Home Etching a Neckplate

I have not liked the bare naked neck plate on my builds. I did not want to put a Fender F on it, or an etching of SRV or any of the purchasable etched products I saw on Reverb. I don't have access to a vinyl cutting printer. I am not particularly artistic...but I wanted to do something. I decided to do simplified version of the A in Magneto font that I have been using as a logo. (Below the logo is black and red, but I have been varying the color depending on the guitar's color). I am not sure this is a "good enough" idea but worth a try...and I thought I'd post it if anyone else is interested.

Attachment 44663

I will attach a video from Youtube of a guy doing something similar. He has a vinyl cutting printer, however. He also did not take the plate off the guitar.

By contrast I did mine entirely with 3M 1/4" Fine Line tape and electricians tape to cover most of the neckplate, leaving exposed only the parts that are no longer chromed. I did this primarily because fit did not require cutting the tape at all. There is no stencil and I was working by eye-balling a big Magneto A, which is why they are not quite alike. I think they ended up looking a little cartoonish.

The guy in the vid used the same process I did, roughly, although I covered my neckplate more thoroughly, and taped the anode wire to the back. You need to change the Q-tip frequently because once it has picked up some chrome it stops working well. The guy in the vid says it "looks like a penny," where you've etched. That's because what is under the thin layer of chrome is mostly copper. He polishes his to get the copper as shiny as the chrome. He may not realize that unless he varnishes the neckplate, the copper will oxidize again and will eventually look like an old penny. I have already started to see that mine has darkened somewhat, and am sort of looking forward to it looking like old penny. It may not get fully consistent like an old penny, but I don't hate the way it looks now...so we'll see.

For a power source, I used a 19.2V Craftsman power-tool battery. That may not work for everyone. I noticed that my Ryobi batteries do not produce voltage unless they are plugged into a tool. Lots of ways to power the process though if your power tool battery does not work.

Not an artistic masterstroke, but maybe worthy of the FWIW pile of ideas. If not, it may be an object lesson for others who surf by similar YT ideas ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W99cgOahF5E

thats cool. might have to give that a try.

Looks good to me.

If you start with an unchromed plate, you could use the same method and then send away to get the plate fully chromed. I don’t know if you can chrome over an already (now partially) chromed plate. I was thinking it would be nice to have a neck plate with my SB logo on just the other day.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Looks good to me.

If you start with an unchromed plate, you could use the same method and then send away to get the plate fully chromed. I don’t know if you can chrome over an already (now partially) chromed plate. I was thinking it would be nice to have a neck plate with my SB logo on just the other day.

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It was definitely an experiment. I think it would look better (and perhaps at some point it will?) if the copper oxidizes as on a penny. I think you could probably polish it and get it re-chromed, but that might be more trouble/cost than it's worth. Also, I am not sure you'd see the logo anymore. This approach just removes the chrome. Other than a bit of oxidation it doesn't seem to do anything to the copper(ish) metal underneath. The chrome plating is so thin that I am guessing that if you re-chromed after doing this the logo might disappear.

Folks using this method often say that if you don't have access to a vinyl cutting printer that there are places that will do it for you. But it seems to me that such an approach would not be much cheaper than using one of the laser etching services on Reverb or eBay that will make the logo from a jpeg. Laser etching appears not to go through the chrome, but just returns the neckplate with your logo in chrome matte, which may be closer to what you're after. Or so it is advertised.

For a super simple logo like what I attempted it took me about 20 min to get the tape on neckplate, and another 15 to carry stuff out to the kitchen stove and do the etching. Less than 3/4 of an hour start to finish. (I did it on the stove to have the hood sucking air out. Pretty sure chrome fumes are not good to inhale...and it does "smoke" a bit.) Not bad for a DIY process...if you like the outcome.

It also occurred to me (albeit late in the process) that a person could do the logo on the back of the neckplate. If you like it, replicate on the front. If you don't, it's only cost you an hour.

