Guitar options for nickel allergy sufferers

Having a nickel allergy absolutely sucks. If you have one, you're already well aware of it. But thankfully you have options.

Nickel is unfortunately everywhere, and it's not just with nickel plated steel strings but also in stainless steel. Those who have a nickel allergy usually have a really difficult time finding something that works.

These are some nickel-free options that are available.

Nickel-Free Tuning Machine Head Buttons

Acquisition difficulty: Easy

You rarely touch the tuning machine itself, it's the button you're touching. There are vintage-style tuning machines with plastic or pearloid buttons and they are readily available.

Nickel-Free Fret Wire

Acquisition difficulty: Hard

I label this as difficult because the only way to really get it is to custom order a neck.

Warmoth does offer necks that uses gold fret wire in GD6150 (standard Fender) size or GD6100 (standard Ibanez) size. It is absolutely nickel-free.

The option to use the fret wire adds in an additional $30 dollar cost. With everything put together not including tuners, the neck will cost about $300 before shipping for a modern Strat replacement neck.

Your other option is to fret a neck yourself using Jescar Gold EVO fret wire, which is nickel-free.

Nickel-Free Guitar Strings

Acquisition difficulty: Easy

There are several options here, but these are the two are that generally the most available.

The first is coated strings. Elixir is the go-to string for that. However the coating will wear off.

The second is Ernie Ball Cobalt strings. No nickel in those. This is usually the preferred choice since there's no coating you have to worry about flaking off.

[Update] Here are two more guitar string options. I was emailed by a reader (thank you, Ricco) who has a nickel allergy and he stated that D'Angelico ElectroZinc, a zinc-coated string, works out great for him. And in my own research, there is also the Optima gold-plated guitar strings, which of course are gold-plated.

Nickel-Free Control Knobs

Acquisition difficulty: Very easy

Plastic replacement knobs for guitars are widely available and cheap. Very easy to acquire.

Aluminum knobs are also very easy to get.

Nickel-Free String Saddles, Bridges and Tailpieces

Acquisition difficulty: Easy

For Stratocasters and Telecasters, you go brass. For Les Pauls, you go aluminum.

Note before continuing: Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, so if you're allergic to either of those in addition to nickel, you can't use this.

Strat and Tele brass saddles are easily acquired. For modern versions of either guitar, the bridges are flat, so it's unlikely you would be touching it. The only bridge that would cause for concern is the vintage style Telecaster "ashtray" bridge with raised sides.

For Les Paul guitars, aluminum bridges and tailpieces are readily available, as are Bigsby systems. In fact, you may already have a bridge and tailpiece made of that material on your Les Paul now.

Quick note on brass vs. aluminum:

If going the brass route, it will tarnish. Just be aware of that. It usually requires more polishing than aluminum just to keep it looking nice.

Another thing to watch out for...

...is jewelry.

Rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and so on. Heck, even that cheap Casio F-91W wristwatch has a stainless steel plate on the back (better put a NATO on that!)

Holy Diver Les Paul Outfit is actually impressive

What I like best about this guitar is how it delivers the goods in a civilized way... but with a monster lurking beneath the hood.

Forget the fact the Epiphone Holy Diver Les Paul Outfit is a Vivian Campbell signature model. Don't even think about it, because the guitar on its own doesn't even need rock star power to show off how good it is.

Firstly, I'm very glad this guitar isn't in-your-face with its appearance. The Black Aged Gloss finish looks great. The black-and-white motif with just a hint of gold on the knobs totally works here.

Second, those pickups. Those are DiMarzio X2N. This is what makes the guitar worth getting (aside from the fact it does come with a case).

Those two large bars on each pickups aren't just for show. I'll explain to you what the big deal is with these.

Yes, they're "hot" output. Very hot. But that's not the selling point. The sell is that there is absolutely no note drop.

I'll explain.

No matter how hard you bang those strings or how far you bend notes, the string physically never leaves the magnet's range. The end result is that note drop never happens.

Where tone is concerned, this means super-ballsy chords and solo notes.

Is this a new technology? Hardly. DiMarzio has been making these bar magnet pickups since 1979. But it's a good type of old tech. This Les Paul delivers a sound where you're never wanting for more. It's pretty much the ultimate power chord guitar. Yes, it can solo very well, but it's the power chords where this thing really shines.

