# Gold finish



## kawasakizx636 (Apr 16, 2008)

hey guys, i just recently noticed that on my gold accessories, its starting to feel a lil rough, and loosing its shine with lil bumps that seem like they can be wiped off. i tried removing it with a damp cloth but that doesn't work, anyone know of something i can use to bring my gold accessories to the way it used to be? it ain't all over but i do notice it on the edge of the pickups and a lil on the bridge.

heres a couple pics, but its kinda hard to see. pics were taking from my cell phone


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I had 2 old gold humbucker covers and I tried some Silvo polishing liquid on them. Nothing much happened but I did notice that I could scrape the gold plating off with my fingernail in places.

Hopefully someone will know how to prevent the gold plating/finish from wearing so quickly.

Good Luck.

Dave


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## kawasakizx636 (Apr 16, 2008)

wow, the gold actually comes off, well that's dumb, i spent almost 2000$ on this guitar. i thought les pauls were well built. if gibson knows that this stuff happens to gold, then they should of not put gold on les paul's or any gibson's for that matter. I've only played with my guitar a total of 20 times. its always stored in its case under my bed. so i'm wondering what could be causing this, i can understand if the guitar was a few years old, but it ain't even a year old yet

It doesn't look like any of the gold is flaking off, it just looks like there's some stuff on it, like lil grains of salt that is stuck on. it ain't the gold starting to raise either cause i can kinda scape it off and the gold stays, but i'd like to find some kind of solution that can remove it without scratching my pickups.

thanks guys


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Kawasakizx636..

I'm not trying to upset you brother, my pickup covers were old and worn (and could have been from a cheap guitar) to start with. 

Maybe Gibson products have a better gold finish. 

I'll be interested to know what others think is happening to your gold finish and any comments as to how to prevent it.

I recently had an Epi LP with gold finish on the hardware and it started to wear within months.

I have a friend who is a guitar tech...I'll ask him about this.

Dave


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## kawasakizx636 (Apr 16, 2008)

cool thx, i wonder what he thinks


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

Don't want to burst anyone's bubble (and my info might be wrong anyway), but I was told by someone many years ago that gold plated hardware on a guitar is VERY susceptible to corrosion from the oils/sweat or whatever that your hand produces. Like I said, don't know if it's true, but it was enough to make me shy away from any guitars with gold hardware.
-Mikey


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

I had a Les Paul Studio with gold hardware, and the gold started to wear off within the first year or so. Only on the part of the bridge and saddles that my right hand rested on, but it was fairly easy to wear off. This is a well known occurence with gold hardware on guitars.


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## guitaristgibson (Dec 23, 2008)

I have all gold hard ware on my SG and i was mad to, cause i payed alot of money for it but there is a solution for the ware, if you have ever heard of a product called tarnex? If you take your guitar apart for the pieces you need to redo and give them a quick dip in this stuff it works wonders. The part were it is corroded may look a bit lighter but other then that it looks brand new. I have talked to some techs at gibson and the coating of gold is very thin and gold is a very soft metal, therefore things such as sweat and mainly the oils on your hands with corrode it if left over time. what i do is keep a towel in my case and wipe down my hands before every play and the guitar after, made my pickup finish last much longer and i think it is worth the trouble for a 2000$ guitar. Also it feels bumpy because it is a diffrence in surface depths between the gold platting and what ever metal is underneath. also those little grains of salt could be solidified sweat and or oil and its is very hard to just wash off with a damp clothe

nick

p.s. after washing with tarnex wash with water THOROUGHLY and after, dry it THOROUGHLY 
also if you want to prevent the gold from stripping like ive heard some of the other comments say, POLISH IT either with guitar polish (recommended) or jewlery polish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_6-KnUGySs

watch that

hope this helps


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## kawasakizx636 (Apr 16, 2008)

thanks for the reply's, i'm gonna look into that product


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