Tragedy: I sat on my new uke build! Hopeless

sequoia

sequoia

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I accidentally just sat on the new uke I built! The crunching noise was very unpleasant let me tell you. Always put your uke away in its case!

Too late now. My question: What now? Is it a total loss, fixable or use for parts.... I'm really bumming out.

I'm thinking the top is a total loss. Cracked in at least three places. Is it possible I can cut off the top and put a new one in? I'm just sick...
 

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Oh rats! I feel so bad for you. It's such a temptation and so dangerous to use a chair for a table. I almost did the same thing in my youth, would have if a friend hadn't grabbed me in time. Some idiot violinist had put an Amati across the arms of a straight armed chair. That shook me up so badly that I stopped using chairs for tables and never started up again. Now, if the only thing around to set an instrument down on is a chair, I'll just stand around holding it.

Edit: I just thought to add: I've bought a few Ukulele stands and keep one wherever I usually want to put my Uke down. That way it always has a home away from its case. I have one on my desk by my computer, one on the kitchen counter, one on the living room coffee table. Maybe that would be a help in keeping them out of the chairs? I realize the horse is already out of the barn in this instance, but I'm just thinking about the future.
 
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Thanks for your kind words and advice... I'm still sick about this. Heads up to everybody out there: Don't do what Rick just did. Put that thing up in a safe place! Every time! No exceptions!

OK... I'm drinking wine now. Feel a little better. Not much, but a little better. Later I'm sure I will chuckle about this. Much later.

Conclusions after the autopsy: The thang is totaled. Now I'm thinking what I can salvage for parts. Bridge for sure (who cares), braces if I wanted to take the time to unglue them (too painful at the moment), fretted fingerboard for sure, neck maybe (don't think I want to go there), tuners for sure (small consolation), maybe the back (don't want to go there).

Conclusion: Take off the tuners, save the strings and hurl the thang off the headlands for a burial at sea. Aloha little uke. Maybe it will wash up on a beach in Hawaii.

Next couple ukes are already in production stages so there will be more ukes and I will get over it. Eventually. Now for some sour grapes. Ya know, the thing didn't sound all that great. Not bad, but not that great. Actually it sounded pretty damn good.

Exactly what kind of sound does a man make when he sits on his favorite uke? A sort of strange moan followed by repeating the following words: No, no, no... No!
 
Really sorry to hear this. Perhaps turn it into yard art. I owned a pottery shop and now a wood shop. 2nds and throw aways get put in the yard. Even have a pot garden.... where I put the old cast away pottery.
 
Here's a good chance to get your repair chops up to speed. Replace the top if everything else is still good. It's really not that difficult to do, especially without bindings on it.

It will give you great experience and the next time a repair comes along you will be so much more confident that while you won't be celebrating this accident right now, you'll look back and realise it moved you along so much more than you would willingly have gone.
 
Yep! get out the repair kit..Pallet knife /scraper, Hot air gun etc: save the bridge, remove the fret board and away you go :)
 
I wouldn't even bother removing the fretboard. Just carefully saw through with a very fine saw at the fret/body junction. Salvage and add the f.board extension piece after replacing the Top. It will need a very thin fillet of wood to make up for the thin saw kerf, virtually invisible. Even that Top can be repaired if you deem it worth the time.
 
Littleriveruke, check out the last posts on Timbucks 1000 cockups post. I moved it back to the head of the list.
 
Oh I really feel for you! Done that once many years ago with a model biplane that I spent 8 months making!

Bob
 
Agree with Allen and Ken. It's currently knackered so you can't damage it much more. Use it as a learning experience on how to repair broken tops and to help fortify your resolution on always putting instruments back in their cases.
Good luck
Miguel
 
Patrick Madsen said:
Really sorry to hear this. Perhaps turn it into yard art. I owned a pottery shop and now a wood shop. 2nds and throw aways get put in the yard. Even have a pot garden.... where I put the old cast away pottery.
Click to expand...
Hope you have a licence up there....;)
If you are a licensed marijuana grower or seller, you are allowed to grow the plant in your home and/or sell it. There are restrictions on those who sell, including that the sales must be within Washington and that any individual selling must have his or her own license. Licenses must specify the name of only one seller and the location where they will sell. Licenses can only be used by one person.
 
