Minor wear on ES335

[SteveOL]

G’day all,

Probably a silly question but my 7 month old ES335 is showing some wear.

Not much but to be specific it’s a formerly black screw that is now silver. Didn’t expect paint on a screw or to rub it off. I think I might anchor my little finger there from time to time when I’m playing.

And I’m scratching the pick guard but that’s what it’s for.

Should I be concerned in the slightest or happy that I’m playing it enough to take the paint off a screw.

Also, you’ll notice in the photo there’s a film of some kind on the pickups. I cleaned it off this evening with a sunglasses bag. Anything to worry about there?

Sorry if that seems silly but I do love this guitar. And this is the only experience I have with buying a new one.

Kind regards,

Steve

 

[28 Flathead]

From what I can see, it looks like a nice guitar.

It's kind of strange to me that the screw color wore off, I would think it would be anodized and take a good amount of time to wear off. In any case, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

As for the pickup, did it clean up and stay clean.

These are just my opinions, I am by no means an expert.

Enjoy your guitar.

If you have a minute check out Chocolate Chip Pancakes on my Soundcloud page below.

 

[pontaeri]

I wouldn't worry. Unless you live in humid area or coastal by the sea, then I'd look into storage with humidity controls when not playing. The guitar will get worn as you play it, and if it's your main guitar, that will happen faster. Playing will do that, and you're relic'ing the original way. Though it is strange for black paint to get rubbed off, but if its finger anchor point, it could happen. I usually don't anchor to the guitar body (I rest on strings, but I'm primarily a bass player so I rest fingers on unused strings. My ES had this peel plastic on the PU's, (on pickguard, but I left that on) and the top peeled off but left some sticky stuff that I rubbed off (finger). Yours it looks like patina but if it was easy to remove, might not be . . .. I have metal resonator that gets patina'd and it took brass cleaning and polishing compound with cotton terry cloth and elbow grease to get it off. I live by the ocean so that doesn't help. I have stainless steel kitchen utensils that was cheap walmart buy . . . and not even a year old, getting rust spots and I towel dry them.

 

[IGRocker]

It looks like either a black zinc or anodized coating. Both come off fairly easy. Same thing happened to my old Custom, although with the opposite result. I’ve worn the gold off of most of the screws, and they’ve turned black lol.

 

[Raiyn]

... and some folks gave me ish for buying stainless screws.