Its rainy season out here, and my bass strings have turned blackish due to some covering. how do i remove this thing??
Copper wires have tendency to get oxidised that is also known as "tarnishing". Best thing is u can keep ur guitar covered in a rexene case/cover. Change ur strings...orif u still wanna use same old ones then use vinegar and surf excel to wash them.
^^^ Yea use surf excel, or even better, HCl. It will get that black coating back twice as fast! Dude all u gotta do is take those strings off, and boil them in plain (distilled recommended) water for about 15 minutes (15 minutes from the time when the water starts boiling). Then take em out and wipe them hard with a discarded towel. Then use a hair dryer to remove any moisture in them. This should take care of that rust. Works on all my acoustic or electric strings. It even gets back that new-string brightness to them. Dont know about bass strings though, never played one. Hope it helps. Rock on.
I dint know that detergent really does that to the string...i dint face such problem wen I did it once. maybe wat Johny said wd help better...try and see.
Every polar compound does that to metal. Be careful with those. Detergents contain nascent chlorine, which readily reacts with the metal to make salts (thats the black coating). Its basic chemistry yaar!
Hi aerosmith, man you can remove the blackness of the string infect the rusty dust by using a polish called BRASSO, it’s a metal polish available in both forms liquid or paste, but personally I suggest u the liquid. A n important precaution or place butter paper or any glazy paper behind the strings or on the fret board then by tissue paper softly apply the polish to the strings and after few minutes 2 or 3 rub the strings with tissue paper, I think you got the method, u ll sure got the results. Anyways keep rocking
Change your strings. Remember, the rust doesn't come out of thin air entirely. It has some material from your strings too.
^^ Buddy thts what I meant..... Read it again. Though on second thought, it dont think it would "totally ruin ur strings". As most bass strings are made of Nickel, and nickel is not a very reactive metal, quite down on the reactivity series. So it may not cause a fast reaction with the HCl, but its gonna exponentially accelerate the rusting process. I wonder why dont the make Aluminium strings. It would get rid of that rusting to some extent.
