Creative with Ferric(hmm a bit long and kinda off topic )

[EdJ]

Hi,
i was given a Scheckter Tele that ,for some reason,had a chrome bridge and gold plated tuners.
At first i was just happy with it;you know given horses and all that but after a while the bridge,which covers a substantial amount of the body`s surface,became more and more annoying.
I never fully understood the apperant relationship between electric guitars and cars.Maybe this is inherent to growing up in a country without a *real* automotive industry.
Anyway i descited to get rid of the chrome.But how?
Buying a new brigde is just too easy in a matter like this.
There had to be another way,a simple way.
I started,of course,with sanding but after an hour`s work and one saddle still not completely done i discarded that option.
Of course i realize i don`t have to tell all this for the ones who just red the subject and not further do understand what i wanted to say already.
Yes,you simply take a piece of fishing wire,tie that to the bridge and dump it in your ferric chloride container.
It takes a while(i had done quite a few pcb`s with the ferric),3 hours in my case but the chrome is completely gone then.You just have to polish it and apply a clear laquer(i prefer boat laquer because it is resistant to salt and i tend to sweat a lot.and you have a copper bridge that maches gold plated hardware more.
The saddles brought a bit of a problem because if you simple put them in the ferric chances are that it might take away the tread for the screws too and that leaves you with the option of either gluing the thing to the bridge or simply buy a whole new bridge which is not something to aim for.
I took a few wooden barbeque sticks and sharpened them,twisted them in the screw holes.Then i strung up all the saddles and hung them in tapwater for about ten minutes.The wood was swollen up enough then.
After that i put them in the ferric and after a few hours they got rid of their chrome plating too.
Againg polishing and putting clear boat laguer on .
Then all is left is putting all the screws in their places and putting the thing back on the guitar.Enjoy yourself!
Greetings,Ed

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Nice! I dechromed part of the kitchen sink (accidentally..). I suspect that it would be possible to put resist on chrome (if you could find resist that stuck) then use ferric chloride to "rough up" the uncoverd parts, and then get paint to preferentially stain the etched parts.
Small electroplating shops in my experience are happy to do "one off" chroming jobs.