Headstock decal restoration

Hey all,

Some of you might have seen that I got a 1928 Harmony Johnny Marvin "tenor" (concert scale) a week ago. It plays wonderfully and I think the wear on it looks really nice, but I do miss the headstock logo. Right now it looks like this:



The headstock is really nice looking, but they used to have a really classy looking headstock logo:



What should I do? Should I just polish off the rest of the old decal and apply a new waterslide, or should I keep it as is?

If I do put the new waterslide on, I'll have to see if I can enlist some help in that respect. I don't have a printer that will take that kind of paper, and I have no idea how to scale that so its the right size.

Thoughts?

I'd leave it as it is. Adding a new decal would look out of place.

Also, I'm not a big fan of inkjet decals. The gold always looks hokey without a white base.

I remember a restoration Tudorp did on a Gibson guitar headstock decal. I think he said he had some sort of background in professional printing or something.....I could be mistaken. However, he is a world class tinkerer and might have some thoughts for you.....

Personally, I think if you could restore it to looking as original as possible, that would be really cool.

You might want to contact luthier Kerry Char in Portland. He's done this on repo vintage ukes he's built. I too think it would look better with a new decal.