Zinc alloy

Cheap castable alloys of zinc with aluminium, copper and magnesium, used for die-cast tuners and budget hardware.

Zinc alloys, of which Zamak is the best known, melt at a low temperature and cast accurately, which makes them the economical choice for complicated shapes that would be expensive to machine from steel or brass. In guitars they appear in die-cast tuner housings, bridge blocks, control plates and budget tremolo parts, and the same metal is the basis of the pot metal in the cheapest hardware. Cast zinc parts are commonly treated as having little tonal character of their own, since they are chosen for shape and price. The material is stronger than it looks but brittle, so over-tightening strips threads, and old castings corrode and crumble.

Example: Die-cast zinc tuners work smoothly for years, and the same material is usually what fails first when a cheap bridge plate cracks under string tension.

typical use: Die-cast tuner housings, bridge blocks, control plates and budget hardware.

Zinc alloy

See also