are you a guy?

Warranty is usually good only to the original owner. If you have a music store that plates in house, getting it replated is not a major expense.

The Gold plate always wears off on these. It is not uncommon since the plating was very thin to begin with...

Joe B

Hi Andrew,
I would be happy to replate it for you, if you would like. Just an option.

Andrew,
I don't see any problem with having it redone. However, no matter who plates it for you, it will in a couple years start to fade and rub off, that is the nature of gold plating on silver unfortunately. I am not sure about other repair techs and how they do the process, but I do know for a fact that the process I use and the equipment and gold plating solution is the same process as the big plating companies use like Anderson and Caswell. (I had the benifits of visiting and watching the whole process be done at Caswell.)

I will say up front that this is not up for debate, I am clearly stating a fact, if you choose to believe it or not, that is up to you. I do not wish to turn this into another debate like the last time.

The surface preparation is part of that process and I am suprised someone wouldn't know that.

<Added>

Micron, since you seem to be so interested in gold plating, I would be happy to show you sometime if you ever come to the US.

Cheers!
Kara

Gordon,

Order yourself a caswell kit and give it a whirl. They are not expensive at all and give great results. The Caswell kit is so good that even Craig over at Allied said they switched their stock plating kits to the Caswell's because they did such a good job.

I use one, and it's no worse than the factory plating jobs out there.

It's merely for cosmetic plating purposes anyway, the tolerances don't need to be greater than what came out of the factory anway.

Your concerns are noted, but from practical experience myself, these do an "adequate" job inexpensively.

I was skeptical at first (previous experience with other plating kits, Hoover and Strong and other more expensive and toxic means), but after a little practice, you get nice results..

Joe B

Micron,

I hear what you are saying, but the the market here supports it.
If I need to recut an Armstrong head, which is pretty badly cut most of the time, I will need to touch up the gold plate anyway.

People don't want to wait or pay for a top quality plating job and are willing to get these touched up every few years.

We fill a need...let them eat cake..

That's why I basically punted on the other plating equipment I had. It was a lot of work and I couldn't justify the time or expense. I eventually sold it, because people wanted inexpensive and fast.

I know it goes against your grain to use a flute like a coloring book, but hey, it's good enough for what people want.

Joe B

Since we're talking about plating I have a question. I have an old Yamaha 581. I've had it for about 8 years now and before that it was my flute teacher's flute (I think she had it for about 10 years). Anyways the silver plating on the keys is in bad shape. Are there places that will replate the keys? I know that I'll have to get the flute repadded (which it probably needs anyway. Anyways, my question is where could I get this done? (I live the U.S.) Also anyways ideas about cost would be helpful as well. I plan on getting a new flute within the next few years, but if I ever plan on selling my current one it needs some cosmetic work!

Yeah I was wondering if it would even be worth it.

Order yourself a caswell kit and give it a whirl.

i have one of those that i got off of ebay and it works great. though if you are going to use gold solution through them, then get the fast gold and not the cheaper watered down version. the fast gold plates a lot thicker. i plated my lip plate 2 years ago with it and it is still as good as new and i play it a lot.