....But now we might see we are at the crossroad of should an instrument always outlive the player? The who did a number on guitars from what I read. If your playing style includes you wailing on the top of a ukulele go for it! You just might have to look at the instrument more like strings as a consumable. None of this likely helped much but I do so love to talk.
~peace~
What about Willie Nelson's guitar? There's a large wear hole in the top but he swears by it.
My old aria 2 bass has wear from a previous owner who played a lot of slap bass apparently with a ring on. I'm certain if he didn't wear a ring or didn't play the way he did my old used bass wouldn't have the wear it does. Touching an instrument in the same way over and over will cause wear. You did specify damage and in the case of my bass the wear is only a bunch of dents on the face of the bass. The finish is damaged as is the wood but the instrument is fully playable and has a very interesting character.
A malhalo is a thick piece of plywood laminated to be strong. This strength is also what makes them sound so dead and toy like. I'm not much of a player and percussion is another instrument for me. I would expect wear if I were to start hitting the ukulele body along with the strings. I wouldn't likely hit an old or expensive ukulele very hard at all I would expect it to be like a glass. Probably wont break if you hit it but there is that one time that you will hit it just right.
But now we might see we are at the crossroad of should an instrument always outlive the player? The who did a number on guitars from what I read. If your playing style includes you wailing on the top of a ukulele go for it! You just might have to look at the instrument more like strings as a consumable. None of this likely helped much but I do so love to talk.
~peace~
I like to light my uke on fire at the end of each performance.