If you've never played a guitar using bar magnet pickups...

It's a different sound. Not crazy-different, but does have its own character. It's absolutely not Gibson PAF nor Fender Strat sounding. You use bar magnet pickups when you want to rock out.

Yes, you can play clean with bar magnet pickups, but in my experience that's not their best use. Electric guitar pickups with bar magnets are designed to push amps harder. It's probably true the first thing you'll do with this is turn your overdrive/distortion effect down once you strum a few chords on this 'Paul.

Does this mean this 'Paul is unmanageable with its output? No. Like I said, it's just different. A good different.

ESP is doing the best fade guitar finish right now

We've all seen sunburst, but it's not all that often you see a fade.

Take the ESP LTD M-400 in a finish called Solar Fade Metallic. This is one of the best finishes I've seen offered in a while, epsecially considering the fade is present on both the body and the headstock.

Is this the only fade available? No. You can get two more. A Viper-400 in Pinkberry Fade Metallic, and the MH-400FR in Blue Pearl Fade Metallic.

The Pinkberry finish - and I'm being very truthful here - honestly makes the Viper look like a totally new model. It's the same Viper shape you've seen for years, but that finish makes the guitar look like something straight out of the future.

Is the fade present on the front and the back of the guitar? Depends on the model.

On M-400, fade is on the front and back of the body but only the front for the headstock. On the M-400FR, the back is blue on both body on neck but not faded like the front is.

The Viper however gets the full fade for both the front and back. And it's frickin' gorgeous. That's the show-stopper finish.

As noted a moment ago, Pinkberry Fade Metallic makes the guitar look futuristic. Compared to the old style bursts, flame tops, quilt tops and such, that fade finish... wow.

Are these guitars all show? No. The Viper and M-400 have Seymour Duncan pickups, and the MH-400FR has EMG pickups in it. Better electronics and hardware are both present in all three models, so you're not paying for just a fancy finish.

I'm glad to see this from ESP LTD. They definitely needed something to spruce up the model line, and oh yeah, they nailed it with these models.

How to fix the "one hour off" problem in a Garmin nuvi

I had this happen on two Garmin nuvi 30 models I acquired, but it can also happen on a number of other nuvis as well.

This is, as far as I know, the only documentation that exists for this. I had to figure out how to fix this stuff myself.

Here's what happened:

I acquire a Garmin nuvi 30 from eBay. It arrives, and the battery is absolutely stone dead. This did not surprise me since most people who sell used GPSes haven't turned them on in years.

Battery is charged, still works. Good. I then update the firmware. That also goes through without a problem.

Then I notice the clock is off by one hour. Hm. Weird. It shouldn't do that since the time is acquired from the GPS signal itself. I am in the Central Time Zone, but that shouldn't matter?

I plug in the GPS to my PC, go to the nuvi's hidden .System folder, make a copy of the gmaptz.img file (that's the time zone map) as a backup, then delete it off the nuvi. After that, I update the nuvi again to download the latest time zone map. Nope, still didn't work. The clock is still off by an hour.

I set the GPS to simulation mode, then purposely did the "Set Location" thing to make the nuvi think it was in Sacramento California to see if the off-by-one-hour would carry. It did. Now I know that the unit isn't recognizing Daylight Savings Time at all.

I did some searching. Only one discussion is on this topic, but with no info on how to fix it since none was ever found.

There was however one part of the discussion that said if it wasn't the time zone map, it might be some other file that went screwy and was causing the problem. This was all I had to go on.

In my possession I had a nuvi 50LM which had no issues with the clock showing the correct time. I just outright guessed the nuvi 30 had the same file system as the 50, and that if any files were corrupt or not working right, I could just copy over the right files from the 50 to the 30, all would be well and the clock would show the correct time.

I was right. That's exactly what it was.

The fix

In the hidden .System folder is a subfolder called GPS. In that folder are 3 small files. They end with .BIN if I remember correctly.

I backed up the nuvi 30's files completely first. Then I started copying over system files from the 50 to the 30.

