Official Luthiers Forum!

You know how gold hardware seems to wear out kinda fast while chrome lasts much longer?

I seen some titanium nitride coated items (such as watches) that looks very close to being gold, but titanium nitride is much harder than gold (it's used to coat drill bits).

So my question is, how come nobody makes tuners or guitar hardware coated in titanium nitride?

_________________
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

Expensive and basically useless.
Also - how will they market that color?

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Considering that there are so many titanium nitride coated items out there, such as drill bits, I don't think it's particularly expensive to do. It just uses the same vacuum process that most coatings are done. Plus parts can be coated with TiN inside and out to achieve better wear characteristics on them. If anything gold plating is more expensive as you use actual gold (just not very much) and it involves the use of very toxic chemicals.

_________________
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

Most metallic plating is done with electrolysis in chemical baths, not vacuum.

Titanium nitride is coated with vacuum deposition.

_________________
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

I'm pretty sure that TiN coatings are dirt cheap to do. They charge for the upgrade in wear. They aren't shiny, so maybe no one wants a flat gold tuner? It's not the look. Carbide inserts for metal turning have multiple layers and thicknesses of various coatings. You pick the one for whatever you're doing. Even some ceramic inserts are coated, but it is mostly as a visual for wear. When they start looking black on the corner, they're done.

It's an industrial look, not a bling look.

_________________
Why be normal?

"It's an industrial look, not a bling look."

I have some Sperzel tuners that are a satin gold finish that could certainly pass for TiN coating.
https://guitaraudio.com/sperzel-3x3-tri ... satin-gold

We could go with cadmium plating.... it's gold, purple, and blue. Very hard.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Gold hardware wearing out would be due to an excessively thin layer of gold plating.

I have some nickel plated hardware on my tele which I like better than chrome.

Me too. I've always liked nickel better. Gold, meh.

_________________
formerly known around here as burbank
_________________

http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Whenever a guitar came into Greenridge wearing gold plate tuners, Mr. Morelli would seque into the classic VW commercial... "Vat time iss it? Time to un-pimp your ride!"

https://youtu.be/e1MNEqCr748

When we could get rid of those gold tuners, we could say we 'unpimped' that customer's guitar.

_________________
A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower