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Many (if not most) individuals confuse nickel with chrome. Nickel does look different (it has a very slight coloration to it rather than a mirror like shine). The base for chrome may be very different than nickel. Chrome almost always needs a highly conductive and "sticky" undercoat such as copper. Chrome will "peel" when worn while nickel will pocket or most often wear to a very, very light yellowing when it wears. Once chrome starts to peel; it's ruined. Nickel will often wear in high contact areas such as tuning pegs that contact skin while the other areas may continue to look nearly new.
Nickel is very hard. Nickel is also difficult to "get right" when plating so it's very often done by a large firm that specializes in nickel plating. Chrome can be much easier to coat and is occasionally done on the cheap.
Acidification to "relic" either is not the best idea because you need to know the background methods in application and the base metal. HCl, H2SO4 or any mineral acid can (and does) sneak under the plating. A caustic base, thinned, is somewhat safer but you still have a real chance of botching the whole deal.
Check out web pages that specialize is "relic" jobs on guitars and read over several before you do anything. Often you just want the surface to loose it's new luster, which is fairly easy with a "starting level" buffing compound. It would be a Hell of a lot safer also because you can control much more of the application of "wear".
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Paul Tutmarc: Inventor of the Electric Bass - 1931.
1st Electric Bass "Serenader":. L.D. HEATER Co. 1948
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