as for the rust wd40 works well. if you got it apart i would let it sit in wd40 overnight.and lightly clean off with a wire brush.As for after you are done. i would wipe off with a rag after you are done playing.most peoples palms are sweaty when they play. I have seen this in many old strats.
Yeah the wire brush is a good thing to use to remove any surface rust..... Careful with the WD-40 though- it will definately loosen the rust and its fine on most painted metal surfaces but it will probably damage the finish if you get it on the body or the neck of the guitar-
I'd be tempted to remove what rust you can from the surface and use a black automotive 'touch up paint' paint and laquer brush kit to just try and seal the rust patches and keep them at bay as a quick easy fix-
They do accumulate a bit of dirt/dust in the saddles just with normal use- I use a clean dry brush (of the painting/decorating variety) which cleans it pretty good-
Yeah I think all guitars with floyds from all manufacturers come set up with nines as standard (probably so they feel light and super-fast in the shops)
Thats pretty dense of the guys in the shop to string it like that.......
Oh yeah and another trick....... a piece of electrical tape on the neck humbucker over the cavity by the high e string can stop it getting caught around the pickup and breaking when you pull up
You have to be giving it some serious abuse for that to happen though
I forgot to mention the fun technique I call "sabotage".. deliberately SHARP-tuning the high-tension strings (usually at least the G and the D), compensating for the change in tension when the other strings are brought up to pitch. This also cuts down on the back-and-forth re-tuning.
I used to use 11-52 on my Floyd (actually an Ibanez Edge) equipped Strat. Now down to a less manly 10-42 set with 5 springs in the cavity which I find gives me a nice stiff feel. I change all strings at the same time, ball ends at the machineheads as mentioned earlier, and a small wooden block below the fine tuners until I've put tension back on the strings. like other posters I tune some strings deliberately low or high before clamping the lock nut down
Got myself a well used Squier Showmaster HSS as a Christmas gift to myself. Floyd Rose bridge, a long time since I�ve had one.... Setting up thoose is a nightmare compared to a Fender strat tremolo, and changing strings and intonate and lowering the nut But when done a nice guitar to have fun with
I have trouble with the trem-arm working loose and warbly quite fast. I have to re-tighten the thumb-nut (that holds the trem-arm in place) very often. Is there a way to overcome this? As far as I can see there is nothing under the bridgeplate to adjust the tension, it all seems to be done with the thumb-nut.
Oh yeah and another trick....... a piece of electrical tape on the neck humbucker over the cavity by the high e string can stop it getting caught around the pickup and breaking when you pull up
You have to be giving it some serious abuse for that to happen though
I had a single humbucker Charvel years ago..a bit like the one gary moore used to play so never had the neck humbucker problem but i managed to snap the arm off inside the floyd...the guys in the music shop were pretty amazed how i was able to do that.... that is until i told them i was listening to a lot of Jeff Beck...Jeff was going through his Charvel spectrum phase at the time and getting the thing to float up top nearly a high C and constant efforts to emulate the maestro ended up in a spinal tap moment in my kitchen one evening......could of been worse i could of done it if front of 200 people.....or what happened to steve vai's 'green meanie'..i read an interview where he told a story of a small dose of stage fright seconds before he went on at Madison square garden ended up with him pulling the whole floyd off his guitar when warming up.......
Setting up a Floyd Rose
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 18:20:00
and intonate 
that is until i told them i was listening to a lot of Jeff Beck...Jeff was going through his Charvel spectrum phase at the time and getting the thing to float up top nearly a high C and constant efforts to emulate the maestro ended up in a spinal tap moment in my kitchen one evening....
..could of been worse i could of done it if front of 200 people...
....