Rusty pickups?

[badgermark]

Hello tech-mined peeps.

My Gibson SG has been in its padded gig bag for a while now, and upon closer inspection the pickups are looking rusty. Mostly on the pole under the low E string.

Is there anything I can do to clean these up? I'm planning on selling the guitar but don't want some poor guy getting a rusty pickup. Sounds fine to my ears though.

[Nadz1lla]

Depending on how raised the pole is above the casing of the Pup, you could get away with taking a bit of fine emery cloth to it maybe? The finer the better if you don't want it to obviously look like it's been rubbed down.

[badgermark]

It is flush to the pickup plastic. Should this scr@pe off easy enough?

[Nadz1lla]

The rust itself should come off a treat, only thing I'd be worried about with the poles being flush is catching the Pup body too and scuffing it. If you can find a way of masking the rest of the area it'd be ok. Not knowing much about the construction of Pups themselves, I don't know how easy it would be to take the top of the casing off. If that's possible it'd be easy to rub the rust off that way.

By the way if anyone thinks this is very very wrong just tell him not to listen to me, hehe. Me being a job-botcher I usually get by on doing Cowboy jobs on DIY at home and on Guitars, there's probably a right way for doing this, heh.

[Philly Q]

Not knowing much about the construction of Pups themselves, I don't know how easy it would be to take the top of the casing off.

Don't try to do that, it's a plastic bobbin with a non-removable top!

Sorry for asking an obvious question, but I'm assuming it's a slug polepiece, not a screw?  If it's a screw you can of course unscrew it a bit (or take it out altogether) to make cleaning easier.  Or just replace it.

If it's a slug pole, I think the best you can do is mask the plastic as carefully as you can, as Nadz1lla said, then use some kind of fine abrasive.  I haven't tried it myself, but apparently one of these does the job nicely:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=3932&C=Maplin&U=SearchTop&T=GLASSFIBRE%20PENCIL&doy=14m7

Don't use wire wool, as bits of it will stick to the magnets.  And the rust scr@pings themselves will stick, so use some sticky tape to clean off the bits.  

After the rust is removed, to stop it returning you could paint the top of the pole with clear laquer or maybe just oil it with a tiny drop of WD40 or something.

[badgermark]

It's on the slug, not the screw. I'll have a poke about later to see if it will shift.

Kinda odd though, it's only on that slug on the bridge pickup under the low e, nowhere else.