cleaning gold plated tuners

[rastus]

Hello and 73 everyone.

I have a JF30-12 (LH, BLK ) that I bought used quite a while back. The gold plated tuners were and still are quite tarnished.

I was about to try a bit of vinegar to clean them up, but thought I would ask first what anyone else has had success with.

I have had great success using vinegar on nickerl plated drum hardware.

 

[adorshki]

I wouldn't put vinegar on gold plate, it may be an alloy and react badly. Even though gold is supposed to be "noble" (not react), we've had a couple of reports of oxidation on those plated tuners.
In fact gold's not supposed to tarnish which is why I suspect it's an alloy plating on the tuner keys.
Here's a link with some ideas, even mentions WD-40 which I've never heard about before!
http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-clean-gold-plated-jewelry.html
On another note I'd be very wary of getting vinegar on the lacquer. You may have to take the tuners completely off to get at 'em completely without marring the lacquer.
Oh, just noticed, first post! Welcome aboard!
Lotta JF30-12 love around here too!

 

[Jeff]

I could be wrong but I don't think gold guitar tuners are actually Gold Plated, they're plated with some sort of brass alloy. Most any metal polish will clean them up nicely, but beware, the plating isn't particularly heavy & repeated heavy polishing may wear thru the plating.

I keep a can of" Never Dull" around the place for general metal polishing, it works great on guitar tuners. http://www.superiorcarcare.net/eo104.html?gclid=CM2B3ou_sLkCFap7Qgod9kgAOQ