Diatonico Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Hi Guys, I own a Les Paul Studio, alpine white with gold (gilded) hardware. Over the years, though I've tried my best to keep it in good condition, the pickups, saddle and bridge have become faded / tarnished. Here's some pictures: imgur link.. I'm not sure, but I think 2 things are going on. The gold is getting rubbed off, especially notable at the top of the pickups (near the low E) which is where my hand usually rests, obviously. There's some sort of dirt/oxidation building up. I seem to be able to remove that by rubbing it hard. Does anyone have any experience with this? What's going on, and how can I restore the hardware into it's original state? Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01GT eibach Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 The gold plating is wearing off. The amount of gold plating is extremely thin and wears away. The same thing happens to the nickel-plate ones; you just don't notice it as much. All you can do is apply some light metal polish. Whatever you are left with after that is it -- you restore parts of it but not all of it, and it will stop the existing corrosion that is currently eating away. After every time you play it, wipe it down to get the sweat and oils from your hand off the guitar (contains salt which is corrosive). Once it gets to the point that it truly displeases your eye, just buy some more gold hardware to replace and look all new. But keep the old original hardware with the guitar ... it is part of its mojo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 What 01GT said - it's just the plating wearing off. Not much that can be done about it. Section between the b and D strings that you cleaned off looks pretty good in the picture - I'd continue that process if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeman Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Yeah, the gold just wears off. For mine, I'm a heavy palm muter and the tune-o-matic especially the EAD strings is basically chrome now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diatonico Posted April 28, 2020 Author Share Posted April 28, 2020 Thanks for the replies guys! Shame it doesn't last. I'm kind of bummed about buying alpine white + gold. The gold fades, the white becomes yellowish. Never again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyC Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Your best solution is to re-plate them. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gold+plating+kit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyC Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 There are loads of gold parts on ebay. Just type in - gibson les paul gold guitar parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunking101 Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Some would say that when white yellows and the gold parts wear it's mojo. Look how much people pay for Custom Shop relics! Here's a Custom Shop Randy Rhoads guitar where people buy it brand new with yellowed paint and extremely worn gold hardwear! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diatonico Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 5/7/2020 at 4:22 PM, sunking101 said: Some would say that when white yellows and the gold parts wear it's mojo. Look how much people pay for Custom Shop relics! Here's a Custom Shop Randy Rhoads guitar where people buy it brand new with yellowed paint and extremely worn gold hardwear! I'm afraid it's not yet quite that far into its aging process 😄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diatonico Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 5/7/2020 at 12:05 PM, RoyC said: Your best solution is to re-plate them. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gold+plating+kit On 5/7/2020 at 8:32 AM, cesarbg said: I worked at a local chroming and nickeling center. It is possible to gold plate (not real gold though) the pieces again. Where I live they charged about 15 USD to do the process for a bunch of pieces. So it could work for you. They need to chemically remove the playing it has, because the metal is rusting , not just wearing off. Using polish will only take the gold color away completely, so it is useless for gold plated pieces. Hope this helps. Alright, all I've got to do is learn to solder the wires again after removing the pick-ups. Learning something new every day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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