Gibson nickel humbucker covers

[Plucky]

I've had a request to age some Gibson nickel-plated covers, and I'm not convinced that the plating is actually nickel. Suspending them over muriatic didn't fog up the appearance, but it did form condensation, which left smooth circular pits where the droplets were. Ferric chloride pretty much did nothing, even after over 20 minutes of submersion. What gives?

[Possum]

Probably chrome plated, almost impossible to age chrome....

[Plucky]

They are packaged as nickel, and have a yellower tint than the ones sold as chrome. Are they selling tinted chrome as nickel, perhaps? My experience with muriatic and chrome, however, has shown that chrome will form rough pinholes rather than smooth craters...

[Possum]

Don't know what to tell you there, I think the WSC covers aren't nickel plated anymore either, but I don't try to age them because of the copper underplating. Its some form of nickel plating but it has something else in to make it more durable and scratch resistant I think. Maybe it has something to do with ROHS compliance....

[Plucky]

Thanks for your input, Dave. I've discovered that there is a thin prep layer beneath the top layer of 'whatever', under which is regular chrome, followed by another prep layer, then the nickel-silver(or variation thereof). Looks like they are just replating chrome covers with something that resembles nickel. I'm not really that surprised...