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What is the best way to polish the gold hardware on my Ultra?


joeymetro

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+1 to not too much muscle power or non at all... just use a normal guitar polishing cloth and wipe down the goldwares and just wipe the strings after play.

 

Had my custom for abt 10 months and no tarnish, but of course... I kept it in a hardcase when not playing. Oh, another note.. silica gels are a guitars best friend. Keeps out moisture.

 

SilicaGel.jpg

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Simple. Don't !

 

Essentially what Gary said.

A gentle wipe with household spray polish to remove the grease and muck is all you you should attempt.

The gold plating will wear off even quicker if you start rubbing away at it too much and too often.

To be honest if you have a standard Epi with gold hardware and the guitar sees much real use...be prepared for it to pit and wear off quite quickly.

You can then either live with it or replace the parts with something plated to a higher standard.

Even the best gold plated harware will suffer in time. Gold simply isn't durable enough to tolerate the abbrasion of use for very long.

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Simple. Don't !

 

Essentially whatt Gary said.

A gentle wipe with household spray polish to remove the grease and muck is all you you should attempt.

The gold plating will wear off even quicker if you start rubbing away at it too much and too often.

To be honest if you have a standard Epi with gold hardware and the guitar sees much real use...be prepared for it to pit and wear off quite quickly.

You can then either live with it or replace the parts with something plated to a higher standard.

Even the best gold plated harware will suffer in time. Gold simply isn't durable enough to tolerate the abbrasion of use for very long.

 

Use it, enjoy it, keep it clean, and when the hardware starts to fade, log on to Stewmac's website and order up some more to make it new. That's my 2 cents worth.

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Obviously you guys haven't been around Epi Goldtone hardware very long. The elitist is the only one with gold plated hardware. There is nothing you can do to stop the gold coming off regular Epi guitars. Everytime you clean it you will lose some of the goldtone. I have had several and the Gold usually lasts a couple of years but really starts to look bad. I had a 2003 Custom and I used a metal polish on the pickups and all the goldtone came off. So I would not recommend that. I have a 2001 Sheraton and I have kept very good care of it and I pulled it out of the case the other day and I was amazed at how poor the gold is looking. And all I have used on that one is a soft cloth.

I think that all you can do is live with the fact that the goldtone will wear off and either replace it with nickel or chrome or just regard it as a "relic".

As far as keeping the strings clean, I use a cloth after every use and wipe each string individually and also wipe down the Frets. I find D'Addario strings last long without corroding.

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As mentioned before, just a SLIGHTLY damp lens cleaning cloth. Then dry and VERY lightly buff with a soft cotton cloth. Do not use any polish or cleaners. Once clean and dry, you can use some paste wax but be sure there are no cleaner/polishing ingredients.

 

The Korean Sheraton 'old' plating is crap! I've had my hardware re-plated for under $100 a set. Here are some before/after pics:

 

 

EpiSherBlk1sm.jpg

 

Replate3.jpg

 

 

I had two Sherries re-plated and about to send off a third set. What you see in the 'after' pics are reflections.

 

Here's another set:

 

Sheratonoldsetsm.jpg

 

Sheratonnewsetsm.jpg

 

Edited to add: Yes I know, I had the bridge on backwards... #-o

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That is Hot! =D>

 

So when the plating comes off I will have to make a decision.

 

Well' date=' just don't let it get this bad. This the upper right pup cover in the fourth pic. That's the condition it was in when I received the git.

 

[img']http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g96/2ifbyC/Job%201/Sheratonoldcover.jpg[/img]

 

 

 

This is the custom shipping box I made out of styro-poster board for sending off my sets for re-plating:

 

 

boxopensm.jpg

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