Photos of Tarnish on Gold/Nickel Tuners
 

I am thinking of getting some replacement Taylor tuners for my guitar. The color options are:

Chrome
Nickel
Gold

I hear that all polished gold tuners will tarnish over time. I wondered: do the nickel and chrome tuners also tarnish?

If anyone has photos of tarnished Taylor tuners, would you mind posting a photo here along with the vintage of your tuners? It would be really helpful to gauge how things might look a few years from now.

Thank you!

Tuners on Taylor GA 8, purchased new in late 2011. I have “fingers of death” with it comes to metallic objects, especially guitar strings. And now I discover with gold tuner buttons also.

Petey, I’ve never seen actual tarnish on gold-plated tuners - the gold Schaller mini tuners on my custom 000-42, which I received in 1989, still look brand new. And that guitar has been used and gigged with a LOT since I got it.

But Scott Baxendale, who built the guitar, swapped out the stock metal buttons for pearloid. Scott did that for contrast and the added visual elegance of the pearloid, but a really important side benefit is that the gold plating on the tuners themselves has remained intact.

It’s the stock metal buttons that receive most of the wear because they’re only part of the tuners that players normally touch 99% of the time.

So if you want to avoid the gold plating getting worn off, it’s a good idea to install aftermarket tuner buttons.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5b0b80277d.jpg
1989 original Schiller tuners on k yairi

I have 2 guitars with gold plated tuners both at lest 13 years old. Mine are all fine.

If it's real gold, there should be little or no tarnish. But if it's just gold-colored, most anything is possible.

don't know why I posted schiller, of course they are schaller.

Actually, based on the shape of the tuner casings, I’m pretty sure those are Gotohs with Schaller-shaped buttons rather than Schallers.


whm

Of the three metals, nickel is the most durable plating. Gold eventually wears off and chrome can be susceptible to pitting if you don't keep it polished. However, some people have allergies to nickel and it's considered a carcinogen in Europe, which is how EVO gold fretwire came to be.

As noted by another poster, Taylor doesn't make machines. Those are most likely Gotoh's (edit: I just read in another thread that Taylor's machines are Pings from China) so I wouldn't pay extra to have the Taylor name on them. I have two Taylors that are 20+ years old. When I bought them, I swapped out the Grover rotomatics (too heavy) for Gotoh 410s and those machines are still working flawlessly.

Thanks for the update Wade, I'm no expert and it's always good to know the facts. They have been good tuners, I just thought I would show an example of how tuner buttons can wear.

They’ll all tarnish, except for tuners coated in real gold. If you don’t want those to tarnish, don’t touch them -

Thank you to everyone who posted photos and shared their experiences! I appreciate it. I am going for the “gold” ones and will live with the tarnish.

Hi all, some folks talked about wiping down gold colored tuners to prevent or slow the tarnish.

Does anyone know whether a simple cloth wipe down is all that is necessary? Or are there other gentle cleaning materials (water? Soap?) that are needed to remove the corrosive fingerprints?

Thanks for your advice!