Gold plating sources

[Bassbonechandler]

Hello all,

Where have some people gotten their mouthpieces gold plated before? I know stork and pickett does it.

[BGuttman]

There is an outfit called "Goldchops" that does full plating or rims only. I think they stint on the gold because we have had some complaints as well as some kudos.

I believe Doug Elliott does gold plating.

If you decide to let a jeweler do it, note that you want 24 karat gold (pure gold) plating. Many jewelers do 14 or 10 karat plating where the gold is mixed with other metals; sometimes nickel.

[Doug Elliott]

Jewelers only do decorative plating that won't last any time at all in use.

I don't do plating myself, but I do the prep work which is very important, and I use a local place that does a great job with 24-karat.

[Bassbonechandler]

Jewelers only do decorative plating that won't last any time at all in use.

I don't do plating myself, but I do the prep work which is very important, and I use a local place that does a great job with 24-karat.

Remind me what the cost is? I'm looking to get the rim and inside cup plated.

[Doug Elliott]

I normally only get my screw-rims plated. For an entire mouthpiece it depends on several things but I think my plater would charge me something over $100. If you specifically don't want the outside gold, it might be different but I don't get that done so I don't know.

[ssking2b]

www.mouthpieceexpress.com does good gold plating, but turn around is 3 weeks or so - whole piece or rims and cup only, and they do engraving. John Stork of Stork mouthpieces does good gold plating also with a fairly quick turn around (couple of days).

[euphoni]

I used gold chops and am extremely happy with the finish and the price and the speed of service. They did a half satin half shiny gold finish. I plan on using them again.

[ghmerrill]

I used Gold Chops a couple of times in the (fairly distant) past for a couple of tuba mouthpieces and at the time I was pretty happy with them. The initial result seemed great, but it didn't stand up to longer term wear and was nowhere near the quality (meaning, I think, thickness of the gold layer) of my Schilke factory-plated gold mouthpieces. Within two or three years it was showing definite signs of wearing through, whereas I NEVER saw that on a Schilke piece. At least that was my experience. Just be aware that there's a lot of "you get what you pay for" in this area -- and often a lot of what you pay for is the gold (although Doug is of course correct that the prep work is critical).

[euphoni]

I used Gold Chops a couple of times in the (fairly distant) past for a couple of tuba mouthpieces and at the time I was pretty happy with them. The initial result seemed great, but it didn't stand up to longer term wear and was nowhere near the quality (meaning, I think, thickness of the gold layer) of my Schilke factory-plated gold mouthpieces. Within two or three years it was showing definite signs of wearing through, whereas I NEVER saw that on a Schilke piece. At least that was my experience. Just be aware that there's a lot of "you get what you pay for" in this area -- and often a lot of what you pay for is the gold (although Doug is of course correct that the prep work is critical).

How much did that cost for just the plating from Shilke?

[BGuttman]

I don't think Schilke offers gold plating as a service. You can buy gold plated Schilke mouthpieces, but they are usually plated by Anderson Plating.

[ghmerrill]

Bruce is right -- at least to the degree that I never had a mouthpiece plated by Schilke, but rather bought already-plated mouthpieces. I have no knowledge of who did the plating. Just assumed that Shilke had done it in house.