Gold plating chromed hardware

Del_Preston

Hello modders!  Has anyone had any chromed hardware gold-plated?  Does anyone have a reliable contact for doing so?  I've had a google and left a few enquiries but haven't had much response generally.

It's a Gretsch G-cutout hardtail tailpiece that needs plating; given the price of the gold ones I thought getting it plated might be a better option.  As I understand it the gold colour of most gold hardware is a 9 or 12 karat as opposed to any 24k blinginess.

Cheers!

Funkfingers

The conventional sequence in guitar hardware electro-plating is copper, nickel, top colour.

To change from chrome to gold plating, you need to gently dissolve away the chrome layer back to the nickel. Only then can gold be applied. 

As you can probably imagine, this process takes time and involves hazardous chemical solutions.

I have idea what the charge is likely to be. It might be wiser to trade your chrome hardware for another owner's gold parts. Plenty of Fretboarders curse da bling. They would probably be glad to make a straight exchange.

ICBM

I have no idea of the exact costs involved, but I’d be very surprised if it was cheaper than buying a replacement used gold one, even though those are fairly expensive. As Funkfingers said, gold can’t be plated over chrome - in fact, I would expect it would have to be stripped right back to the bare metal, since removing the chrome without affecting the nickel may be difficult or impossible.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

removing the chrome without affecting the nickel may be difficult or impossible.

Difficult but not impossible.

For years, I had an incomplete Floyd Rose Special vibrato system in the nickel finish. Rather than purchase individual saddles to complete the set, I elected to "upgrade" to GraphTech StringSaver. AFAIK, these have only ever been offered in chrome, black or gold. A bath of dilute acid did the trick.



CAUTION: Do not cock about with acid unless you know exactly what you are doing.

I used to work on an oil refinery. I have endured copious lectures on handling hazardous substances, safety clothing, breathable atmospheres et cetera. I even have antidote cream to relieve burns from the nastiest shit. 

SteveRobinson

Funkfingers said:

I even have antidote cream to relieve burns from the nastiest shit. 

Calcium gluconate cream? Ever had an HF burn?

Funkfingers

Thankfully, no, Steve.

The preparatory training for working in a refinery alkylation unit used to include slides of what HF acid can do. Let's just call the images unsuitable for vegetarians and leave it at that.

SteveRobinson

I have, but not badly thankfully. I used to work with conc HF every day and once when working alone couldn't be bothered suiting up. It went straight through my clothing. And skin.

Funkfingers

Oof! Suit you, sir?

SteveRobinson

It wasn't until the explosion that I was allowed to move into IT

thermionic

I did a PhD in semiconductor physics and there was a fellow student who would clean silicon wafers for us with HF. Got all the horror stories from him and I kept well away!

BillDL

Many years ago when I was "between jobs" I worked as site security at an NEC wafer fabrication factory that was getting a massive extension built.  Part of our patrols involved two of us going down into the sub-fab area where doors have to be kept closed on the baffle walls to maximise the suction of air down through the perforated floor tiles in the clean rooms above, so we had to close any open doors.  We were also keeping tabs on the technicians down there to make sure they were still alive and well.  We had to wear cleanroom suits and hard hats.  We were warned about the Hydrofluoric Acid pipes above our heads as we did our patrols and the protocol for contact was to go out the back as quickly as possible, strip off, and stand under the cold shower.

One of the guys I was patrolling with bumped his hard hat on an overhead CO2 pipe.  I told him in a panicky voice that he had just ruptured a Hydrofluoric Acid pipe and had to go and shower it off.  He did this much to the amusement of the girls out at the adjacent loading bays having a smoke in their designated area.  Working with him again after I told him I was probably "mistaken" was drudgery, as he never spoke to me for a couple of months until I moved on.

Kittyfrisk

SteveRobinson said:

I have, but not badly thankfully. I used to work with conc HF every day and once when working alone couldn't be bothered suiting up. It went straight through my clothing. And skin.

FFS Steve. As you know, HF is really, really nasty stuff. Far worse than 'normal' conc. acids.
I used to work in a place producing art glass works & it took us a long time to get the remaining stocks safely disposed of as no-one would deal with it.

Del_Preston

Thanks for the responses / horror stories all…. I’ll keep a look out for a used one.