Restore gold writing on pickups

[Eric1616]

I’d like to carefully touch up the gold writing (“Alembic”) that’s worn off one of my pickups.  Any ideas?  Thanks!

Eric.

[edwardofhuncote]

There are pens with metallic 'ink'... not sure how they would work in practice, but I bet somebody else here has tried this.

[mica]

The decoration is with a hot stamp and gold foil. I'm not sure you can make a suitable restoration other than just sanding off the face entirely and going blank.

[Zut8083]

Ahoy,

I found a way with Google, but I don't know how fun this will be.  Like Mica has said, it is basically the applique (accent aigu) of thin gold foil onto a prepared, raised surface that has a gold embedded adhesive on it (a "raised guilding" technique, I think they called it).  Maybe put a thin layer of the adhesive on a flat metal surface, cover the letters with aqueous primer, repeat, and then apply the gold foil really carefully? 

But, what the heck do I know, though?  I can't even frost a cake.

Good luck, and I hope if nothin' else, these links might give you a place to look next for a workable answer-

Raised letters: https://www.calligraphy-skills.com/gold-leaf-technique.html
Gold leaf and gold leaf paint techniques: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/apply-gold-leaf-embossed-surfaces-89758.html

Cheers,
-Zut