Kamaka Tenor advice

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Heya all

I came back from a month vacation and my heart is sorta broken. My uke needs some love. Someone who works at a local Guitar Center told me that New York is terrible to keep instruments safe because of humidity. I'm afraid he's dead on. I keep oasis humidifiers in my instruments in the Winter. In the Summer I tried to keep them in cool spots... but this happen... It plays fine but what do you recommend me doing?

Thanks in advance.

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I'd get in touch with Kamaka, ask them about it, and get the email of the person you spoke to, and then send them many photos with better lighting than in the photo above, and see what they tell you.

It looks like the top has separated from both the treble lower bout, as well as the seam in the middle, and the joint where the sides meet at the tailblock is also split...

It could be remedied with some glue and clamps, but I've only done this myself on a cheap, old guitar I got at a garage sale for $5, so my experience is not going to be useful as I'm not sure if you need to cleat the inside of the seam or do other additional work to reinforce the areas of failure.

Someone with more experience than me is likely able to offer better advice, but my first call would be to Kamaka, and then go from there...
 
That is a shame! Kamaka are so nice. If that is how NY weather treats ukuleles, I'd buy a Blackbird Ekoa. Heck I'm saving up now to do so because I spend a lot of time keeping my solid wood ukuleles safe. I use Oasis in the sound hole but add a second humidifier in the neck of the case. I've had good success with the planet waves packs and just recently added humistat humidifier to the case. They work well .....check them out. I don't think just having an Oasis in soundhole is enough. I live in Canada so we get all the extremes and have central heat and air
 
Get the D'addario's Planet Waves Two Way Humidification System, there's nothing out there that comes close! If there's to much humidity, then it takes away, if not enough, then it adds it!

These are designed to maintain the correct level!

http://www.planetwaves.com/pwProduc...523&productname=Two_Way_Humidification_System

I use these on a Kanilea, just as fancy as a Kamaka! :)

+1 In Texas, we have to run a humidifier just to keep the relative humidity down below 60% in our home. This is partly due to the fact that we run the A/C at around 76, and as such it doesn't pull as much humidity out as it would if we ran it lower.

The Planet waves give you peace of mind either way. They do need to be changed about every 3-4 months depending on environment.

Good luck getting that fixed!

Long term, if it is in your budget, I also agree with with M3Ukulele's suggestion about getting a Blackbird Farallon. I have one and I have been extremely happy with it, especially plugged in.
 
Actually concerning changing out the Planet Waves, you can take like a small glass, or shot glass filled with distilled water, and place that in a tupperware, put the Planet Waves pack in next to the glass, and clover the tupperware up, and the packet will absorb the water and can be reused again...

So you can get more mileage out of them this way... :)
 
Fix? Back off the string tension/remove strings. Using hair dryer and palette knife to release the back...chances are the braces are loose too....Clean old HHG off, reglue center seam/loose braces, re=set back. Done it with several kamakas....good luck!
 
Just throwing this out there as an observation.

Save for Booli, responses up until Powdrell's focused on humidity. I took the question from a "should I get it fixed?" perspective like they did because:
1- he's getting geographical weather guidance from a GC employee and seemingly chocking it up as "that's how it is."
2- he says it plays well.

The question by the OP is too vague to answer well, and he's not qualified any response, yet.

I have some thoughts regarding grain structure of that specific instrument, pertaining to the split, but, I'm probably off base with the OP's intended question.
 
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I'm either going blind, or you added the pic later?

Get the Planet Waves after you have it fixed to help take care of your Ukes in the future.

But for now take Booli's advise, you need to contact Kamaka and send it back in to have them fix that.
 
Just throwing this out there as an observation.

Save for Booli, responses up until Powdrell's focused on humidity. I took the question from a "should I get it fixed?" perspective like they did because:
1- he's getting geographical weather guidance from a GC employee and seemingly chocking it up as "that's how it is."
2- he says it plays well.

The question by the OP is too vague to answer well, and he's not qualified any response, yet.

I have some thoughts regarding grain structure of that specific instrument, pertaining to the split, but, I'm probably off base with the OP's intended question.



haha I saw that to Aaron..called Hi-Jacking the thread....:)
if I was the OP I would try to find a Luthier or some kind of repair person...there has to be some good ones in the NY area....kind of expensive to send back to Kamaka and then wait for the repair IMO...
 
I'm kinda with Booli on this. Sure, a local luthier might be able to fix it. BUT....I've had one guy tell me he could fix something, then charged me and fixed it half-assed. I wound up taking it to a real luthier in the end.
But it wasn't a Kamaka. If it had been, contacting Kamaka would have been a good 1st step. That doesn't necessarily follow that you'll be sending it there. They might have a guy near you, like Martin does.
 
I've been following this thread. What ever happened? Did you contact Kamaka, what did they say?
 
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