Hey,
Anyone ever try polishing a nickel or silver James Mandolin Tailpiece? All the pictures I've seen are matte.
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Hey,
Anyone ever try polishing a nickel or silver James Mandolin Tailpiece? All the pictures I've seen are matte.
The surface is slightly textured, so to get it to be glossy I believe you would have to sand it flat and have it re-plated. It has a similar finish as the satin Waverlys.
If you can live with the matte texture, you could try to carefully rub out the nickel plating with graduated concentrations of polishing compound, but if you go through the plaiting the bronze will show through.
I also had this concern, trying to match with standard nickel plated parts, until I saw how good it looks on my mandolin as-is...
Wouldn’t it be simpler to replace it? I have both matt and polished (in gold) but the plating is wearing on the polished one and I concluded some time ago that trying to get it re-plated involved too much effort.
Thanks for the feed back! Having a hard time finding a flat top tail piece that has a shiny appearance but is better than the stamped sheet metal pieces. I suspected it would be difficult to polish but wasn't sure what other options I had.
The James tailpiece is incomparable to a stamped piece imo, end of discussion.Quote:
Originally Posted by hawthorn1213
Agreed. My mandolin collection contains almost every style of tailpiece under the sun and the James beats them all hands down.
The small nugget tailpiece from Northfield?
Mine has become very tarnished as well, having been in the US Army I have decided to not polish in any way as I had my fill of that years ago...maybe they sell one coated like the sta-brite brass buttons, etc.
I use the "Silver Wipes" by Connoisseurs that can be obtained at home interior stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are soft, paper thin cloths treated with a mild cleanser and polish. Very simple to use and effective.
If you must have polished, sell your James and buy an Allen. You give up ease of use for looks.
If you want a James tailpiece, then be ready to accept the matte finish "for what it is".
I sense that trying to "polish it up" might make a mess out of things...
IMO, there is nothing wrong with a matte finish, and it goes just fine with any polished items found elsewhere (like nickel- or chrome-plated tuners).
I was thinking about getting a James tailpiece for my Pava A5 satin, has black buttons on tuners... I'm thinking gold would look real nice.
I have both a James and an Allen on mandos. The Allen cleans up easily now (I don't know how many years the lacquer coating will hold up) but changing strings on it is not an enjoyable experience. I consider the satin finish just to be a hallmark of the James tailpiece and find it to be subtly classy.
The minimalistic,Nugget, tailpiece looks like it would leave the string windings exposed to flesh and clothing. ?Quote:
Originally Posted by dang
I don't even allow sharp string ends on the tuning posts,prefering to leave them a bit long then curl into a tight circular end with needle holders.
I neglected to quote your post so I almost forgot why I posted that! LolQuote:
Originally Posted by V70416
Yes the windings are exposed but I have never had any issues catching them on something....
I just tried running a fluffy cloth over the windings and had no hangups. YMMV, good luck!
I had a mandolin with the Nugget tailpiece for a while and was concerned about the exposure of the strings, since I have loved the James tailpiece for years.
I was surprised that the Nugget worked very well. Kept the loops in place nicely while changing strings, and gave no problems with wrappings catching on things or skin.
I admit that, depending on the brand of string, I would be careful to flip the loop if needed, so that no sharp ends of the winding would stick up and only smooth windings would be where skin or clothing could catch.
Some brands seem to have figured out how to avoid sharp ends sticking up from the loop windings.:)