On re-reading your message I realized that you were talking about using an unchromed plate, rather than re-chroming. That raises the question for me about where you would get the unchromed plate? I don't think I have seen them marketed.

You could, however, use this process to remove remove the chrome from the whole neck plate. Wouldn't take much time if you have access to someone who does chroming. I used to know a bicycle shop that would do it...

+1 for a very cool idea. I will have to give it a go.

If you use a bare plate then you would have to apply some sort of rust prevention unless you use stainless. Not sure if the etching would be as visible on stainless. You could apply some oil but that would have to be reapplied but if you were to apply a varnish it would last longer. The same as applying varnish on polished copper to keep the shine. You could make your own plate out of any metal you have but just be aware rust could be a problem. Etched bare plate is normally black so there is the contrast between the lighter coloured material and black etching. The chrome is good if it has copper underneath the chrome as you get the contrast of the 2 different material colours.

As for etching then having the chrome plate applied would probably be a waste. Normally they put a copper/nickel coating to help the chrome adhere to the base material. Chrome is not very smooth when applied and it is normally polished and as the etching isn't very deep when the chrome is polished it probably would not be visible and may even disappear with the base copper/nickel.

I did have access to an engraver at one stage and used to engrave the neck plates and fill with a special paint that was almost as hard as ceramic when dried. It was made for outside as well as inside and was used for making signage. Only problem was it was over $60 for 250ml but work was paying so all was good but it did go along way.

You could use a fine engraving chisel and hand engrave the chromed plate and fill with some sort of paint or coloured varnish.

The neck plate on my Bass is black, came when I ordered the kit, so I imagine that's an unchromed neckplate ??? I may change it over to a chromed one yet, but now thinking I may be able to etch a pattern into it.

Only thing is to etch anything whatever it is coated with has to conduct electricity. If it is the normal black coating which is mainly a paint coating normally you have to scrape it off so you can earth parts so I would say you would have to remove all the coating so you can etch it, if that is what you had in mind.

Just a thought, I do like the idea of an etched pattern on the back plate. I am thinking I may be able to setup 2 templates of the same pattern, one for cleaning off the black painted area and the other for etching the pattern, earthing shouldn't be a problem, simply run a screw through one of the mounting holes and earth wire that in, but also depending on the paint that's been used on the plate, i'm not sure if running 12volts over it may cause it to bubble and/or peel.
There are other ways to etch surfaces as well, air eraser air brush and compressor using a fine grade aluminium powder. I have been researching this method for other projects. Essentially, can be used for etching just about all surfaces without the need for electrical chemical current. Low 45 PSI compressor and a Paasche Air Eraser and fine grade aluminium powder.

There may be others who know more about this than I do, but I *think* the way this works is essentially the opposite of how a plate is chromed in the first place. The Q-tip is soaked in acid, and connected to the + terminal. Effectively this sucks the chrome off of the plate.

My understanding is that when the plate was chromed in the first place it was placed in some sort of chrome acid bath with the charges reversed so that the chrome would stick to the plate.

So, the form of etching I did should only work with something that has been chromed or anodized. If the black on your neck plate is paint, I don't think this will work. If the black was a form of anodizing, it might work...but I am not at all sure of that. If the paint is not conductive I am pretty sure this form of etching won't work.

Stainless is not chromed, so I don't think it would work with that. If it does I think the metal should stay the same color...but maybe more matte?

So...bottom line, I am not sure this will work on plates that have not been chromed. If anyone tries it please post, but I would not count on it working. I did my plate with the thinking that it was an experiment, and I try to keep in mind that it is the nature of experiments that sometimes they fail. ;-)

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Originally Posted by Jetblack

There are other ways to etch surfaces as well, air eraser air brush and compressor using a fine grade aluminium powder. I have been researching this method for other projects. Essentially, can be used for etching just about all surfaces without the need for electrical chemical current. Low 45 PSI compressor and a Paasche Air Eraser and fine grade aluminium powder.

