stuff at home lol. Soldering does create fumes, so not only do you need proper ventilation, you'll also need to make sure your significant other doesn't shut down your operations
That'd be a non-starter. For potting, you don't even really need a crock pot. You can actually do it the ghetto way and make your own double boiler. When I was in highschool and didn't have extra cash, I just cleaned out a Chunky Campbell soup can and put that into a pot of boiling water with a steam rack as a double boiler for potting pickups. You just kinda have to make sure you don't splash wax all over your stovetop. If you have an induction element, that's going to be a bit easier to cleanup. If you use gas, be really careful... wax burns - but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for tonezzzz
