José Álvarez the Dulcet

The latest invitee to Ukulele Corner is a José Álvarez "the Dulcet" Soprano/Guitarrico. Originating in Valencia, Spain, (despite what it says about Barcelona in the soundhole label), these were made at the Telesforo Julve workshop/factory and distributed by Rose Morris from 1933 to the Spanish Civil War period, They must have been fairly reasonable as one was famously part of George Formby's personal collection, (though of course he may just have been given it?) My one is interesting because, though I have seen ones that don't have a golpeador, those ones had a light cedar/spruce/pine? natural soundboard and a very dark, probably ebonised, fretboard. I'm not sure from the photos if mine has had some kind of dark finish applied post sale, or is some different darker top wood? I'm hoping for the latter but whatever it is, it will be an interesting addition to Ukulele Corner, (though if it is aftermarket paintwork I will look to try and remove it if I can).

It's here now and it is aftermarket brown paint!! Why, oh why, oh why? It looks awful. Thick, shitty colour, brush marks and what a pity, it all looks pretty perfect apart from the paint. Sound, straight, nice frets nice original tuners and unless the paint is hiding something no cracks. Well its straight down to the DIY shop for some gel paint remover and I hope I can get it off without damaging the wood underneath before I string it up and play it, (and photograph it properly).

Well I now stripped most of the paint off and apart from some final sanding I need to decide what to do to put a protective / decorative finish back on it? I thought initially that it would just be a re varnish or a good waxing but it is looking very pale now so I think the Álvarez factory must has stained the wood originally, (I'm trying to decide what the wood is as it's very light and it looks like the same wood used for top back and sides, (Spanish Cedar?),  and I will probably do some sort of, (tasteful; not shitty brown), staining.

In the end I took it to the Ukulele doctor and he did a spectacular job of sanding and re-staining it. far far better than I could have done.