flyingfrets Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Hey duane, I'd see what you can find out about this "color buffing" before you let him doi it. There may in fact be no danger, but I'd be pretty worried about the plating being thinned fuirther as ef_in_fla pointed out. I buffed the gold on my G400 Custom with some clear coat polish (the non-abrasive stuff used on high end cars) and while the parts shined up very nicely, they are now a color somewhere between chrome and gold. I can live with it on an Epi, but I'd think twice before trying it on one of my Gibsons. Just something to consider.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Screw "Collectors" value, unless you ARE a collector...and if you are, you're not going to be "frothing" over a '81 LP Custom. Oh, it may (will) go up in value, per inflation, but by the time an '81 is worth enough to worry about, you and I will be "way gone!" So, Duane, if you want it to look great, either take off the old parts, replace them (every so often) with "fresh" ones, or get your originals replated. If it was a late '50's/early 60's LP...that would be different. ;>) CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted April 11, 2009 Author Share Posted April 11, 2009 I hear ya CB I'm not a collector and I'm not gonna sell it.... I tried giving it to my son, but he thinks it ugly... He likes the Charvel and Moser guitars (frustrated young drummers)... My daughter don't like the weight.... The only reason I purchased it because of it's connection to Randy Rhoads, whom today is still one of my favorite guitarist. Once the new frets are installed, I'm sure I'll start playing it more often and it will no longer be part of the storage club for guitars... I'm actively searching for slightly used pup covers just in case.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Well, I have a 1980 Gibson LP Custom, myself...and love it! Won't sell it, either. Like all my guitars, it gets Played! I'm pretty "precious" about them, in that I take really good care of them (that's just me), but they do get played, regularly! Even my "collectable" guitars get played! Even if I were a real "collector" (which I'm definitely not) having say, a '58-60 LP "Flame or Tiger stripe" topped "Standard, would be too much of a temptation(for me) to play it, a LOT, rather than storing it, in some dark old bank vault, etc. LoL! So, it's a good thing, I suppose, that I can't afford to even think about one, much less purchase it. CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larkin38 Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 As I hope you can see, the gold plating on my Les Paul is starting to go. But I`m not thinking of changing anything. I think it gives the guitar character. If I wanted my guitar to look showroom fresh I`d never play it. To me it`s only aesthetics. A guitar is meant to be played. Look at Stevie Ray`s strat and also Rory Gallagher`s strat. Both looked like they`ve been thru the wars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swoop Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 The gold hardware on my LP Custom is pretty faded too, and I am simply going to replace it. I like my guitars to look pristine too, but I'm not adverse to playing them. I'll be replacing the tuners, bridge, tailpiece, pickup covers, and pickguard bracket. As much as I'd like it to be all original, the bridge is pretty worn out, the saddles are a bit loose, and it's all oxidised and gross. I had the bridge and tailpiece from my G-310 SG on it for a while and it played beautifully, but I put the old stuff back on and now it's not so good. I thought I might just swap out the pickups for some new ones with gold covers, and put the original Custom ones in my SG to improve that. Hell I'll probably even throw the old tuners on the SG to replace the crappy standard ones. Could I remove the gold plating from those myself? Maybe with some steel wool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carverman Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 My 81 Gibby LP Custom has been sent to my Luthier to have new frets installed... The original flat wide frets were very uncomfortable for me which is why it never was played. As I was looking over the gold hardware' date=' it sure looks like crap, however the gold plating on the schaller/gibson stamped tuners have held up pretty darn well. The finish on the guitar itself is still in absolutely fantastic condition, but the bridge, tailpiece and pup covers just make the guitar look very dingy. Basically the guitar will be gone for a month or so, but as I was talking to my Luthier, he suggested just purchasing new Gibson hardware, but I'm a little hesitant because the guitar is all original. So I received a quote to re-plate the gold hardware and I almost fainted8-[ .....