Restoration Project Step 6: Applying Paint, Lacquer and Oils

The next steps in this process were to apply new surfaces to the ukulele. It is this resurfacing that brings the ukulele back to life, it feels much newer than the beaten and worn surface that was there prior to sanding it down.

First of all I wanted to paint the headstock black again. I only wanted to paint the front of the headstock and I was going to use a spray paint (aerosols allow an even surface to be achieved easily and speedily), I therefore needed to cover those areas I did not want to paint. I did this using plastic sheet and masking tape, carefully edging the front of the headstock with masking tape.

covering the bits you don't want to paint

I created a make shift spray booth outside using boxes, doing this outside provided the necessary ventilation, however, I also wore a mask to reduce the fumes I inhaled during these stages of the project.

make shift paint booth

After several coats of paint had been applied, roughed up, and reapplied, I removed the tape and plastic, and cleaned up the adhesive residue using a little solvent, to reveal the newly painted surface… I was very happy with the result.

Removing the tape after painting

The next step was to apply lacquer to the surfaces both the painted surface and the wooden surface. I did not want to lacquer the fretboard so I careful covered that using masking tape to create the edges and plastic to cover the fretboard.

Both neck and body had lacquer applied to the sanded surface

The same spray booth was used, and with lacquer it is very important to wear a mask. The only problem with working outside is that when you live in a desert you have to wait until very late at night to undertake the process in order for the outside temperature to cool enough to be suitable for the application to work! Several layers of lacquer were applied every day for three days.

The same spray booth was used to apply a spray lacquer

After this process, I was able to remove and clean up the masking tape and plastic from the fretboard, and then to oil the fretboard. Oil was applied every ten minutes for several hours, after which the fretboard really began to come back to life and the cracks and dryness began to disappear. Eventually the fretboard on this ukulele will need to be replaced if the instrument is to remain playable, but, for now it was nice to be able to improve its condition and retain the old fretboard.

oil was applied to the fingerboard

Phew… almost finished!

Restoration Project Step 5: Sanding and Painting Prep

The next step of the project was to get all the wood parts ready for painting, and/or, lacquer. The key to this is to sand the surface down to the wood, or in the case of the headstock down to the undercoat – although some surface inconsistencies remain in the headstock so that the original design could be retained, they are however much less than previously there.

sanding the headstock

some progress on the reverse

working on the neck

Restoration Project Step 4: Hide Glue Fun

So the next step of this project is to repair the fretboard which is coming away from the neck. For this I will use hide glue which is a traditional material for instrument building, and importantly is easy to take apart again just requiring a little warm water and heat, something that is not the case with modern wood glues.

Preparing hide glue

First you need to make up the hide glue, hide glue needs to be heated but not cooked, therefore it needs to be warmed in a double boiler of glue pot. It is possible to buy proper hide glue pots however these cost a large chunk of change, and a cheap alternative can be to use a baby bottle/food warmer that are available at many retail stores, and just think with the money you save you could buy yourself another ukulele project, or, a cheap ukulele!

Glued and clamped

The fretboard was still attached in some points, so rather than taking the whole fretboard off and risking damaging it, I injected hide glue into the gap in a reasonable large quantity. The hot hide glue reactivated the old glue and when squeezed together the whole surface seemed to be covered with glue seeping out of the edges as hoped. This excess glue can be cleaned up with a little warm water which is another great advantage of using this material.

Electric Uke Making Video

I came across this lovely video on youtube of someone making an electric ukulele… enjoy.

Restoration Project Step 3: Cleaning

Various parts of the Uke required cleaning:

1. The nut which had been painted black, I decided I wanted to clean back to it’s white colour, I used a solvent to remove the paint.

Cleaning nut - in progress

2. The chrome was corroded in some spots and a good clean was needed, I used a mixture of solvents and a fine wire wool. I may decide later to use a chrome polish to get these really shiny, although I think I prefer the somewhat aged look – but not quite the corroded uncared for look! Who really wants an instrument that is almost 100 years old to look like it was made yesterday… defeats the point of it being an antique surely?!

Before - note the heavy/dark corrosion is what I want to remove

After - the heavy stuff has gone (and I forgot to put the bar and screw in the photo.. oops.)