Once I copied over those 3 little files from the GPS folder from the 50 to the 30, that did it. On the next boot, the 30 acquired a GPS signal and ta-da, DST was recognized. I was good to go. Clock problem solved.

There were no issues with normal operation of the nuvi 30 after copying these files.

It happened with a second nuvi 30!

I own two nuvi 30s because I like the model. With the second one I received, the exact same clock sync problem happened. The fix was also exactly the same. Copied over 3 files from the .System/GPS folder, reboot the unit, done. Clock sync worked after that and DST was properly recognized.

Both units had never been upgraded since they were originally bought, so the firmware was many versions behind. It's possible the firmware update corrupted the files in the .System/GPS subfolder somehow? I'll never know for sure.

I previously owned a 40LM and the clock sync issue never happened, but I bought it new in 2012 and up until the day I sold it I always was on top of firmware and map updates.

I currently own two 50LMs, both bought used, and they never had the clock sync issue either.

Only the pair of 30s I bought ever had this problem, but it's possible it may happen on some other 2011-2013 models?

How to avoid all this crap?

Well, obvious answer here. Use a modern Garmin DriveSmart instead.

A bad guitar string can cause buzzing on just one fret

I had this happen on my guitar. I'll tell you what happened, how it happened, and how I determined it was the string that was the problem.

My strings were getting old on my Schecter, so I installed a new set. After doing that, I wanted to make a small bridge height adjustment.

There are two ways of adjusting bridge height on the Schecter I have. Method 1 is to loosen the strings and use a flathead screwdriver from the top to adjust the bridge's set screw height. Method 2 is to put a capo on the first fret, loosen the strings so they get flappy enough to lift the bridge off the posts slightly, then turn the set screws with the hand.

I use method 2. If I use a screwdriver to turn the set screws, even when the strings are loosened, this will cause screw slot damage. Little dents will happen. The exact same thing would occur if I used a flathead screwdriver to adjust the stop piece height on a Gibson Les Paul. Sure, those big slotted stop piece screws make it appear you can just loosen the strings, stick a screwdriver in there and make your adjustments. I would never do that because again, that will cause screw slot damage. On a Les Paul, I would capo the first fret, loosen the strings enough to where I could slide the stop piece out, turn those screws by hand to make my height adjustment, then put the stop piece back and tune up the guitar again.

In either situation whether it's a bridge or stop piece height adjustment being made using method 2, strings have to be real loose to make said adjustment.

This is where a mistake can be made almost too easily. And I made the mistake I'm about to describe.

After I loosened the strings on my guitar, I somehow managed to bend the 6 string (as in the low-E string) in such a way where it developed a small permanent bend in it - but - it was so small and so slight that I didn't even see it.

I finish my bridge adjustment, tighten the strings to pitch, then come to discover I have some nasty fret buzz at the 11th fret on the 6 string and only the 6 string.

At this point I freak out. My first thought is that I've not even had this guitar 6 months and it's already developed a high fret.

I grab a metal dowel from my fret leveling kit because I needed to confirm how bad the high fret was...

...only to find I didn't have a high fret at all. The frets are all leveled just as they should be. There was nothing to fix.

At this point I'm confused. There's definitely a buzzing problem on the 6 string at the 11th fret.

I take a closer look at the 6 string, which I had loosened to check for a high fret, and then I saw it. A small "hump" in the string, exactly at the point where the fret buzz was happening.

The next day, I bought a new pack of guitar strings, put them on and the fret buzz was 100% gone.

Was it my fault?

I'm saying it is even though it might not have been.

I think what happened is that I somehow put a bend in the 6 string when I loosened it along with the others to made a bridge height adjustment.

However, it is also true that guitar strings that sit on a store shelf a long time can exhibit the same problem. Even though the strings are obviously coiled when in the pack, if coiled too long they may get malformed and never uncoil correctly.

It is possible I may have just had a bad pack of strings where the 6 string had a malformation in it. As noted above, I didn't even see that little "hump" in the 6 until I looked very close at it.

Fortunately, I had the proper metal dowel to confirm my frets were fine and that it was the low-E string that was the problem. That leveling kit saved my butt yet again. I didn't have to level any frets, but having those dowels confirmed 100% that the fret wasn't the problem.