$375 for the bridge/tail piece assemblies which also includes the stud anchors..... $125 for the pup covers and pick guard bracket. What would you guys do.... I do have $800 to spend on this guitar, and the fret job is running me $250..... [/quote'] I designed my own tp for my Broadway Elitist out of copper (to replicate the L5 tailpiece in a way) and substitute for the frequensator. I managed to find a Cdn plating company that agreed to plate my copper tp for $75 a couple of years ago + shipping both ways. They were supposed to nickel plate the tp first then gold plate it. I got it back and while it does look gold plated, it a different colour gold than the Epi-Gibson USA p_up covers or frequensator, more of a reddish colour gold compared to the yellower gold plating of the original parts. I'm not going to squawk too much, because shipping it back and forth again would cost another $25 or so, and I would be without it for several weeks as well. IMO, stay with the worn look original parts. If you really want to replace it, get the authentic Gibson plated parts. In the past, they were plated with 10-14K gold and seemed to stand up better. I don't know what the composition of "gold" is on the new ones, because the price of gold is hovering around $900 a troy ounce, so real gold plating has become very expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InsideMan Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 This has been an interesting discussion, but comes back to a principle I've long lived by (except for my L-5, of course)--Don't buy guitars with gold hardware! I always go for chrome or nickel. The gold is going to go eventually, and peeling gold plate just looks bad. Of course this is just MY esthetic. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted April 12, 2009 Author Share Posted April 12, 2009 After speaking to my Luthier last night, he told me all the parts with the exception of the volume pointers look pretty damn good. He thinks I'm being just a tad anal about it all. He was going to buff out the pickguard but he was a little concerned about the RANDY RHOADS engraving. The plastic polishing chemical he uses could yellow that a bit so he decided to let me clean it if I wanted to. He commented about the guitar and he was pretty impressed I still had the original receipt from February 1981 in the case.... He also told me based on the serial# it's a 1980 Les Paul custom.... He also stated there was no such Gibson as a Randy Rhoads model despite what was written on the sales receipt ... Guitar stores especially Guitar Center had a tendency to change hardware on guitars, and state them as signature models when there really was no such animal..... He said they must have also changed out the TRC to a blank one as well, because all LP customs have TRC covers that state "Les Paul Custom." He still could not understand why I wanted a fret job, because he said the guitar has been virtually unplayed, and he was going to need to charge me an additional $150 on the fret job because of the neck binding... He didnt go into the reasons why, but I don't normally question his judgement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 My Luthier was nice enough to give me his gold platter so I can go direct... He told me I need to have pup covers re-done, because they now look like 4 carat gold plating after the color buffing. ....He said the bridge and the tailpiece look fantastic, but the tailpiece height adjustment screws looks a little tired and can use a re-plate as well... Also the pickguard bracket needs love too. The tuners, he thinks those need some work, especially the washer and screw-in bushing. The tuner body is fine, but the stem tip where the guitar strings wrap around look a bit tired as well, and the pegs and peg attachment screws. I called the plating place and they say they do guitar parts all day, and quoted me $75 for the everything including the tuners (they will dis assemble)... I asked them not to re-plate the stamped "GIBSON" gear access plate and the tuner bodies. Those are still in great condition... just in case anyone needs anything done, here's the link... http://www.cal-tronplating.com/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animalfarm Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 "Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed..." I can tell you what you DON'T EVER want to shine gold hardware with - being ex-military, I know all about the benefits of "BRASSO", the miraculous, inspection-passing metal cleaner. I slapped a bit on a set of Gold covered pups to remove some mysterious sticky fingerprint looking gunk. Took every trace of gold completely off the covers!!!!!!! I now have the SHINIEST Chrome covers known to exist in the world today. Son of a bleepity-bleep!!!!! It ATE my GOLD!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookelputz Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 If you really want to see about re-plating your hardware, task your Harley riding friends where they get little stuff like acorn nuts for their bikes plated. Usually a "set-up" fee (was $25 last time I did this - nearly 20 years ago) plus a per item charge that varies with size. This was for show-quality custom chroming. And the cleaner and more highly polished the parts are, the better plating looks when buffed out. Custom shops are probably looking for work, these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 I'll look into that as well..... But I am on a budget of $800 to get the fret job done which is costing more than I expected, so if it's not too expensive at the custom plating shops, I may consider it. Plus my daughter decided on a Seymour Duncan pup upgrade for he MelodyMaker, and that has to fit into that $800 budget as well..... And as usual, I'm cutting it close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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