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  • Nickel Vs Chrome Hardware - Whats the deal?

What's the deal with Nickel hardware?
Some R34k Gibson Es-335 & Les Pauls come with Nickel Hardware - its not very durable and gets tarnished and pitted very easily.
Apart from maybe being authentic vintage re-issue wise is there any musical reason to have Nickel Hardware?

I'm assuming the only difference between say a Nickel Gotoh Bridge & Tail piece Vs the same in Chrome is the outer plating?
From a realistic point of view nice and shiny hard wearing Chrome Hardware seems like a more sensible and wise choice!

I don't know , there are often some hidden and clever reason for seemingly counter-intuitive choices!!
    Nah. I think it's just for vintage. Lots of us like our guitars to look less shiny which means the sensible choices often take a back seat. I've come to find the sight of shiny humbucker covers and gleaming stop-tailpieces wearisome. But no. There's no good reason for it. It's just fashion.
      +1

      Aesthetically, chrome is a bit colder than nickel as well. Nickel looks like it has just a touch of gold in next to chrome - bugged me when I had chrome and nickel mismatches.
        Generally, while I prefer the look of nickel (the slight golden tint), the durability of chrome wins out every time because it stays looking good for decades if you look after it.
          Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Generally, while I prefer the look of nickel (the slight golden tint), the durability of chrome wins out every time because it stays looking good for decades if you look after it.
          My thoughts exactly - nothing like a good polishing and things are as good as new!
          Just about to place an order on Stewmac for some ES Dot parts
          ?
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