Awhile back, Ballin'bass got me wanting to get a pickup and bridge cover set for my Road Worn P-Bass. Well, I got the original Fender set but they were highly-polished chrome, looking brand new and that just didn't go too well with the existing look of the bass. I started looking around for some way to age the chrome parts but kept coming across chemical techniques using really nasty stuff like muriatic acid, etc. Then I found a gal on The Gear Page (name: whoismarykelly) from a thread in 2007 that said to simply throw the parts into a sealed container (plastic coffee container works well) with a bunch of smallish rocks, pebbles, keys, metal bits, etc. and shake vigorously for 5 mins or so. So I did that and it really started working well, but after 5 mins or so it still was obvious that I had a while to go before I got to all the surface area of the chrome. Duuuuhhh! I suddenly realized that my bullet brass tumbler (yes, I'm from Texas, we all get one for our 18th birthday
) would work like a charm, so I threw all the aforementioned chunks I got off the road into it, leaves, dirt, and all, and threw in the chrome parts behind. I spun it up and let it go for about 10 mins or so and man it did the trick. Now the chrome parts look like they're part of an old-school bass! For those of you old timers that already knew all this, relax your jaws. Some folks, including myself, may not have thought of doing this, but I'm telling you now this beats the heck out of doing the chemistry lab thing. Take a look at the pics, before and after, and judge for yourself.
) would work like a charm, so I threw all the aforementioned chunks I got off the road into it, leaves, dirt, and all, and threw in the chrome parts behind. I spun it up and let it go for about 10 mins or so and man it did the trick. Now the chrome parts look like they're part of an old-school bass! For those of you old timers that already knew all this, relax your jaws. Some folks, including myself, may not have thought of doing this, but I'm telling you now this beats the heck out of doing the chemistry lab thing. Take a look at the pics, before and after, and judge for yourself.
