Summertime Humbucker thoughts

[S. Weiger]

For those interested in vintage Patent number humbucker pickups:

I asked Mat Koehler in this thread about sharp/rounded corners on the baseplate's feet (the flanges).

It happened right around 1970 according to Gibson pickup expert (many thanks ) and with that knowledge one might easier authenticate an alledged mid 1962 - mid 1965 nickel plated cover pat.no. humbucker. (Pre T-top). These are beginning to approach PAF pickup prices.

In mid 1965 chrome plating superseded nickel, but Gold plated humbuckers still had nickel plating underneath -I guess you can't get gold to stick on chrome?

Now say a scammer have a late '69 to very early 70's Gold plated pat.no sticker Humbucker with unopened covers & braided metal shielding wire.
If you remove all visible gold carefully, replace the gold plated pole screws with aged nickel repro's, -voila, you now have a much more expensive and (for many) desirable vintage nickel cover pre T-top pat.no. humbucker.

Exept the baseplate feet corners are rounded where they should be sharp..

Would you be duped, if not aware of this? I think I would, if the 'conversion' from a Gold HB to a 1963-64-65 nickel HB is done well enough.

 

[Wilko]

Chrome or gold are three coat metalurgical process. Copper, Nickel, then chrome or gold.

 

[S. Weiger]

Chrome or gold are three coat metalurgical process. Copper, Nickel, then chrome or gold.

That's what I was thinking too. In 1974 as teenager, I worked at a calculator factory. It was my job to gold plate printing circuit boards. They had to be manually switched from one electrolytic bath to the next, 8 or 9 in total with chemical cleansing in between & precise intervals.
The plating was probably containing copper, nickel and then gold, these small baths tubs..

 

[poor man's burst]

Chrome or gold are three coat metalurgical process. Copper, Nickel, then chrome or gold.

Guitar hardware was nickel plated under gold or chrome, but copper was not used as 1st coat during the 50's and the 60's.

 

[garywright]

For those interested in vintage Patent number humbucker pickups:

I asked Mat Koehler in this thread about sharp/rounded corners on the baseplate's feet (the flanges).

It happened right around 1970 according to Gibson pickup expert (many thanks ) and with that knowledge one might easier authenticate an alledged mid 1962 - mid 1965 nickel plated cover pat.no. humbucker. (Pre T-top). These are beginning to approach PAF pickup prices.

In mid 1965 chrome plating superseded nickel, but Gold plated humbuckers still had nickel plating underneath -I guess you can't get gold to stick on chrome?

Now say a scammer have a late '69 to very early 70's Gold plated pat.no sticker Humbucker with unopened covers & braided metal shielding wire.
If you remove all visible gold carefully, replace the gold plated pole screws with aged nickel repro's, -voila, you now have a much more expensive and (for many) desirable vintage nickel cover pre T-top pat.no. humbucker.

Exept the baseplate feet corners are rounded where they should be sharp..

Would you be duped, if not aware of this? I think I would, if the 'conversion' from a Gold HB to a 1963-64-65 nickel HB is done well enough.

no, there’s more to it than that

 

[S. Weiger]

no, there’s more to it than that

Please elaborate?

 

[garywright]

Please elaborate?

no ..but good luck with your attempt

 

[S. Weiger]

no ..but good luck with your attempt

Your post makes no sense.. at least to me. But alas, I'm from the old world, maybe that's why..

 

[S. Weiger]

Ok, so besides our secretive vintage humbucker expert (whom apparently has x-ray vision? ) ...

Who else would not get fooled by a converted Gold-to-Nickel pickup w/ unopened covers, presented as a pre-1965 pat.no humbucker ?


And if not, why ?

 

[poor man's burst]

Good luck if you expect removing all traces of gold INSIDE the cover without opening the pickup.

 

[poor man's burst]

.

 

[S. Weiger]

Good luck if you expect removing all traces of gold INSIDE the cover without opening the pickup.

Hell yes! If cover is removed, the whole scam falls apart. And if the buyer was allowed to see the bobbins, it will o.c. be T-tops.

The whole point is unopened cover with undisturbed solder joints, as I stated. The hypothetical seller (a con man obviously) sells the pickup on Craiglist, Ebay e.g. as is, and the poor buyer does not suspect anything fishy.
If the buyer wants the cover off before buying, the scammer replies " NO WAY I'm going to open it and destroy the virgin solder joints!! "
If the buyer later open the pickup himself & discover the scam the con artist, if confronted with the fact, will just claim " You're BS'ing me! this is not the pickup I sold! "

 

[poor man's burst]

I'm not sure you got my post right. What I meant was that if you want to pass a late gold plated Pat Nr pickup for an early nickel plated one, you would have to remove all traces of gold plating including any visible plating on the inside of the cover, which is virtually impossible without unsoldering the cover.

 

[S. Weiger]

I'm not sure you got my post right. What I meant was that if you want to pass a late gold plated Pat Nr pickup for an early nickel plated one, you would have to remove all traces of gold plating including any visible plating on the inside of the cover, which is virtually impossible without unsoldering the cover.

You only have to sand off the visible gold on the underside to dupe someone. I don't think that's impossible with the right tools.
If it is, then fine: One less scam opportunity..

 

[poor man's burst]

You only have to sand off the visible gold on the underside to dupe someone. I don't think that's impossible with the right tools.
If it is, then fine: One less scam opportunity..

As I said in post#10: good luck.

 

[S. Weiger]

As I said in post#10: good luck.

Thanks, but the whole thought experiment is of course hypothetical so I don't need luck