Steel wool shavings in pickup

[Alex]

Hi all

I'm very upset at the moment; I cleaned the frets on my guitar with steel wool and I did have everything taped off (fretboard, both pickups) and yet, somehow little bits of steel wool have managed to get in on both sides of my open coiled Miracle Man (the little space between the coils, where you can see inside the pickup). I'm double upset, because this isn't even the first time I used steel wool to clean the frets on my guitars.
 
The guitar worked fine, but I'm worried it might create a short at some point. I was thinking of trying to use blue tac to get some of the shavings out, but maybe someone has had experience with such a problem in the past and care share some thoughts with me.

[Nitwit]

Not had that problem. But, If I were you I'd pick up a can of compressed air and see if that could get it out, doubt air would hurt the pickup, the steel wool might, but don't quote me on it.
Ofcourse, if you got a high power vacuum that might work wonders, but that's not really household stuff.
The blue-tack might work too, gotta loosen and make it abit more sticky first though I reckon.

[FELINEGUITARS]

clean paint brush will flick most filings off
masking tape dabbed on will pick up more
blu-tack is ok too

[Alex]

With a very strong vacuum cleaner for pet hair I managed to suck most of it out! Thanks for the advice, I had the blue tac ready, but the vacuum cleaner took care of most of it.

Played the guitar, works fine; much more relieved now.  :D

[Nitwit]

With a very strong vacuum cleaner for pet hair I managed to suck most of it out! Thanks for the advice, I had the blue tac ready, but the vacuum cleaner took care of most of it.

Played the guitar, works fine; much more relieved now.  :D

That's good, I was concerned for a second aswell.  =)
As a note, I highly doubt the wool shavings would short out the pickup. However, it might've changed the tone on the pickup if it got in contact with the coils, but I don't know, haven't researched the effect of steel wool shavings on a pickup coil. =p
Actually got abit curious of what the effect, if any could be now.

[Dr.Pain]

A scotch brite pad would do the job and save on getting steel wool around the pick ups.

[BigB]

As a note, I highly doubt the wool shavings would short out the pickup.

Not immediatly - but steel wool particles are abrasive and given enough time they could easily destroy the insulation, effectively shorting out (at least part of) the coil.

[Philly Q]

Stewart-MacDonald have introduced this nifty product to avoid such problems:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Polishing_and_abrasives/Fret_Erasers.html


Not cheap, of course, and I suspect they'd wear out rather too quickly for someone like Jonathan who'd be using them a lot.

[Nitwit]

As a note, I highly doubt the wool shavings would short out the pickup.

Not immediatly - but steel wool particles are abrasive and given enough time they could easily destroy the insulation, effectively shorting out (at least part of) the coil.

Woopsy, forgot about the insulation. ^^

[Alex]

A scotch brite pad would do the job and save on getting steel wool around the pick ups.

They do? That would be really cool and so much easier. I hate touching steel wool, I wear rubber gloves when I do the job.

[Keven]

I use a scotch brite pad for light fret polishing, works fine, although polish along the width the of fretboard, not the length. going along the length of the board makes string bends scratchy until the string digs into the fret.