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I am making an all-koa uke. I use z-poxy pore filler, and want to know if there is any reason NOT to fill the top after taping off the bridge and area under the fretboard?
The Z Poxy has some color to it, and I'm worried that the top won't "match" the sides and back if I DON"T fill it, but don't know if filling it will affect the tone of the instrument.

Only one way to find out....make two ukes, one filled and one unfilled and see

I guess filling and finishing affects the tone...but almost all the hardwood topped ukes and guitars I've seen have had smooth finishes so they are filled with something. The debate about the effects of finish on tone is pretty unsettled in the Uke world.
I've done a couple ukes with unfilled pores just for the apperance. I didn't notice they were any better sounding than the ukes I pore filled.

Hi Beth,
I'm guessing you intend to put a finish like lacquer over the pore filler. There's really no reason not to fill the top. You end up with very little epoxy left on the instrument after sanding/leveling the epoxy and if you didn't fill the top it wouldn't look very good in comparison to the rest of the instrument. Everything we do when building an instrument has an affect on its tone. It's just a matter as to what extent. Putting a finish on an instrument affects the tone, but the practicality of it is, we need to protect the wood or the instrument's life would be extremely short. The epoxy is not changing the tone any more than the rest of finish is. And there's something very spectacular when you see that koa light up under a finish (see attached)!

Hope this helps,
Craig

I've done a solid koa uke and used z-poxy. I poxied the whole instrument and sanded back to bare wood. Then the final coat of zpoxy was a 50/50 wash coat of zpoxy and Denatured Alcohol. Then I french polished the whole thing. When it came time to put the bridge on, I used a very sharp chisel in the vertical position to scrape off the finish down to bare wood. No problems with the bridge not staying on. Hope that helps!

_________________
Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Mr Sullivan, that is one beautiful uke! Thanks so much for your input.
Tracy, thanks for weighing in. I'm happy to talk to folks that have "been there, done that"! Beth