Which lacquer to protect autographed uke?

First of all, howdy... Haven't been on here for near 18 months... but I'm back now. My uke playing has been coming and going in the mean time, go through phases of playing a lot then not playing at all. Have given myself a large boot up the rear and got playing again.

Anyway, onto the topic matter. I have a cheap uke, my first one, which I did a little work to and made it quite playable. Customized it a little and ended up giving it to my missus to play when we went to the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain earlier in the year (her birthday suprise to me, was great)...

Anyhow, she fell in love with ukes then and I bought her a nice little Lag soprano while we were there. I also managed to get a few autographs on my cheap little uke. I just wondered how I could protect them?

Obviously I need to coat the uke in something, but I wondered what would be best? I think something I can spray on would be better and give a better finish. I have loads of clear coat lacquer designed for car wheels etc that I was originally going to use but thought I'd ask first?

As always, all help and advice very much appreciated! I'll get some pics of the uke in question up soon!...

Great question and I will await replies to it for my own knowledge. Question: do you plan to play it again, or is it a wall hanger? Might affect the answer to your question, so I thought I'd inquire.

I'm in the same boat, I got the UOGB to autograph the back of one of my ukes. I'd like to play it (sparingly). It is my first soprano, I have better ukes now so it rarely gets played, but I'd like to be able to play it from time to time. I also threw the ticket in the sound hole, it will be there if anyone ever looks for it.

Lacquer will cause a sharpie to run I would not spray lacquer over any ink pen. I'm not sure what would be best but I would do some testing

You need to know what kind of finish is on the uke before you spray aything on top of it. If you just want to put something on top and don't plan on playing it, use a spray fixative that artists use put over pencil drawings and pastel work. If you plan to plan on a regular basis, then you'll need something that will adhere to what's already there. If its a poly finish of any kind, then nothing you spray will be permanent. If its nitro lacquer or shellac or something out of a store bought spray can, then you can use just about anything, but spray it lightly.

Rather than risk messing it up with a lacquer, just retire the uke, hang it and buy a new one. That's what I did with my UOGB signed uke.