One of those "What did I just get myself into" sorts of things

So, I just bought a marimba. I was looking for marimba mallets on KSL for kids and found a marimba listed instead that seemed to be in my price range. It is about 5 1/2 octaves (my current instrument is a 4-octave) and was (according to the seller) hand made in El Salvador 50 or so years ago out of Honduran mahogany. It has a lot of character, which is probably a good thing (the jury is still out on the carved pastoral scene on the front). The bars have a good sound and are mostly in tune.

Sounds great, right? Yep. The downside of the situation is that over the years it has gotten really beat up. Parts of the base are broken, string support posts are snapped or missing, and part of the frame is warped. Some previous owner committed several crimes against wood including wiring part of it together, using nails the size of which was incredibly wrong, tacking part of it together badly using brads, and gluing with no apparent knowledge of the existence of clamping technology. Here are some "before" pictures. I will post updates as I work on it.

This shows the whole pastoral scene on the front panel. The painted pieces were carved separately and attached. I'm hoping the wood under these pictures has been finished similar to the rest; I may remove them. What do you think, numerous potential commenters? Should I leave them or remove them?

This shows a close-up of the scene.

 You can see from this photo how the box and support pieces split in half. I am considering making the legs detachable for easier portability.

A close-up of the amazingly professional repair job using copper wire.

Splits like this are pretty common in the base/foundation.

You can see the terrible nailing job done here. You can't tell very well, but it was also glued.

The naturals or "white" keys. The rear horizontal piece has snapped. The bars are made of padouk, which is rosewood's slightly poorer cousin.

The accidentals or "black" keys. You can see hanging off the from string numerous string support posts, also of hardwood, many of which have snapped off and many others of which are merely out of the holes. The partial piece at the front of the keys is part of the horizontal support piece, part of which is missing.

A close-up of the lowest naturals. You can see the beautiful wood finish here, and see more of the hardwood posts. If you listen closely to your screen you will hear the thrilling low G resonating. This note sealed the deal for me. I'm not yet sure what it will sound like once it is repaired, but a higher A is matched pretty closely to A440 which means that it can be accompanied by a normally tuned piano, which was important for me. Some of the octave intervals are tuned a little off and the overtones/second resonance are not superbly tuned, but it was handmade so some variation is to be expected. Like I said, the instrument has character.

This is the only obviously damaged key, and the repair that makes me the most angry. The bar broke in half along the grain and was clumsily glued back together, without any apparent clamping or with an expanding glue. The note still sounds ok, but I will need to see if I can find a safe glue solvent that will dissolve it without harming the wood so I can do a better job. This is the lowest accidental, a G flat. Interestingly (at least to those familiar with modern manufactured instruments), the range goes from the piano equivalent of two G flats below middle C (the G below the low C on my current marimba) to the fourth B above middle C (almost a full octave above my current 4-octave). I think this would probably qualify as an almost-5.5-octave xylorimba, but I'm not sure. Also in this photo you see the knotted support string; I will be replacing this series of knots with a modern-style hooked tension spring arrangement.

 The resonators are of wood, which (as my limited research reveals) is pretty common for Latin American instruments. Apparently this is also hardwood. The resonators each have a little hole in the bottom, which would be covered with pig gut membrane to produce a characteristic buzzing effect. I will not be recovering the holes. There are not nearly enough resonators for all the bars, and I'm not yet sure how many would be typical for an instrument of this type. This is the biggest question I have about the project...it would be very time-consuming and difficult to handmake resonators of this type for all the keys, and I'm not sure whether substituting a different kind of resonator will be acceptable or not (PVC, for example, is a cheap but ugly substitute, and aluminum commercial resonators would look wrong).

This is a sort of put together view of the marimba. The wood pieces on the accidentals are resonator supports. Obviously the front and back halves will be joined without the huge gap you see in the picture.

There is a fundamental question I need to face with this project, which will make a lot of my choices more difficult. That is, do I try to stay as faithful to the original construction as possible in terms of materials and methods, which would preserve the charm of the folk instrument, or do I substitute materials and methods that will make the design more robust? Honduran mahogany is not likely to be cheap or easy to find, so visible pieces like the legs would look noticeably different if I use a different wood. I have no idea what finish was used (it has a waxy feel, but could be anything) so it may be hard to duplicate. I don't like the idea of stripping the whole thing and refinishing it. The wood string support posts will be time-intensive to carve (although not that difficult) and replacing them with modern metal supports with rubber insulators would make for a more robust construction, but it would change the look. Input from readers, again, is welcome, especially as regards the aesthetics of the project and more especially still from readers with any experience in this area.

This will be a labor of love for me. My first priority is to make it playable by replacing the bar supports and string support posts (with wood initially), then I will work on the foundation frame. At least for a while, I will have two marimbas so any of you who are percussionists will be able to come play duets. :)

If anybody has friends who you think have special knowledge in this area that may be of assistance, feel free to share the link to the project. I will try to post regular updates.