Cleaning gold bridge and tailpiece

[SBrem]

I have another thread on my Nightbird project, but rather than pile onto that one... my gold plated bridge and tailpiece have a fair amount of corrosion. So far I've seen some advice with WD-40, soak the parts and clean, and even simple electrolysis. What are your favorite tricks, excluding not having kept them clean in the first place, my bad there.

Steve

 

[Stuball48]

I had an old "Clockmaker" friend who was world known. Just an amazing man and he made his own polish. He and his wife, Judy, made and bottled it and shipped it from his home. Judy still makes it and sells it on their website. The Polish is called "Rub & Brite." Best polish I have ever used. Pricey, but will last forever. You can get to his website by Googling-- W R Smith - and look for polish.


Please move this to thread on polishing tailpiece

 

[SFIV1967]

But be careful with any polish on gold plated parts. Sometimes it is so thin that you end up with a silver colored part if you apply polish. Famous where some tuners where the gold plating was extremely thin. So try at a spot that is not immediately visible.
Ralf

 

[GAD]

I think Guild parts were coated especially thin though I have nothing to back that up.

Is it corrosion or wear?

 

[Nuuska]

On my -70:s Guilds the Schaller tuners are still almost like new
On later white Songbird w Grover the gold is vanishing away.
On red Songbird w Schaller it is like new.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Most of the Gold fading problems on Guilds seem to be the Grover tuners and the pick-up covers.

I'll leave this photo big so you can see the gold is almost gone on the P'ups! I forget what tuners these are but they're pretty cool! The harp tail pieces hang in there!

 

[SBrem]

Most of the Gold fading problems on Guilds seem to be the Grover tuners and the pick-up covers.

I'll leave this photo big so you can see the gold is almost gone on the P'ups! I forget what tuners these are but they're pretty cool! The harp tail pieces hang in there!

My tuners are mostly chrome, or should I say, nickel? That didn't take long as I remember. I ended up taking the bridge apart, soaking all in WD-40, brushing each piece with a soft old toothbrush, and it's back together looking much better.

Steve

 

[matsickma]

I always wondered what process Guild used for gold plating. Gold can be flashed onto different metals. At a former job location their was always a battle between the electrical and mechanical engineers on plating. The mechanical material engineers always recommended a nickle plating layer be applied before the gold (AU) plating to prevent the migration of the gold plating into the base metal. The RF antenna guys never wanted a nickel layer applied because the greater losses of nickle plating. Their were pro's and con's of each. However the deciding factor showed up when some of the antennas ended up being installed on a high flying aircraft and the environment at high altitude greatly accelerated the gold migration issue such that after a few months of high flying missions the Gold plating on the antennas was almost gone because of accelerated gold migration. Needless to say all future antennas had a nickle barrier layer appliedbto the base metal.

 

[GAD]

I've had some high-flying solos back in the '80s that migrated the gold right off my pickups.

Congrats on your 3000th post!