Saturday, July 25, 2015

365 Project #155 Restoring A Baritone Ukulele

Our friend Cherie has had an old Tara Baritone Ukulele. By the way, don't buy one, you'll regret it in time. The top didn't have sufficient bracing underneath to support the bridge, so the tension was warping the face of the instrument.

Don removed the bridge and fabricated a tailpiece to secure the strings. The original bridge was glued and screwed so removing it damaged the first layer of plywood which he repaired with sawdust and superglue. He will now make a floating bridge, replace the original tuners, restring it and it should be a playable ukulele.

I wanted to make it look a LOT better, so I asked my friend Sheri if I could use some of her acrylic paints and borrow her shop for the day. It's been 40 years since I painted anything so it was a bit nerve-wracking at first but as soon as I started it went pretty well. 

Now to let the paint dry thoroughly and cure, a coat or two of polyurethane and we'll be able to give our friend back a pretty nice instrument.





Update; the completed ukulele!







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