Rusty Pickups Affect Tone

I remember when I was just starting out playing the guitar, after changing my pickups to Dimarzios and shortly after, the pole pieces on the pickups started rusting. I panicked and was wondering if I could do anything to stop it. So I went around asking the "Guitar Gurus" if the rust does anything bad to my pickups and especially the sound.

Well, good news for all you paranoid people such as I. It doesn't affect the tone at all. First of all, we have to understand that a pickup is actually a piece of electro magnet and magnet loses it's magnetic properties over time. The losing of the magnetic properties does alter the tone a little bit and chances are, the magnet will lose that magnetic properties before your pickup loses it's tone to rust.

That being said, please also bear in mind that pickups will also settle down to a stagnant state where it doesn't lose any more of it's magnetic properties (Unless you do something drastic to it). This is also the main reason why there are people out there trying to prematurely age the pickup, to settle for that broken in tone.

Caring for your strings!

Yes. You are reading this correctly. Caring for your strings. As I am staying in the world most humid country, my sweat is capable of turning new slick non coated strings into brown tarnished strings while I am playing.

What I usually like to do is to clean the strings with Dunlop string cleaner and conditioner before and after I play. It keeps the string alive longer and prevents rusting for a longer period of time. By the time it rust, it's time to change the strings anyway.

So for people who have sweaty palms like I do, time to invest in one of these.