Refinishing a Ko'Aloha Concert

Matt Clara

Matt Clara

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Yesterday MGM listed a used and somewhat beatup Ko'Aloha concert for a good price, so I bought it. I've contacted Ko'Aloha about getting it refinished, but the cost of shipping it there and back combined with the actual cost of refinishing might make it more than I'm willing to spend (might as well have bought a new one). I see UPS hasn't actually picked the uke up yet, so I might be able to get MGM to ship it to Ko'Aloha, and then pay them to refinish and ship it to me, but I haven't heard back from Ko'Aloha yet, so, in the meantime, I'm wondering what I might use to strip and refinish it if I were to do it myself.
Any suggestions?
Thanks, and happy Saturday.
 
Here are some pics from the auction:

koaloha01.jpg

koaloha02.jpg

koaloha03.jpg

koaloha04.jpg
 
I have a feeling that when you finally get to play it, you won't be able to part with it long enough for refinishing, and love it scratches and all.
 
I kind of agree with everyone else even though I'm nearly OCD on nicks and scratches myself. Whenever I purchase a new car, I park it at the far end of any parking lot. No matter how careful I am, the world seems to be much less concerned with the pristine beauty of my paint job and I wind up with door dings. After the first couple, I park much closer and have much less to worry about. It looks like you got a great deal on a "player's uke". It's beautiful and has character. It's earned the marks on it and probably sounds fantastic from being played. If you still want to refinish it, maybe the folks at Koaloha can tell you what they use for finishing and you can purchase the material from Stewmac or somewhere like that.
 
Something else that might be worth trying. When I got my old Martin, I researched a lot of guitar sites for how they recommend cleaning up and polishing their vintage guitars without damaging the finish. I found a ton of recommendations for Virtuoso Cleaner/Polish and Fret Doctor for oiling the fretboard. I bought the Virtuoso at Guitar Center(it was only about 5 bucks a bottle there) and used it per directions. I was shocked at how the haze of years came off the finish and the grain just popped in the light. The Fret Doctor oil was ordered online and again, the fretboard soaked it up like it was parched and looks fantastic. Most of the minor scratches on the finish disappeared following the polish. The nicks and dings are still there as well as some strum marks, but I figure the old girl earned those and I hope I look as good when I'm approaching 60!
 
jvann said:
Something else that might be worth trying. When I got my old Martin, I researched a lot of guitar sites for how they recommend cleaning up and polishing their vintage guitars without damaging the finish. I found a ton of recommendations for Virtuoso Cleaner/Polish and Fret Doctor for oiling the fretboard. I bought the Virtuoso at Guitar Center(it was only about 5 bucks a bottle there) and used it per directions. I was shocked at how the haze of years came off the finish and the grain just popped in the light. The Fret Doctor oil was ordered online and again, the fretboard soaked it up like it was parched and looks fantastic. Most of the minor scratches on the finish disappeared following the polish.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I think I saw your earlier post on the subject, and I was going to go looking for it. This is a good place to start, I think.

The nicks and dings are still there as well as some strum marks, but I figure the old girl earned those and I hope I look as good when I'm approaching 60!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, this uke is only five years old. I will see how I feel about it after I lay hands on it.

Thanks to everyone's replies thus far. I would still like some recommendations for a good stripper to be used on a musical instrument, as well as some suggestions on how to restore its original appearance. I may not want to take that route, but knowledge is seldom a bad thing, and it'll give you guys something to talk about. ;-)
 
I'm going let you in on a secret...

Fret Doctor is really just mineral oil. Go to your local pharmacy and buy a bottle of baby oil. 16oz should cost you about a buck.
 
I would recommend sanding down the finish, rather than using a stripper. Our finish is highly chemical resistant, so any stripper that will do a good job of taking off the old coat won't be good for the bare wood glue joints.

