stripping those tiny green and red colored "bare" wires

[runmikeyrun]

I have an old set of small ipod headphones that i would like to pair together as a speaker/microphone pair.  I stripped off the outer rubber insulation and for each speaker there is a bare wire and either a bare green or bare red colored wire twisted together with no insulation.  I can't get a resistance reading on these and i think since they are just a twisted pair inside the outer rubber insulation that the colored wire is somehow coated w/ lacquer to insulate it.

I tried soaking/rubbing with paint thinner to no avail.  Anyone ever deal with these?  I'm not sure how to get to bare copper to hook them up to something.

[AL]

Try using your teeth. Yes I'm serious. And be careful.

AL

[theehman]

Or lay them on a hard surface and carefully scrape them with an exacto knife or razor blade.

[Rodgre]

The only way I've gotten to repair headphone wires like that is to use a higher-wattage soldering iron and solder the connections to the jack/earphone, etc and the heat melts the insulation. Scraping has always been a pain in the neck, and I realized that it was melting when I soldered anyway.

Roger

[tomgoos]

or try a lighter or a match to burn the lacquer and scrape it of afterwards

[runmikeyrun]

hmmm, already have enough trouble with my teeth so i'll avoid that route.  I tried scraping w/ the exacto to no use.  I'll try the big soldering gun i have and see what happens... i haven't attempted to get them to take solder yet just wanted to check resistance at this point.

thanks guys for the help.