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This sounds interesting. If you try it please post ;-)


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Hi fender3x, I discovered this by looking up etching methods and it stood out as a very viable alternative, will definately post the process if I decide to go down that track, I am very interested in this. The problem will be the compressor approach, I have a large heavy duty compressor but getting the PSI that low may not be possible and purchasing a low output hobby type compressor for a couple of small jobs like this may not be very cost effective. The site that showed this method also showed a simple home made air brush. See if post up the link.

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=08458...ZS1Vc2Uv&ntb=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99PPLqZ3iUI&t=195s

Etching is the process of removing material by various processes but chemical is probably the most used as it is cheap but now you can also use a laser but the cost is much higher.

Etching a chromed item removes the lighter coloured chrome to reveal the material underneath which is a different colour normally a copper coat. But if the material underneath was a material which colour was closer to the chrome then the difference would not be as contrast as the difference between the chrome and the copper. Remember the acid does not change the colour of the copper underneath the chrome unlike when applied to bare steel.

In the above Youtube video the acid actually changes the colour of the steel base to black which I have done with Nitric acid and there is no need for an electric charge using the Nitric acid but it is very difficult to do and took me a long time to perfect and is more expensive than using salt water. In the video he uses Perma Blue on one side and it highlighted the etch better than just the salt solution. Perma Blue is used to blue gun parts and is just a form of controlled rust. There was probably no need to use the salt etch as just applying the Perma Blue would have been enough but using the salt water acid etch would have allowed the Blue to act quicker.

Using the air brush with the aluminium powder is just sand blasting which can be done with various powders. I have used glass beads and it is a very fine form of sand blasting on metal as well as glass. Sand blasting does give you a rough surface but it only really shows up if the surface you are applying it to is highly polished, like chrome, but it does tend to wear away unlike acid etching. There is no colour change but I have rubbed a colour into where I have used the sand blasting but then you have to clean around the edges but it isn't really as good as acid etching. I have used ground nut husks in a sand blaster but it polished more than rough the surface. There is also the mess and possible injury from blasting your hand or getting hit in the eye. To get the pressure down just install a regulator on the compressor that is adjustable. My compressor has a 100 PSI in the tank but with a regulator I have the pressure coming out of the hand piece as low as 10 PSI as that was the lowest I needed but I am sure I could go lower.

You can etch stainless using the acid/salt water but you have to use a 400 grade and not a 300 grade stainless. This is because 400 can rust so using an acid etch will turn the material black but the material will rust and once etched it has to be covered in oil or varnish to stop any further rusting. You can etch most materials, even Aluminium and copper which is quicker than steel, but I am not sure if you use a different acid, never done it so can't comment.

If you have the money just get a Laser Engraver, easier to do, no mess, no chemicals to worry about breathing in but there is a learning process and the set up quite a bit more expensive than using a battery and salt water. I had access to one and it was very clean and easy to use once you learned how. Depending on the material the fumes are reasonably safe but some materials do give of nasty gases so the use of extraction or using proper mask in very important. I am not sure but I was told you can use a solution that can produce a different colour than just black but I never followed up so not really sure and not sure on cost.

I'm sure your right with a few of the aspects of using different methods, as with any method, there is always an element of risk involved and using correct PPE's and as pointed out in the link I put up, proper enclosed work area etc there should be minimal risk of taking skin of hands, eye damage avoided by wearing correct eye protection and of course masking up, as with any potential risk. I have not tried this method as yet, but considering it is rather cost effective, my suggestion would be to try it out on sample pieces. Not sure about the wear and tear side of the method, but like anything etched, if you rub it enough would likely change its appearance. You seem to be iron clad on using acids and electrical methods, where there is certainly areas of risk involved, lazer is exspensive and if setup well and good, not a path I would choose to have to spend large amounts of money for unless I was going into production for the use of.