You can scrape with a scraper or utility blade relatively quickly. They come in very handy for the joint areas, where sand paper just can't make it into the small corners. Then, clean any remaining finish with some 120 sandpaper. One thing I have to stress. Be sure to clean ALL of the old finish, before attempting to refinish. It's easy to get lazy, after sanding for an hour, but any old finish may cause durability problems.

As far as what to use for refinishing, the choice and technique is yours. I would say that you'll get a decent coat with hardware store canned laquer, and it's probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to do it.
 
koalohapaul said:
I would recommend sanding down the finish, rather than using a stripper. Our finish is highly chemical resistant, so any stripper that will do a good job of taking off the old coat won't be good for the bare wood glue joints.

You can scrape with a scraper or utility blade relatively quickly. They come in very handy for the joint areas, where sand paper just can't make it into the small corners. Then, clean any remaining finish with some 120 sandpaper. One thing I have to stress. Be sure to clean ALL of the old finish, before attempting to refinish. It's easy to get lazy, after sanding for an hour, but any old finish may cause durability problems.

As far as what to use for refinishing, the choice and technique is yours. I would say that you'll get a decent coat with hardware store canned laquer, and it's probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to do it.
Click to expand...

Hey Paul, I'm just now getting that you have ko'aloha in your handle. I'm a little slow. Thanks for the advice--not for the faint of heart, I see! One should probably wear a respirator to keep from breathing in the sanded finish.
Thanks to everyone's comments--I'm gettin' it today, and am feeling quite excited.
 
mattclara said:
Yesterday MGM listed a used and somewhat beatup Ko'Aloha concert for a good price, so I bought it. I've contacted Ko'Aloha about getting it refinished, but the cost of shipping it there and back combined with the actual cost of refinishing might make it more than I'm willing to spend (might as well have bought a new one). I see UPS hasn't actually picked the uke up yet, so I might be able to get MGM to ship it to Ko'Aloha, and then pay them to refinish and ship it to me, but I haven't heard back from Ko'Aloha yet, so, in the meantime, I'm wondering what I might use to strip and refinish it if I were to do it myself.
Any suggestions?
Thanks, and happy Saturday.
Click to expand...

Your new uke is a beauty, dings and all!

You are the second person who has recently posted about used or second instruments from MGM. Where on his site does he list such specials?

Thanks!
 
Uke-lahoma said:
Your new uke is a beauty, dings and all!

You are the second person who has recently posted about used or second instruments from MGM. Where on his site does he list such specials?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I don't know--I had just listed my Kiwaya for sale on ebay and went to browse new listings to see it there (which shows just what an amateur ebayer I am), and saw the second or third listing was the Ko'Aloha concert I bought. When I did, Michael wrote me right back and said, Man, you really jumped on this one!
 
I personally wouldn't consider refinishing that at all. Honest wear and tear on an instrument is a badge of honor and a sign that the instrument is loved enough to have the heck played out of it.
 
RevWill said:
I personally wouldn't consider refinishing that at all. Honest wear and tear on an instrument is a badge of honor and a sign that the instrument is loved enough to have the heck played out of it.
Click to expand...

But there's honest wear and tear, and then there's abuse. Hard to tell one from the other, I suppose...
 
I guess I'd want to see what's going on south of the musubi hole. Before coming here I used to spend lots of time on electric guitar forums where people tried to "relic" their Fenders with belt sanders and screwdrivers. Some folks apparently think Strats and Teles ought to look like they've been dragged behind a car down a few miles of gravel road.

Anyway, there's a pretty wide gap between a museum piece and Willie Nelson's Trigger. That uke looks to be solidly closer to use than abuse, at least from the pics.

Hold it in your arms and play it, and see where life takes you first.
 
It's in great shape, though someone did treat it pretty carelessly--hope they got loads of enjoyment out of it. I won't be refinishing it any time soon. Paul scared me off. I bet he did that on purpose... ;)
 
just curious...how much was it?
 
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