Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My son is always complaining his strings rust


Any tips? String suggestions?

Tip:

Keep a spray bottle of Dr. Stringfellow's Lem-Oil in the case compartment, along with a clean soft cloth (you know, diaper...). After each session, spray a few squirts of the DS onto the cloth, and wipe down the fretboard and strings vigorously.

This removes any perspiration--which turns acidic--and coats the strings, frets and board with natural oils which clean and preserve. This is especially helpful in the case of the wound strings, where it soaks into the windings a bit and prevents them from going dead. This stuff resists moisture and improves your fingering feel and speed, too.

Sounds easy enough. Done, and thanks!

And it's kind of a cheat-----but if you have strings that are already rusty, take out a polishing cloth and a bottle of standard rubbing alcohol. Wipe the gunk of each string seperately by clinching it with your fingers using the cloth with a dose of alcohol at the contact point.

It's super ghetto, but it will give life back to your strings for a couple days. That's gotten me through some gigs in the past etc.


Heck, any alcohol works! I've used vodka at a gig before, and it did the trick as well.

To add to what Collin says, you can also use a cloth with some rubbing compound worked into it and the same technique, which will remove rust and actually polish the strings a bit. Even toothpaste works in a pinch.

jingle_jangle wrote:To add to what Collin says, you can also use a cloth with some rubbing compound worked into it and the same technique, which will remove rust and actually polish the strings a bit. Even toothpaste works in a pinch.

Yup, just not too much rubbing compound, otherwise you'll spend 1/2 hour cleaning the gunk out of the fret edges etc!


Didn't even think about toothpaste, though. Is there a specific compound in toothpaste that does the trick---flouride, maybe? Obviously it's already good at scrubbing away organic matter.

collin wrote:And it's kind of a cheat-----but if you have strings that are already rusty, take out a polishing cloth and a bottle of standard rubbing alcohol. Wipe the gunk of each string separately by clinching it with your fingers using the cloth with a dose of alcohol at the contact point.

That's exactly how I keep my strings lasting as long as possible. If you keep up with it before the strings lose their original tone, they will have the original tone for a long time. I usually slide a plastic sheet under the strings to keep the alcohol off the fingerboard.

Tin foil also works. Not kidding.