Thanks for that link, it explains the entire thing. So I see that "German Silver" and "nickel silver" are indeed the same thing.

Funny they mention the term "alpacca". I bought some Bolivian musical instruments from a Bolivian guy who had a booth at the NAMM show; he is a major manufacturer and seller of traditional instruments in Cochabamba. When I read through his catalogue I couldn't help but notice how poorly it had been translated into English, and I took the catalogue home and wrote out good idiomatic English for him to use in future editions. Whoever had done the translating for him down in Cochabamba didn't know the English words for any of the elements or materials of musical instruments, and used either incorrect English terms, or left the Spanish terms intact. One of these was "alpaca" which was used to describe the material the frets on his guitars and charangos were made of.

When I met him the next day I tried to ask him about "alpaca" and all he was able to do was to show me one of his charangos and point to the frets, which appeared to be made of nickel or some such. I couldn't understand why the frets would be called the same thing as an animal. In any case, I just used the word "nickel" in my translation.