That made me laugh. 
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Ha ha according to the Google the root cause for rusty strings is stress!
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Well, I suffer from General Anxiety Disorder, which also causes Hyperhidrosis (with countless other things) as the outcome of my Amygdala firing constantly out of whack, and I have never had this discoloration problem. IMHO it’s just a faulty product on the side of the string.
I am not wiping my instrument or strings with any “bass cosmetics” and the only cleaning is cleaning the dust off the pickups etc., yet I sweat profusely and I have never encountered anything like this.
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I bet he was bit by a radioactive spider that was the runt of the litter
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I think of them as Bass Lube
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Yes that’s most likely what it is. Nickel strings don’t rust, the nickel oxidize and it turns your fingers black. That looks like the nickel has worn off and that’s copper or bronze underneath. The strings on my TRBX174 did that, even though I pretty much always washed my hands before playing. I’ve seen it seval times with other that have the same bass. Now I use string fuel to clean my strings.
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Hey I have the exact same strings and it’s even worse to me!
So it doesn’t depend on the place you live or on your hands/cleaning, it’s just bad quality strings unfortunately.
Could you find a solution or did you change them? Also, can anyone please suggest other strings (with better quality and not too expensive)?
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Haven’t done anything, probably going to put the old factory strings back sometime
All my other strings are D’Addario EXL 165, haven’t had any issues with those. Planning to try the NYXL or the XTB next time I change strings.
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Hi there, I bought these strings 1/2023. Someone recommended those, sadly. The same thing happened to ME as well. 30 days of playing and the strings are orange. The solution is I will throw them away and not buy Ibanez anymore. 
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Hi there,
The thing is, they sound great long after the coating changes colours. It must be the nickel plating, happened to me, too.
Think positive! Can you get the whole string to be copper coloured? 
Cheers,
Antonio
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Thanks for a nice welcome and lets see what i can learn here from you old bass sports 
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I’ve had this happen on some factory strings that came with basses (d’addario) but never on retail strings. I also expect it’s come kind of oxidation/wear because it also made my fingers black. I started using Music Nomad String Fuel periodically and i’ve never had it happen again.
Welcome @Alex_Ou ! That rusted string thing is a real head-scratcher. Is it maybe a hand soap/lotion thing?
I’m kinda invested in this now, getting my search on. Inquiring minds want to know…
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