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So you know how a lot of guitars with gold hardware (that generally costs more) the gold wears out... how long does the coating usually last before it ends up looking cheap?

I'm asking because gold hardware does look better but the coating seems to be rather soft, I guess because it's plated with 24K gold or something and it's a rather soft metal. Chrome seems rather tough compared to gold.

So I've seen many gun barrels (in the US) that is nitride finished, and while it's mostly black nitride, those gold nitride that you see on drill bits can be done too. So the question is, does anyone make guitar tuners with such a coating? It seems like those nitride coating would be much tougher compared to gold plating because nitride finish is used on drill bits, and on a gun barrel it is almost impossible to scratch it off even if you tried.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Tai,
It seems like it would be easy to do. Almost all of our carbide at work is coated, much of it with the gold Titanium Nitride. TiN coatings are much harder than gold, something like 80 Rc, and as you said they stick really well.
Maybe when people want GOLD, they want GOLD, and not just the gold color?

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Why be normal?

Yea, I want gold too.

However what I hate above all else is gold plating that wears off. It looks really ugly when it happens, much worse than cheap jewelry.

Those EVO Gold fret wire aren't gold either, but it goes well with gold hardware and if it tarnishes, it polishes up well.

Try to polish up gold hardware and the gold comes right off, looking much worse than before.

So I feel a good compromise is TiN, looks close enough but will never wear out unless you take it to a belt sander.

Let's not comment on people who do it with Fenders on purpose...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

It's not soft. Just ridiculous thin (measured in Angstroms).

nitiride will never look like gold.....

I also know from my custom motorcycle days that there are different grades of plating and multiple ways to do it. The best being triple plated with copper/nickle/gold. The quality and thickness of the gold plate is a thing too. Better plating costs real money and most guitar hardware companies do not do much other than single plated at minimum thickness..... so it comes right off. Want gold that lasts? send your hardware off to have it stripped and triple gold plated. But have your checkbook ready! pricing varies by the day and follows gold prices and actual type and thickness. With today's gold prices. I wouldn't be surprised to spend $250-$300USD to have a typical ABR bridge and tail with studs done in good gold plate.

It's like everything else, you get what you pay for.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Well, I read on Quora people asked about gold plated guns, and the consensus was that nobody gold plates guns because the plating would wear off quickly and it would look terrible. Some pointed to a company that does gold nitride coating. It’s far more durable than gold and it’s probably cheaper too. It’s different but I wonder if companies exist to nitride coat guitar hardware?

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Sperzel offers gold anodized finishes on their tuners. Has anyone had experience with the durability of the finish?