Diet...

• Whey protein. Now this one is controversial. The conventional wisdom is that whey protein is acidic and soy protein is alkaline, but this guy - who seems to know what he's talking about - says the opposite, that whey protein is mildly alkalizing and non-fermented soy is acidic: http://www.naturalnews.com/023694_food_foods_health.html (great interview if you're interested in alkalizing your diet btw)
• Green Vibrance powder. Don't know if you've come across this. There are other brands like Greens+ but I've always considered GV to be the best. It contains hundreds of green, alkaline forming ingredients and is extremely healthy. Bit of an acquired taste (very green and a little seaweedy) but easily masked in a shake. You can also get the Greens+ in a peanut butter/whey protein bar, I eat them every day after the gym. 
• Rainbow Vibrance powder. As above, but concentrating on red and yellow fruits and vegetables. Again good for alkalinity. 
• Ionic Zinc. It's very important in an alkaline diet and most people are deficient. If you work out and/or sweat a lot, you're losing zinc. Trace Minerals Research do a great liquid zinc and you can find great deals for it on Amazon. 

Bub


I had this problem when I was young. I destroyed the bridges, pickups, and tuners on several guitars. No matter how often I cleaned them. I went so far as to wax them heavily but it didn't help.

It eventually stopped happening even though I didn't change my diet.

Speaking of cola, I'm completely, 100%, without a doubt, addicted to diet soda. When it's hot out like it has been lately, I can easily guzzle down a few of those 2 liter bottles. Oh I remember the days of the 3 liter bottles. Whatever happened to those? :)

Funny thing that I just started noticing the last couple years, when I drink diet anything with aspartame in it, I have to piss within 10 minutes of drinking it. It scared me enough to the point that I really try to avoid it now ... but man, I am so hooked on diet soda.

I used to service the copier in a kidney dialysis center in Des Moines. They told me the #1 reason people end up needing dialysis is because they had an allergic reaction to medication or a food. I started putting two and two together with the aspartame reaction I was having and it really freaked me out.

Smoking doesn't help either, thank God I never picked that habit up.

Guitarhacker


i'm thinking the chrome on the epi's is not as well done as the chrome on the Gibsons. 

But.... I have a Gibson SG and the bridge pickup and the bridge did succumb to the salt in my sweat.  I was gigging for a living and they were casualties of the conflict. 

I replaced the original bridge with a Bad Ass Bridge (shown in pic^^^^). The pickup is still there and working. 
The other guitarist had the same problem with his LP. But his pickups were open coils. 

As far as the diet thing and PH..... this is very important. You should strive to maintain a PH above 7.0 and below 7.5 for optimal health.  I use PH test strips every so often to test. 
The more natural foods you eat, like fruits and vegetables and drink water the easier it is to get into that zone. 
There is a train of thought that many diseases can not survive in an alkaline body. By pushing the PH into that range, they are preventable and reversible.  



Meats, pastries, sweets, sodas of all sorts, processed and packaged foods will all take the numbers below 7 and the further south you go into the 6 range the more likely you are to encounter health issues and degenerative types of diseases. 


The first time I encountered the PH for healthy living thing I was a bit doubtful. Then the more I researched it, the more sense it made. I can recall that I had some tomatoes in the garden that were not doing very well. They were growing slowly and were yellow and sickly looking. A soil test showed the soil to be out of their preferred PH range. So after a fix to the soil PH, in a few days the plants turned green, started to grow and produced much fruit. PH matters to plants and it matters to us as well. 

A simple diet change can do wonders to the PH of the body and your overall health. 

sharke

Danny Danzi


Rain, I too have this problem. I can cook a set of strings with rust, crud, pieces of flesh in an hour. I rust all my parts solid if I'm not careful. I'm on a pretty good dietand and am careful. I don't abuse anything these days.

However, what I've started to do now is not something I did before and I've noticed a major difference in what happens to my guitars. I sweat like a lunatic, so I'll eat a brand new set of strings for every show. That's just the nature of me being me.

But I notice if I wash my hands before I play my guitars and wipe them down after, this has stopped quite a bit of my acid sweat/oils from eating things away. If I wipe my guitars down after playing and always wash my hands before I play, it's amazing how things have changed. Even when I sweat really bad at a show, if I wipe that guitar down as soon as I'm done or during a point in the show where my singer is talking to the crowd, I've noticed that I don't have to change my strings for the next show. I can get two shows out of them now.

With each string change, I clean my entire guitar. All the pup pole pieces, the Floyd screws, the neck, everything. It's really made a difference for me. I think the problem is when we allow the oils or sweat to remain on our guitars that it does damage over time. For certain chrome or gold plated hardware, there's nothing you'll be able to do to stop it from wearing. That's just the nature of the beast really. But you can definitely cut down on that by keeping things cleaner a little more often. It's worked for me. :)

-Danny

Rain


 ...........oh, and beer..... 

.

Starise


  Good to hear your takes on this Spacey and Danny,Crg.

In my case I never buy a guitar with the intent to resale and so if it gets a few scratches or dings or becomes tarnished slightly I'm not too concerned.