matthewk Posted October 1, 2008 Posted October 1, 2008 As promised, some pics of my 97 MIK Sheraton after I stripped the gold off the hardware. No upgrades except for a Tusq nut (can't say I noticed any specific change, but then I did have new strings on so it all sounded a lot brighter). Also got some new knobs to replace the gold/amber look of the stock ones. Playing very nicely with the action set nice and low, might have to tweak the truss rod because I went to 11s with a wound G. The last pic shows the one part I couldn't strip the gold from, it seems to be anodised and I don't think it would be a good idea to soak the tuners in oven cleaner! What a lot of work, but I am very happy with it.
matthewk Posted October 2, 2008 Author Posted October 2, 2008 Silly me, I forgot. Since you asked so nicely ... ! It looks kind of nice in those pics actually ... but believe me, the thin gold plate wearing off just looked bad. The chrome will look even better when it's aged a bit!
TWANG Posted October 2, 2008 Posted October 2, 2008 I think it looks really sharp. ! Way to go. TWANG
Bender 4 Life Posted October 2, 2008 Posted October 2, 2008 Looks great! Big improvement from "before". 95% of the "faux" gold is still on mine, so i'm fixing to install a set of Grover 109G gold Super Rotos, with Imperial buttons. and a set of gold vol/tone knobs with natural abalone ("faux" i'm sure) tops. Those will be juuuuuust the little cosmetic "boost" mine needs. I'll post pics when its done, parts not even ordered yet.
EpiSheriMan Posted October 2, 2008 Posted October 2, 2008 Looks really sweet! Great job! I love those Black/Chrome top knobs too!
BSAKing Posted October 2, 2008 Posted October 2, 2008 I must admit - I have the identical guitar and the gold, while not bad, does look a little 'cheesy' with time. (I do still think my Sheri is the best value on the planet) If I had the time, energy and patience I would do the same. I especially like the lift the different knobs gave top the overall look. Nice upgrade (IMHO).
Ricochet Posted October 2, 2008 Posted October 2, 2008 Nice job! Wish that colour came on some of their solid bodies...
Sheesh Posted October 4, 2008 Posted October 4, 2008 woo nice work on the sherry there. well, mine's a sunburst one with the brighter yellow/orange colour, not the walnut brown sunburst, so i'm thinking of leaving the faux gold hardware on (matches better with the bright burst). knowing it'll wear off, i'm thinking of leaving it with a weared off gold look. will see how it looks like. hope it goes well, tsk. and if it fails.... oven cleaner time =D
Just Strum Posted October 4, 2008 Posted October 4, 2008 I am not a fan of gold hardware, so right out of the gate I think it's an improvement. That really looks nice, what were the steps you took to strip off the gold?
Notes_Norton Posted October 4, 2008 Posted October 4, 2008 A major improvement. But then, I've never liked gold hardware either. Nice job!!! Notes
matthewk Posted October 4, 2008 Author Posted October 4, 2008 That really looks nice' date=' what were the steps you took to strip off the gold?[/quote']I had heard on the forum, and from searching, that gold plating could be removed by soaking the parts in oven cleaner overnight. So I took off EVERYTHING and put it in a glass dish and sprayed huge quantities of oven cleaner (the foaming kind) and repeated it a few times so that the liquid built up over the top of it. I didn't put the tuner machines in because they were sealed and I didn't want to fill them up with caustic oven cleaner and strip the grease out of them (which is what oven cleaner is designed to do!). From this process I learned many things: - gold is plated over other metals, particularly copper and/or chrome - it is hard to tell whether it's gold-over-copper-over-chrome or gold-over-chrome-over-copper - oven cleaner whips gold plating off some pieces in a couple of hours. For other pieces (e.g. screws, tuneomatic bridges) you can soak them for four days in a variety of oven cleaners and they come out exactly the same - metal polishes are pretty good at taking off thin gold plate but you have to work quite hard - wet-and-dry sandpaper is not a good idea, even 1200 grit, it makes a dull finish and you have little control over what gets removed - pickup covers on Korean Epiphones are glued on with some kind of hot-melt glue - the pickups under the covers are wax potted on my 97 model - the pickups themselves are extremely ugly with clear plastic bobbins, wax everywhere and pink-ish enamelled copper wire - pickup covers are very irritating to remove and replace because of the springs - a tune-o-matic bridge has exactly 19 parts, all of which are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to un-plate with metal polish, a toothbrush, etc etc - the tiny circlips holding the intonation screws break easily and are hard to find replacements for! - screws are hard to un-plate because the plating stays in the crevices of the screwhead - at some point I gave up on "perfect" and settled for "cosmetically acceptable" - it was about three times as much work as I had imagined, and it would have been easier to buy new parts in some cases (I may still replaces the tuning machines) but I am now more "personally involved" with the guitar and love it.
Just Strum Posted October 4, 2008 Posted October 4, 2008 - it was about three times as much work as I had imagined' date=' and it would have been easier to buy new parts in some cases (I may still replaces the tuning machines) but I am now more "personally involved" with the guitar and love it. [/quote'] Well based on what you went through, I appreciate it even more and you are to be commended for urban guitar improvement.
timandbob Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 Wow, looks sharp! What did you do with your old volume and control knobs? If you still have them I'd be interested in them. Steve
Just Strum Posted October 6, 2008 Posted October 6, 2008 matthewk, boy it makes a classy avatar too!!!
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