Home Etching a Neckplate

[fender3x]

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.



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 ;-)

[vh2580]

thats cool. might have to give that a try.

[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.

[fender3x]

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.

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.

[fender3x]

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...

[Trevor Davies]

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

[Dikkybee007]

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.

[Jetblack]

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.

[Dikkybee007]

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.

[Jetblack]

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.