Turning GOLD into Nickel!!!

[dmraco]

OK...my plan is to take my open blade humbuckers and put covers on them.  I have two GOLD pickup covers I would like to use.  They were a bit worn so I took some polishing compound and removed the gold finish.  What was left was a fantastic looking silver.  This was NOT chrome, but more grey in tone.  I am guessing it is nickel under all that gold.

either way it looks great.  Can anny one comment on what this may be??

 

[Cagey]

My guess is that it's actually steel, but I've never checked it to be certain. Easy way to find out would be to see if a magnet is attracted to it. If it's nickel, the magnet won't be interested.

 

[crash]

Just about any gold plating you see is plated on top of nickel.  Gold doesn't plate well to other metals, it just flakes off. 

When you see "chrome" plating, what you are actually looking at is nickel. A very thin layer of chrome is plated on top of nickel for protection only.

 

[Jeremiah]

I think traditional humbucker covers were made of nickel silver (which is not actually silver but an alloy of nickel, copper and zinc.)

No idea if they are all made the same way today though. Steel would probably be cheaper, but wouldn't the magnetic properties have odd effects on the magnetic field of the pickup magnets or polepieces?

 

[dmraco]

Just about any gold plating you see is plated on top of nickel.  Gold doesn't plate well to other metals, it just flakes off. 

When you see "chrome" plating, what you are actually looking at is nickel. A very thin layer of chrome is plated on top of nickel for protection only.

Steel...coated with nickel...then gold...I like the nickel!!! :rock-on: