I think I've crossed some kind of line

I changed the strings on my cedar rosewood Ohana. It has quite a dimple on the lower bout from string tension. When I took the strings off, I noticed the bowl seemed to be gone. I cleaned it up and oiled the fretboard and began with the new strings.

Then it hit me. The thought. If these strings somehow create enough tension and pop the bridge... I will need a new concert ukulele with reentrant G. Dare I say, I could save up and get another Clara.

Just like that, I was having evil thoughts about my beloved Ohana!!!!!

The silver lining is...
I am enjoying the Southcoast medium gauge strings on my Ohana and it still has that amazing, robust sound!

After reading a thread a few months ago about standard bridges vs string-through bridges, and learning that string-through eliminates the problem of a bridge pulling away, I decided to convert one of my standard bridges to string-through. Fairly straight forward, drilled holes in the bridge just in front of each string hole, pushed the string through the top, grabbed it through the sound hole leaving some sticking out of the bridge, tied the end coming out of the sound hole to little plastic disc and pulled it back up. Works very well.

kohanmike said:

After reading a thread a few months ago about standard bridges vs string-through bridges, and learning that string-through eliminates the problem of a bridge pulling away, I decided to convert one of my standard bridges to string-through. Fairly straight forward, drilled holes in the bridge just in front of each string hole, pushed the string through the top, grabbed it through the sound hole leaving some sticking out of the bridge, tied the end coming out of the sound hole to little plastic disc and pulled it back up. Works very well.

Click to expand...

That is very interesting. I prefer a slotted bridge so you don't see the knots - I like the simple look of it. A string through bridge would be even tidier looking. Do you have any photos to show how yours looks now that you've drilled the holes? What diameter drill bit did you use to drill the holes?

The uke should not bulge that much from string tension. You might check the relative humidity in your home and see if it is between 40 and 50 percent. I have a feeling it is too dry.

Ukejenny, K-Mike's idea is a good one (first try Pip's ideas about humidification).

Here's John, Oldephart, detailing the conversion, including photo and drill size to use. Mandatory reading.

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...t-Bridge&highlight=Knotted+bridge+string+John