Official Luthiers Forum!

hi,

i am still restoring this vintage '76 classical guitar from japan and am having a difficult time finding a solution to cleaning the metal plate that the machine heads mount on. by the way, what is the proper nomenclature for this plate? i have looked on google, but didn't find anything ... though, i didn't search in depth.

anyway, i have tried several cleaning approaches, but none has worked so far. first i tried a good ol'e fashioned pink school eraser to see if i could cut the years of grime. next, i tried naphtha with a tooth brush and then a small wire brush. still no luck, but not wanting to be defeated, i then tried some stronger stuff. i tried wheel de-greaser for cars and then finally, a carburetor cleaner. i have yet to try the engine degreasing foam, b/c i'm not convinced it will work since these other attempts didn't either.

any suggestions?

by the way, though this guitar is vintage, the value is minimal @ <$300. (it's a '76 conn.) i would like this plate to retain the gold finish if possible. also, if you zoom in on the picture, perhaps you can see a worn spot showing silver on the middle tuning hook (for lack of a better term).

(these two pictures are in a publicly-shared web album at this time)
first image:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-tdijNKuHQ6o/UnLU6-e7IOI/AAAAAAAAhoo/gu1RaDIaaI4/w622-h833-no/photo+1.JPG
second image:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-BB92WeKQu7I/UnLVRIOXWhI/AAAAAAAAhok/kWfiIQ4WZI0/w622-h833-no/photo+2.JPG


thanks!
shad

Have you tried one of the paste metal cleaners? Solvol Autosol comes to mind.

_________________
Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

prior to your reply, i tried silver cleaning paste, but that didn't do anything. is that equivalent to the solvol autosol you mentioned or a different ballpark? if it is basically the same thing, then perhaps i'll just leave it as is since now all of the gears are cleaned and can be reassembled.

thoughts?

sounds like it is probably cheap/ thin plating, and the base metal has corroded through....so it is not "cleanable"

yeah, i think you may be right.

well, thanks everyone! i'll just reassemble it and go as is.

cheers!

"Posh" silver cleaners can be pretty specific to silver. Autosol is a general metal cleaner so may well work better. Doesn't mean that it will! I've used it, but not on guitar parts, and it certainly did what I expected.

_________________
Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Problem is as soon as you clean it the metal will rust again. The solution is either leave it alone to retain the vintage look or clean it completely (toothpaste works for this) and re-plate it. I had a customer ask me about making an old Stella tailpiece shiny again and that's what I told him. I'm not really equipped to plate metal though...

_________________
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

If you know someone who reloads ammo, you can throw the parts in a brass tumbler (http://www.dillonprecision.com/content/ ... se_Cleaner) with walnut or corncob media and they will come out looking close to new.

Not sure if this is good advice but to clean old vintage rusty bike parts you soak them in a weak oxycylic acid (wood bleach) solution. Works like a charm.

wow, thanks for all of the various ideas everyone. i have decided to leave it as it and have now reassembled it; however, i will keep this approaches in mind for future project.

have a great weekend!