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December 2003
Posts: 28
Location: Chicagoland U.S.A. | I tried using Virtuoso Premium Polish on one tuner just to try it. I rubbed it moderately as the tuner has grit from the prior owner. A ton of black junk came off, but it seems like 75% of the gold color came with it. What is it about 2 microns thick?
Thanks. |
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March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | Approximately one RCH.
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I find the gold plating to be pretty good in most cases however, as you mentioned they had lots of crud, if the previous owner had acidic skin, then I bet some of that black stuff was the corroded gold coming off. |
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Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | I don't think real gold corrodes does it Miles? I have some worn through spots in gold (?) plating on an Epi bridge but it isn't corroded anywhere. I've never seen corroded gold jewelry either. Could the plating be rubbed through & the pot metal (or whatever) coming off as black stuff?
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Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | I think gold will corrode, but it is very resistant to it, that is why it is used on electronic contacts that require the most corrosion resistance.
If there is gold color left on the tuner, then I doubt it is the metal under the plating coming off. The black color is common to cleaning any metal object...I use NeverDull wadding to polish aluminum and alloy bicycle parts and it comes off very, very black. In your case, it's probably the surface oxidation caused by the skin oils and crud from previous usage.
Roger
1976 Applause AA14-4 6-String
2001 Adamas 1598-MERB Melissa Etheridge 12-String
2003 Celebrity CC01 Spruce Top 6-String
COMING SOON - 1986 Glen Campbell 12-string |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Gold-plating on guitar hardware will corode, how quickly & how badly depends on your body chemistry, pretty much like strings. My sweat is particularly acidic, I put a gold-plated Bigsby vibrato on my Thunderhead less than a year ago & and the handle is already showing signs of corrosion. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | gold plating no matter how good does not hold up like chrome. |
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October 2002
Posts: 179
Location: New York, NY | Well, this has been a real eye opener!
I know this is unrelated to Ovations, but I currently don't own any electrics. My dream is to one day purchase a spanking new Gibson Les Paul Studio, black with gold hardware. I think I'll get the chrome hardware instead. |
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March 2002
Posts: 15674
Location: SoCal | I lived down by the ocean for about 5 years and the gold on my Legend's tuners just looked like shit when I moved. |
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December 2003
Posts: 28
Location: Chicagoland U.S.A. | Thanks for the above fellas. I am a watch collector, and have rubbed and polished solid gold and tons of stainless watches in my time. I have only softle rubbed a plated or filled watch with a jewelers cloth as i am uncertain. I have never, ever seen so much black come off of a watch. This was very heavy. My guess is that it was very corroded from his acidic skin. Funny though, there is barely a sign of wear on the body at all, almost nothing, the fretboard did have body oil marks it seems. Hard to tell what kind of ride this guy gave her. Oh well, I had to dig to get those pit feeling things off the tuners, they wreren't really pits, more like tiny, miniscule pimples, the naked eye could see it with difficulty, but it spoke of dirty to me, I couldn't live with it. I tried the jewelers cloth alone, that should have done it. No way, it needed the polish too.
Thanks again! |
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Just how thin is the plating on 'gold' tuners?