It was in 2011 that I bought an old, and heavily abused, guitar-banjo online. I thought it would be a nice restoration project.
It turned out to be a "real" Weltton instrument. Weltton (from German: "Welt Ton" = "world tone") was a trade mark registered by
Joh. Günter Wunderlich from Wernitzgrün. The instruments were manufactured in Klingenthal, former East Germany. Building of Weltton instruments was discontinued in 1977.
This guitar-banjo really had a hard life. It had a whole lot of scratches, some very deep. Someone had started sanding the neck and didn't do a very good job.
So, I took the whole thing apart and cleaned and polished all the hardware. As far as possible the scratches were removed. The neck was given some treatment.
I had to make a new bridge because the original was was broken beyond repair.Extra
After cleaning and gently sanding the wooden parts I gave them a fair amount of schellac layers.
It's not a very good instrument and I guess it never was but at least it's looking fine again. Below you can see some pictures from before and after the restoration.
