My Lanikai Makeover w/videos of my progress

markophonic

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My Lanikai Makeover w/videos of my progress w/UPDATES

I have a Lanikai LU21C that I picked up recently for $89.00 and deceided to give it a makeover. I picked up some sealed tuners with ebony buttons and a bone nut and saddle from Mike at Mainland. I'm also going to refinish it. I started sanding the VERY thin polyurethane finish off with 1000 grit and actually being careful I had a couple of sand throughs...I thought about covering it up with a vintage sunburst but deceided against it as I don't want to put too much time into this $89.00 dollar beater Uke.

I've replaced the stock sealed tuners which had string posts that were much too long making it difficult to get the strings wrapped on the post and have a decent break over the nut. There must have been 10 wraps on the post and the break over the nut was too shallow and I had problems with the E string popping out of the nut. The new tuners have a much sorter post and look like they will work out great.

I'm still decieding how I'll refinish it. maybe tung oil. I do alot of work on guitars and have done some very nice refins on some figured maple Les Pauls and some nice finishes on some Telecasters and Stratocasters from vintage to my own builds....This is not going to be one of those ;)

UPDATES FARTHER DOWN THE THREAD



 
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Good luck, keep us updated on how this turns out
 
You sir, are in guitar heaven. Much props. Yes, beautify that uke, it deserves it.

No shims in the saddle. No lol... I'll send ya a dadgum saddle. Shims bad. No gaps. It's the vibrator. Wow,, that veneer is thin lol.
 
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You sir, are in guitar heaven. Much props. Yes, beautify that uke, it deserves it.

No shims in the saddle. No lol... I'll send ya a dadgum saddle. Shims bad. No gaps. It's the vibrator. Wow,, that veneer is thin lol.

You're right Vic, I got to thinking about the saddle and the gap...It is the "vibrator".

How do you like the corian material compared to bone?

As for guitars...I have about 30 of them around at any given time. I've gone through a couple hundred over the years. I'm first and foremost a guitar player. I always considered ukuleles "toys" until I finally got around to playing them...now I can't put them down. I bought a Mainland concert mahogany a day after I picked up this Lanikai...So I figured I'd try to dial in the lanikai best I can and let the girlfriend have it.
 
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Update...I finished sanding the top and back. I was having trouble getting all of the old finish off the areas around the bridge. The old finish had sunk into the wood quite deep so I finally gave up.

I stained it with a stew-mac medium brown and amber concentrated stains. The stain wouldn't take in a small area around the bridge due to the old finish having the grain sealed... So I deceided to spray it with some stew-mac tobacco brown nitrocellulose laquer...I left the sides the original color for contrast. I'll shoot some clear laquer over it tomorrow. The back looks nice...the top could be better...If after shooting the clear I don't like it...I'm handing it over to my girlfriend and letting her go wild with her paints and brushes.


 
A couple of updates on my beater Lanikai LU-21C. I'm done with the refinish. The tobacco brown lacquer from stew mac was just too dark and I didn't like it so I stripped it off and restained it. Shot a few coats of clear nitrocellulose lacquer from reranch. I wet sanded with 800-2000 grit. Buffed it out and I ready to put the bridge back on. I didn't put too much time is scraping the binding so there are a few specks of stain on them here and there. It actually looks pretty good.



 
Interesting thread. I've often wondered what it would be like to "restore" a solid wood instrument, as well as to how the tone would be affected?
 
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