Timbuck said:
Yep! get out the repair kit..Pallet knife /scraper, Hot air gun etc: save the bridge, remove the fret board and away you go :)
Click to expand...

Yep. I woke up this morning with a plan and feeling much better. Nothing to lose here so I'm kinda (kinda, sorta) looking forward to the deconstruction and the reconstruction process. The reverse process. Oh no! Another learning curve! Nothing like doing an autopsy to learn how the body works. The neck is toast. Never really liked it anyway. Otherwise I hope to get sides and back and a fretted fingerboard out it. Biggest challenge I see is getting that top piece between the neckblock and the fretboard out. Gonna cut it out with a sawzall (!) and then sand down to neck block and sides... A plan! I think it will work. Onward!
 
Larry D. said:
Hope you have a licence up there....;)
If you are a licensed marijuana grower or seller, you are allowed to grow the plant in your home and/or sell it. There are restrictions on those who sell, including that the sales must be within Washington and that any individual selling must have his or her own license. Licenses must specify the name of only one seller and the location where they will sell. Licenses can only be used by one person.
Click to expand...

LOL, Meant a garden out old old pottery 2nds. The other garden is out by the still
 
Patrick Madsen said:
LOL, Meant a garden out old old pottery 2nds. The other garden is out by the still
Click to expand...

I was just being a smart ass....sorry...I knew what you meant. I have a friend that lives is Denver. He stated that the pot stores out number the liquor stores there. I was working around Bolder in 1999. One Sunday I went to explore the strip. There were some street musicians playing and I heard one play Jimmy Buffett who was pretty good. As he was playing Son of a sailor a gentleman exited his book store and lit up while drinking his coffee. I mentioned to the musician that "hey that guy is smoking a joint"...he stated "yea it is pot....if it were a cigarette he would be arrested for tobacco is illegal in Bolder....but pot is OK". What a town then and am sure it still is.
 
Four words.... low viscosity super glue... you'd be surprised what you can do with a bit of low viscosity super glue!
 
Littleriveruke, how did your repair turn out? I'm particularly interested as I need to remove the top of one of my uke builds.

Bob
 
Vespa Bob said:
Littleriveruke, how did your repair turn out? I'm particularly interested as I need to remove the top of one of my uke builds.

Bob
Click to expand...

Bob, I have to say I put it away in the closet and I'm currently doing two simultaneous builds. I just don't want to even look at it... the memory is too painful (sob!)... But I think about and it is gonna be tough to save everything other than the top which is toast. I'm leaning towards an idea given here earlier by a forum member to cut through the fingerboard at the 14th fret with a super fine jeweler's file, take out the top, unglue the remaining fingerboard and top part off the neck block and re-top it, then reattach the cut off finger board to the rest of the fingerboard and fill the saw slot with a small fillet of wood, dye, sandout, invisible. Does that make sense? Good idea, but sounds like some unpleasant work and right now I'm more into putting ukes together rather than sawing them into little pieces.
 
I decided to take the bull by the horns and remove the top of my uke which I had sanded too thin as well as had the bridge break off damaging it. Michael N's idea of sawing off the part of the fret board the extends over the top prompted me to give it a try and it worked out pretty well. Since the sound board was so thin, it was an easy job to break it away up to the kerfing. After that, I used a knife to scrape away much of the remainder then with a long sanding block, sanded the rest evenly down to the kerfing. Fitting a new top should be a piece of cake now, certainly better than starting from scratch! I know that your uke has more damage than mine, but, hopefully this might give you some encouragement!

Bob
 

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