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- May 17, 2021
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I managed to snag an old Favilla soprano (I think it's a U3 because it has the double fret markers on the 7th fret). It's surprisingly in great structural condition for its age; if not for the cosmetic damage it would look brand new.
There's a chip of wood missing on one of the sides (like it got dinged on something) and along the bottom of the uke is damage from the zipper of its bag where the teeth of the zipper pressed into the wood (I'm guessing it was stored in the bag and rested on its end for years, which caused the weight of the uke to press into the zipper teeth). The finish is also severely cracked and in a few small places chipped off entirely.
The frets look like they were originally painted over the metal and that paint is now worn off/chipping off.
How do I go about cosmetically restoring this? Can I just sand off the old finish and apply a new one? Is that going to severely impact the tone? What should I use to fill in the chips in the wood? Will that affect the sound?
Should I even bother fixing the cosmetic damage if the uke still plays/sounds great?
I can post pics if needed.
There's a chip of wood missing on one of the sides (like it got dinged on something) and along the bottom of the uke is damage from the zipper of its bag where the teeth of the zipper pressed into the wood (I'm guessing it was stored in the bag and rested on its end for years, which caused the weight of the uke to press into the zipper teeth). The finish is also severely cracked and in a few small places chipped off entirely.
The frets look like they were originally painted over the metal and that paint is now worn off/chipping off.
How do I go about cosmetically restoring this? Can I just sand off the old finish and apply a new one? Is that going to severely impact the tone? What should I use to fill in the chips in the wood? Will that affect the sound?
Should I even bother fixing the cosmetic damage if the uke still plays/sounds great?
I can post pics if needed.