This is repost from the uke talk section. I hope I get some help here from the experts .
Hello.
My ukulele fall from about 1.5 meters and got dents . No big damage, still perfectly playable. No hole. Any tips to fix the cosmetic? The picture is below.
It's difficult to tell from the photo is any wood is missing or is it just a dent? If just a dent you could try to try to steam the dented area lightly with a damp cloth and warm clothes iron. Sometimes that will make the wood fibers expand back to their original position. Or you could go to a hardware store and match the finish with a furniture scratch repair marker and touch up the area where the finish is missing.
Hi Tarhead. Sorry, what I meant by dent is that the wood is missing , not only the glossy coating. (the word 'dent' is wrong, hehehe, am not native english speaker).
Some people in uke talk section suggest to let it be, to give 'character' to my uke. But still if there's any easy way to at least minimize the damage, I want to do it.
I would leave it alone. If you kept the splinter you can glue it back or find a piece of matching wood to make a graft and splice it. It will probably show just as much as the dent. You can also have an edge binding applied around the whole Uke. It's pretty involved and definitely something a pro should do. It will cost a lot (hundreds of dollars). Other than those options you can make it a design feature and a point of discussion as suggested in the other thread.
It's difficult to tell from the photo is any wood is missing or is it just a dent? If just a dent you could try to try to steam the dented area lightly with a damp cloth and warm clothes iron. Sometimes that will make the wood fibers expand back to their original position. Or you could go to a hardware store and match the finish with a furniture scratch repair marker and touch up the area where the finish is missing.
I would be very careful applying any steam heat at that location. Too much (or any) steam this close to the glue joint where the top meets the side could soften the glue causeing a separation.
Thanks Tarhead. I understand my options now, and spending hundreds of dollars is not justified. I think I'll just leave it alone and just enjoy it . Thanks.
If it were me and I didn't want to go through a long and costly operation on it, I'd tape off around the area, use a close matching wood paint pen or some stain or even marker on the exposed and lighter colored wood (if the uke was stained, hard to tell from the photo), then fill the damaged area with some CA (superglue). Then after it had cured for a day or so I'd very carefully level the superglue with some wet/dry 400 800 1000 1500 2000 grits sandpaper then buff.
Wouldn't look great, the uke would still have a character wound, but that part of the wood wouldn't be exposed to moisture and such anymore.
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