Kentucky KM1000 questions

[Rroyd]

I have a student with a Kentucky KM1000, and the label inside says it was made in Korea. However, I recall at the time that the instrument was purchased (about four years ago) that the catalog described that particular mandolin as being made in China, with a special inlay in the peghead that was patterned after an ancient Chinese urn, and a special "aged" finish, which could be best described as being a "matte" finish. Does anyone have any information or recollections about this particular model? And more importantly, does anyone have any experience with trying to improve the sound of this model? (Or is this one just a lemon, with the rest all sounding great?) When new it was compared to a KM675 (which was about half the cost) of the same vintage, and it came out a distant second and comes closer to being in last place now. It has never "opened up" although it has literally thousands of hours of playing time, and sounds muted and stiff. The back and sides appear to be well-figured maple, and the top seems to be a close and even-grained spruce, looking every bit as good as a lot of high-end instruments. The workmanship appears to be first-rate, and it is a dream to play; now if it would just sound better. I always had reservations about the finish, and have wondered if it is the primary reason for why it would continue to sound so weak. Anyone out there dealt with this particular model, and have any suggestions? At this point, trading it is not an option, but the owner has two relatives who have a lot of experience with finishes and finish work, so if this was some sort of constrictive finish that was used, the only investment would be time and materials to redo it.
Thanks for any comments and suggestions you might have.

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[WJF]

I don't have any experience with the KM-1000 but I do have a KM-1500 from the "Sumi era" at Kentucky. I made two improvements to it that made a huge difference to it.

1.) I was fortunate enough to be able to talk John Monteleone into building a bridge for it. I still owe him a huge debt of gratitude for doing that favor for me!! That one change made a HUGE difference for the better.

2.) I had Bob Jones, a highly regarded repair wizard here in NY replace the tuners, radius the fretboard and set it up for me. Again, a HUGE improvement.

Don't get me wrong ... neither of my two AL Smart mandolins suffer from a lack of playing time as result of my being tempted away by the Kentucky http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif but it sounds a whole lot better than it did originally and gives me a nice mandolin to "take to the beach" (just kidding of course) with me while I leave my two Smarts (the joys of my life) safe at home.

Hope this helps ...