Gold plating vs. brass

dnabbet2 · Dec 14, 2018

I'm looking for lightly aged gold-plated Gibson vintage style strap buttons for my '54 Custom project, and all I see are either aluminum or brass. Did the original Customs not have gold-plated strap buttons? Is brass really an okay replacement?

Uncle Gary · Dec 14, 2018

Every Gibson I've owned with gold plated hardware had brass strap buttons. Of course, I've never owned a '50's LP Custom, so.....

Big Al · Dec 15, 2018

Uncle Gary said:
Every Gibson I've owned with gold plated hardware had brass strap buttons. Of course, I've never owned a '50's LP Custom, so.....

I've not seen that. Every gold hardware Gibson I've seen and those I own have gold plated aluminium buttons. I've not seen unplated brass ones.

dnabbet2 · Dec 15, 2018

Uncle Gary said:
Every Gibson I've owned with gold plated hardware had brass strap buttons. Of course, I've never owned a '50's LP Custom, so.....

You know, I would've said the same thing, but I'm looking closely at the buttons on my '54 True Historic -- the way I should've done in the first place, my apologies -- and to my eye they do seem to be unplated brass.

Uncle Gary · Dec 17, 2018

dnabbet2 said:
You know, I would've said the same thing, but I'm looking closely at the buttons on my '54 True Historic -- the way I should've done in the first place, my apologies -- and to my eye they do seem to be unplated brass.

The only way to be sure would be to weigh the gold buttons vs. the aluminum ones. I know the "genuine Gibson" strap buttons I've purchased have been either aluminum or brass. I find it hard to believe they would be using something different for production. I know the "gold" buttons tarnish pretty quickly, which they wouldn't if they were actually gold plated.

Gold plating vs. brass

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