Removing Rust for Ibanez Zero Resistance Tremelo

Moshermax9

Moshermax9

Member
I've finally been really getting to the down and dirty in caring for all my guitars. (Polishing, fret polishing , condiitoning the fretboard etc ) But I honestly have no clue how to clean up my ZR tremelo on my Ibanez S520EX. I've been pretty religiously using the Nomad products they have worked great. But I would love some advice in cleaning it up!
 
Not really. If it’s rusted you need to take apart and get it all clean and stuck parts moving. Tuning stability will suffer. If you sweat a lot wiping it down after each use will help going forward. 3in1 oil will work too.
 
Naptha is really good for cleaning guitar hardware. WD-40 does work well for preventing rust. Ballistol is another good product for cleaning and protecting metal parts.

Check YouTube for videos on removal and disassembly of various Ibanez bridges. Once you remove the strings and rear tremolo springs, the bridge typically just falls out.
 
It really depends on what you mean by "rust." There's not much on most trems that's made of rustable material. Typically, they're mostly brass and chrome. Those metals can corrode and pit, but not rust.

Window cleaner makes an effective cleaning fluid for most guitar metal parts. The ZR has a bearing that I'm not familiar with. I don't know how well it will respond to water-based cleaners.

When I want to thoroughly clean bridge parts, I disassemble them and give them a spin in an ultrasonic cleaner filled with hot water and a little dish detergent. That works better than anything else I've tried. (Make sure you let everything thoroughly dry before reassembling.)

You'll never completely get rid of corrosion, pitting or rust without grinding the metal, and that's not usually a good idea.
 
I do this on a daily basis. As long as you aren't retarded and scrub the daylights out of it, you remove the gunk without harming the finish at all. Been doing this professionally for the better part of twenty years, haven't harmed a pice of hardware yet. I'll even use it on crappy gold hardware without damaging anything.
 
Musikron said:
I do this on a daily basis. As long as you aren't retarded and scrub the daylights out of it, you remove the gunk without harming the finish at all. Been doing this professionally for the better part of twenty years, haven't harmed a pice of hardware yet. I'll even use it on crappy gold hardware without damaging anything.
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I'll have to do some more experimenting. But I've used steel wool on polished frets, and it dulls them, requiring a re-polish.
 
To the OP: I use to take my Floyd Roses apart periodically and scrub with a soft toothbrush. I would lightly WD40 the non polished parts and wipe off the access cause I didn't want an oily feel on my guitar or hands. I remember reading about the ZR trem but have never looked at one till now. As Rex pointed out, there's not much (if anything?) that's rustable on those trems so even just cleaning the nooks and cranny's with a toothbrush should suffice. Unless you really poor out the sweat (see pics below). In that case I would want to do a deep cleaning periodically by disassembling. If that is the case I would contact Ibanez support. I wouldn't think twice about disassembling that trem with the exception of the pivot point. I can't tell how that's assembled/constructed from the pics or how it should be cleaned.

No kind of magik sauce in the universe helped this POS.

IMG_1691.JPG IMG_1690.JPG
 
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