@GentProvocateur, I love where your head is at. 
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Winter Build off - Mash Up - Get Ready
- Thread starter Scoops
- Start date
How much bass do you want? What’s that? You want Alda bass?@GentProvocateur, I love where your head is at.
I’ve been wanting to build this exact bass for years now. So jealous, great job!!!! Love the 620 shape.
Tort bindingTort and binding
While waiting for the official kickoff I wanted to try a bit of nickel plating. Not sure if I will be plating anything on either mashup build but it's a good skill to have.
First I brewed up a little electric nickel juice.
Nickels are much easier to juice than I expected.
Chock full of shiny nickel goodness.
Then I took an ordinary brass wood screw.
And gave it an electrified bath for about 10 minutes.
Et voila! Nickel plated loothier grade guitar hardware.
First I brewed up a little electric nickel juice.
Nickels are much easier to juice than I expected.
Chock full of shiny nickel goodness.
Then I took an ordinary brass wood screw.
And gave it an electrified bath for about 10 minutes.
Et voila! Nickel plated loothier grade guitar hardware.
I've done the same thing with copper. It's pretty cool.
- Jan 28, 2009
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- 4,152
- Disclosures
- Owner: Moonshine Custom Guitars
That second picture looks suspiciously like the fluorescent margaritas that my local Mexican restaurant offers...
Moonshine
I might be borrowing that tubing wiring channel idea for build 2.
Real chrome plating uses too many toxic chemicals but nickel plating is fairly safe and easy.
The solution starts with white vinegar and some salt to increase conductivity. My jar is 8 ounces and I used 2 teaspoons of salt.
Use an old wall wart as the power supply. Reccomended less than 1 amp. I used a 12 volt but 5 volt phone charger should work too. Nickel can be found on ebay or Amazon. I used strips made for battery pack building because they were cheap. Cut the connector off the wall wart cord and put alligator clips on the ends. Red for positive and black for negative if you're OCD. Put a strip of nickel in the jaws of each alligator for your anode (+) and cathode (-), put them in the vinegar solution and plug in the power supply. You should start seeing bubbles in the solution and then it will start to turn greenish blue. I cooked mine for about 2 hours.
After you have the solution use a strip of nickel as your anode and use a piece of copper wire to suspend the piece you are plating in the solution and connect the negative lead to the wire.
I gave the screw 10 minutes but I will play around with longer times on other test pieces.
Of course clean and degrease the piece you are plating. Just like painting a guitar the better the prep the better the finish. I used brake cleaner and Scotchbrite pads for a quick test.
After plating the nickel is dull but hit it with some metal polish and it will shine.
Attachments
I'd politely disagree a little here. To me, stainless looks nothing like nickel, despite having nickel content. I see stainless and chrome being much more similar in colour, whereas nickel looks duller overall, but much richer in colour tones with a more subdued feel. I agree the pain with nickel is tarnishing, but so many people like things that look a little aged, that something getting there a little sooner can be a positive...