3. The wood lacquer was lost in some spots and cleaning it allowed a good surface for sanding too. This required several cleans over. Sanding will actually clean the surface down to the wood which will give the best surface for applying new lacquer. [sorry no decent pictures of this - not really much to see on a camera!]

Restoration Project Step 2: Disassembly

First thing is to take the ukulele apart and to investigate the condition.

Get those old strings off..

Disassembly in Process

It’s at this point you realise you’ve taken it apart and you can’t strum on it anymore until you finish fixing it up…. so better get to it.

Important note: When taking something apart it’s a good idea to know how to put it back together again! One way of remembering how to do this is to make notes about which parts go where and how they fit together, remember it could be some time between disassembling the uke and putting it all together again.

Restoration Project Step 1: Acquisition.

Much thanks to an Ebay seller, I got a little present in the post, a vintage ukulele to play around with fixing up, after several attempts to buy other banjo ukuleles I managed to get this one at a fraction of the bids I’d made on others. So it’s a little bit beaten up compared to others, this isn’t really a concern… its still essentially the same and with a little love and affection I am sure we can nurse it back to being fighting fit.

What's in the box?

This uke is a Slingerland Maybell Banjo Ukulele, from around the 1920′s, it’s in an OK condition, there’s some modern replacement parts – notably one tuning peg and the new bridge. The tuning peg however is very sympathetic to the original ones and is not immediately apparent – which I like, so I don’t think it’ll be necessary to replace the pegs to make them all identical.

It was great to get the ukulele at a very good price, and to have a ukulele that even in it’s current condition is not a bad player, and would be much better indeed simply with a lower bridge. I am hopeful that when fully fixed up it will be a great little player, and a lovely looking vintage ukulele.

It's a.....

The major issues to be worked on are:

1. The fingerboard is coming loose in some areas and needs reattaching. It’s also a little cracked, but, I’d rather live with that than replace the fingerboard, it doesn’t appear to make it difficult to play. So I think it’s really just an aesthetic issue.
2. The Uke is loosing some of its varnish or lacquer and paint work, so will probably want to sand it all down and reapply a lacquer and possibly paint also.
4. A new bridge will need to be added. The current one is a nice grover bridge but it is at the wrong height and needs to be cut down, these bridges are built for the height of modern banjo ukulele’s which is somewhat different.
4. The metal work has some light corrosion in some areas, so will need to be cleaned as much as possible.

Things I don’t want to damage in the restoration project.

1. The ‘Maybell’ name and ‘stars’ pattern in the headstock. At first sight it looked like these were very deeply impressed into the wood, but, on second closer inspection I am not so sure. Which may mean I cannot remove the paint surface. This is still under consideration, and will be investigated further once the ukulele is taken apart.
2. The words ‘slingerland’ and ‘maybell’ on the dowel stick. There doesn’t actually appear to be any need to do anything to the dowel stick, it’s in excellent condition.
3. The original skin – which is in good condition, with just one small tiny patch made in the past under the tailpiece. I’ve seen others re-whiten their skins but I appreciate the aged look.
4. The general feel of the instrument, I want to keep the ukulele looking slightly aged or slightly beaten up, and well used. That’s my personal aesthetic, there’s something very steampunk about the modern ukulele movement and the internet, that I think my aesthetic somewhat comes from.

But, I’ll know a little bit more about the condition, and what choices I will make once the ukulele is taken apart.

....ukulele

So, it’s off to the shops to stock up on a few supplies that’ll be needed for this project, and I’ve ordered some Aquila Nylgut Strings, to spur me on.

Weird Ukes, Museum Ukes, and Just Ukes

The Museum of Craft and Folk Art held an exhibit entitled “Evolution of the ‘Ukulele: The Story of Hawaii’s Jumping Flea” between August 2 – October 21, 2007.

This exhibition website is well worth looking at, there is an excellent history article that includes some great photo’s, and there is also details of the Uke Festival that was the highlight of the exhibitions run.

The exhibition also showed one of the other fascinating sides of the new ukulele crazy, a passion for building and adapting new ukuleles, or repairing old ones. The exhibition showcased a series of individuals work as luthiers: “one who makes or repairs stringed instruments.”

Including this wonderful example:

Ukulele Ray's Andy Warhol Soup-A-Lele.