Silver Nickel pickup covers... is it so...?

[LtKojak]

I've purchased some gold nickel silver covers from Mojotone.com and while sanding'em before soldering, I've seen copper right under the golden coat.

I've e-mailed'em asking'em about it, that was their first answer:

Hey Pepe-

You are correct in your findings. If you file off the nickel silver plating you will find brass underneath. Nickle Silver is applied to the substrate metal (brass) through an electroplating process.

Short after, I've received the following e-mail:

Sorry, I stand corrected. You can get Solid Nickel Silver although it is fairly expensive. Unfortunately no one makes a solid Nickel Silver humbucker cover. Apparently all of the vintage covers were plated as well.

If I find someone that is manufacturing them I will send you their info.

I said yeah, sure.

Well, I'd like to share with you the last e-mail sent on the subject:

Hey Pepe-

So I finally got word back from our manufacturer that our pickup covers are indeed made from solid nickle silver. They apparently plate the nickle silver with copper before they plate them with chrome. When you sanded them down you were seeing the copper underneath.

Thanks,

Michael

I believe in the company's good faith about the covers being nickel silver.

And I've certainly appreciated the follow-up. Kudos to Mojotone.com and their customer service, and I'd like to personally thank Michael, as he showed he's a man who keep his word.

As I've sleeped through all my metallurgy classes, I'd like to ask a question to the folks that make their OWN nickel silver covers:
If they REALLY are nickel silver, is it REALLY necessary to plate'em with copper before plate'em again with gold or chrome? I've always thought the material itself allowed the chrome, nickel and gold plating to be applied directly.

Looking forward to hear from you,

Yours very truly,

[copperheadroads]

I was wondering about why you have to plate nickel with copper too .................great question Pepe
.......I use the Mojo covers as well & i noticed the copper as soon as you sand or scrape the inside

[Joe Gwinn]

Ask Carswell if it is necessary to have a copper layer to chrome plate nickel silver.

[copperheadroads]

Just found this
What are the advantages of copper as an under-plate?
A common practice in the plating industry is to use a copper flash under-plate before plating the tin, nickel or other metal. Also, a customer may specify a heavier copper layer. On certain alloys the relevant ASTM standard (B545) requires the use of a copper under-plate.

A copper under-plate provides the following advantages:

•Slows zinc migration in applicable alloys.
Tin attracts the zinc in the base metal causing it to slowly migrate toward the surface. The copper layer acts as a barrier layer and will greatly improve the shelf life solderability of the plated material. A 100 micro-inch thick layer is generally recommended.

•Improves adhesion.
Material that may have an oxide layer that is more difficult to remove through the normal pretreatment process can benefit from the use of an acid copper under-plate. The acid can remove any small amount of oxidized material remaining.

•Highly solderable.
The use of a pure copper layer over alloyed copper will improve the solderability of the final plated product.

•Ductile intermediate layer may improve formability of parts.
Under extreme deformation conditions the highly ductile nature of the copper layer may help preserve the continuity of the plated surface.

•Highly conductive.
Only silver is a better conductor and copper is much cheaper.

•Provides a more uniform appearance of tin plating.
Slight imperfections in the surface of the base metal can be overcome with a uniform copper under plate.


So if its a nickel cover maybe they use to cover up imperfections

[Bruce Johnson]

Yes, that's been my understanding from talking to the plating company that does my parts (Van Nuys Plating in Van Nuys, CA). The copper base coat isn't absolutely necessary, but it's desirable under nickel. It improves the bonding and acts as a primer to smooth out the surface. Show Chrome (also called Bright Chrome) plating usually has three main layers: copper, then nickel, then chrome. Copper is the smoother/primer, nickel protects the metal from corrosion, and the chrome topcoat keeps the nickel from tarnishing.

The gold plating that's used on musical instrument parts isn't really true gold plating; it's called Gold Chrome plating and is the same as Show Chrome, which is then given a very thin flash coat of 24ct gold, and topped with a coat of clear lacquer. That's why a small amount of solvents or scrubbing will go right through the gold.

True gold plating is much more expensive because, obviously, gold itself is expensive. Copper is usually as a base under the gold. I had some of the hardware on one of my own instruments done in true gold plating back in the mid 1990's and it cost about $400. It would easily be $1000 today. The true gold plating is also more yellowish in color; Gold Chrome is more orangeish, almost a brass color.

[JGundry]

I stamp, buff and plate my own PAF style nickel silver covers with no Copper flash. If Nickel Silver is properly buffed a Copper flash is not required before Nickel plating. The plating shop I use once did plating for Gibson Kalamazoo and uses no Copper flash for Nickel Silver. A Copper flash does help with adhesion and does fill in imperfections somewhat but you can get great results with no cooper if the covers are buffed and cleaned properly prior to plating. Gold covers are plated with a thin layer of gold over brite Nickel plating. I have not had parts chrome plated but I think chrome needs a copper flash prior to plating.

[copperheadroads]

Sell me some Jon
I take some without holes as well for my bucker sized p-90's

[LtKojak]

Sell me some Jon
I take some without holes as well for my bucker sized p-90's

If you use this kind you won't have to worry 'bout losing any highs:

http://www.mojotone.com/core/media/m...2a6b308cdee58b

or this kind either (it's plastic)

http://www.mojotone.com/core/media/m...9c53182447a5eb

HTH,

[copperheadroads]

Actually Pepe I have both of those here right now
but there's something about the look of a nickel cover ,it just looks superior & besides with the plastic or open cover the bucker sized p-90 Is too bright anyway the full cover could be exactly what i need.............

[LtKojak]

Actually Pepe I have both of those here right now
but there's something about the look of a nickel cover ,it just looks superior & besides with the plastic or open cover the bucker sized p-90 Is too bright anyway the full cover could be exactly what i need.............

I beg to differ. I'd take the look of the P-94s over the Phat Cats any time of the day.

Where the PCs look pretty vanilla boring, the P-94s stand tall being classy, specially the black/golden scheme.

If yours are too bright, just use another magnet and/or add some turns and/or change the wire to PE instead of that cheesy SPN of yours...

C'mon, you KNOW you want to!



J/K