De-lack a silver neck

[byas-a-drink]

Hi,
i don't know if this has already been dicussed, but i've a S20 372xxx and the silver neck has still some of it's clear laquer, somehow it doesn't look really good because where the laquer is missing there are some black.
has someone already try to clear the lack of the neck to have it plain silver?
how does it affect the sound?
any idea how to clear it without altering the silver?

[milandro]

It this is very strange that these horns were brass or gold plated on top of the sterling silver . I think that the lacquer is easy to remove but that you also need someone to buff the gold or brass plate off the neck. It won't affect the sound (but we've been there and done that many times over, some folks will tell it will....;) :) )

[Pete Thomas]

For a start try hot water with soap or detergent and something like a toothbrush. Don't use anything abrasive, even those green bristly washing up pads could scratch the silver.

If this doesn't get it all off, I'd use paint stripper, but starting with the milder ones like the eco friendly ones you get these days. However, you should test on an old silverplated item first, e.g. some old silver cutlery just to check there is no bad reaction with silver or gold plate.

[milandro]

Pete, the super 20 neck is solid silver but It is covered with a plate in the same colour than the rest of the horn (gold or brass I am not sure) I think that byas-a-drink want to go to the bare silver and washing off the lacquer is only the first step .To reach the bare silver and have this showing all over the neck, you need removing the " yellow metal" you will need some buffing, I think......

[Henry D]

Certainly many- probably the majority- of the S-20 sterling necks were plated over with gold. By no means all though. There were quite a few of the sterling necks simply clear lacquered over just as was the case with the Zeph Specials.

[Pete Thomas]

Pete, the super 20 neck is solid silver but It is covered with a plate in the same colour than the rest of the horn (gold or brass I am not sure)

I haven't seen those, but I don't doubt you. I've seen silver with lacquer, which is what I presumed the OP is saying as there are black patches (silver tarnish presumably?) where the lacquer is missing.

[milandro]

interesting! I've never seen a silver with lacquer but I did see the aforementioned silver with brass or gold plate and then lacquered (in fact, in the beginning I thought that super 20 necks were brass necks with a silver plate and enquired abut having mine done that way but in so doing I would have created a monster). Somehow I think silver doesn't need any lacquer but maybe I am wrong.

[Pete Thomas]

interesting! I've never seen a silver with lacquer but I did see the aforementioned silver with brass or gold plate and then lacquered

Those'll be the Dutch ones :TGNCHK:

I didn't know there was such a thing as brass plate. Unlike gold, that really would be pointless over silver.


. Somehow I think silver doesn't need any lacquer but maybe I am wrong.

I agree, especially a neck which is easy enough to keep polished.

[milandro]

:), I can't say if they were gold or brass plated...... but apparently I remember that I have been reading that it was done in the perception that the neck had to be solid silver for sound (!) but shouldn't be looking different from the body.......go figure! ;) :)

[SaxPlayer1004]

I recently was trying to clean up my silver Voll-True and found out that it was lacquered when I was dipping it to clean it. I put it in a rubber maid with steaming hot water, a bunch of baking soda and salt, and put it on top of a sheet of tin foil. This took almost all of the lacquer off, and I got the rest off with a toothbrush *around the posts and stuff, it was flaking off, but didn't completely come off*. Advantage I had with this was that it removed all of the tarnish as well as the lacquer.

[byas-a-drink]

Hi,

thanks for the advices.

The neck i'm talking about is a solid silver with a clear laquer over it, which has some spots missing (and the silver is getting black-oxidated under).
it does a kind of "leopardish" pattern.
I'll try to remove it with warm water and soft cleaning products.

the gold laquer (or plating?) was on the early S20 as far as i can tell (i thin before 305xxx)

[Turnaround]

I would suggest getting a silver polishing cloth and polishing the silver spots rather than removing the rest of the lacquer. But then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if you want to see a solid silver neck rather than as close to original as a 50 year old horn could be, get rid of the lacquer. You'll find yourself polishing the neck MUCH more often to keep that silver look to it (unless you get someone to throw some lacquer on it... makes you think why they might have lacquered them in the first place).

I've had 2 pearled Super 20s with the worn lacquer silver neck, and preferred the look of some worn spots than perfectly silver necks. That's aesthetics though.

[milandro]

I have a Gloger silver neck with a 999 silver content, I've never had to polish the thing ever since I had it made.