How to relic nickel bass hardware?

Some reading for you. A few methods mentioned here...

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/how-to-relic-nickel-grover-tuners.1838988/

Best way to age (relic) new nickel parts?

 

i have a little bit of a jewelry background. i would suspend the item over an amount of red wine vinegar in a sealed mason jar and let the fumes work on it. if that doesn't give you what you want then you can escalate to diluted glacial acetic acid again in a closed jar. and if that doesn't work to your liking, you'll have to escalate to liver of sulfur. you'll have to break the hardware down and remove plastic items like tuner knob spacers, etc...

the word that will get the best search results is "patina" and there's numerous darkening products out there. if your hardware is lacquered, this will have to be removed even when using simple vinegar.

be careful with your chemistry though. vinegar is pretty benign, but the glacial acetic acid, liver of sulfur, and many of the commercial products are not. take the necessary precautions. but you may just get your result with the vinegar and you're good to go.

 

I’ve used muratic acid. But, you have to be very careful, fumes are bad and it works pretty quickly. Don’t put the parts in the acid, put the parts in their own container, put that container In another container that contains the acid, seal that container and let the fumes work. Plenty of YouTube videos to show you how To do it.

 

You could always blacken it. Blackened nickel silver looks pretty tasty.

 

I'd just leave it outside in the rain and sun. That will age it pretty quickly.