Refinishing dilemma

[sprucetop1]

I have a customer with a nice early fifties Gibson A50 mandolin. This inst. is all-original with its original finish. However the finish is very crazed, especially on the neck from heel to the top of the peghead. The neck crazing is such that the mandolin is irritating to play. I like the look of an old crazed finish, but would it be ethical to recommend refinishing the back of the neck only to make playing the thing more comfortable? The customer also has a similar early '50's vintage ES 125 guitar that has exactly the same issue....but even worse. What's the right thing to do?

[Stephanie Reiser]

A fifties A50? I do believe that it would be "ethical" to refinish that instrument. Heck, some people even scrape the finish right off the back of the neck, much less refinish it.
I think you'd be fine, IMO.

[sunburst]

The neck crazing is such that the mandolin is irritating to play.
Why is that? Are there flakes of finish missing, or are the finish cracks raised so the the neck feels rough?
If all the finish is still there but it just feels rough, I'd consider amalgamating the finish with a solvent such as butyl cellosolve (actually, ethylene glycol n-butyl ether) so that it lies down smooth again.

[sprucetop1]

There are flakes of finish missing due to dings and the finish cracks are raised to make the neck rough. #I'm inclined to strip the entire neck as there are a couple of holes that could be filled, then refinish....possibly with tru-oil. #I don't have spray equipment. #I would leave the rest of the inst. with its orig. finish. # #I'm just concerned about meddling with original finishes on old instruments and always prefer to see them left as intact as possible. #It's just in this case that the old finish is so uncomfortable when the mandolin is played.

[Michael Lewis]

It is very easy to make a bigger job out of this than you intend. If something goes wrong where will it end? I would think about drop filling the missing flakes and lightly sanding the roughness out of the finish when the newly filled finish is hard. Probably 4 or 5 weeks. If that doesn't work then John's idea of re amalgamation would be my next step. That will have to be sanded when it hardens too.