Leaderboard

I play doublebass as well, so guitar flats are a drop in the ocean.

Completely agree on all points there @EdwardMarlowe. Since the original post I've stripped it down and given it a good clean and polish, it was clean enough but I always do this with any new (to me) guitar or bass, and it really is just too clean to be anything like 50 years old. From this (https://www.fetishguitars.com/castelfidardo-recanati/melody/) we can deduce it's likely built between 72 (when Eko withdrew from Melody) and 88 (when Melody folded), as you say probably 80s. Even so it's still in very good condition, very few knocks and the white plastics haven't really yellowed at all so I reckon it's been tucked away in a case or cupboard most of its life. I've dressed the fret ends and polished the frets, cleaned and lemon oiled the fretboard, machine polished the sound board and scrubbed the back with an alcohol based degreaser to lift any dirt out, new strings and a set up and it's lovely. I've fitted a set of nickel 10s (don't like bronze) and as you said, it's quite bright so I'm thinking I might try a set of flatwound strings. Being predominantly a bass player I'd prefer the higher tension and they should help mellow the tone a touch, maybe less volume but I'm not worried about that as its just for garden strumming. If it implodes under the tension then I've lost the £69 it cost, but should be fine.