re-stringing your ukulele - safe to remove all strings at once?

Hi everybody,

I have a short question as I am very cautious about my ukulele: When re-stringing your ukulele – is it safe to remove all four strings (for cleaning the fretboard) or should I do one string at a time to keep tension on the neck? I re-string the ukulele within a few minutes, and of course, lower the tension before cutting the old strings. Should be safe, I hope - I just want to be sure as the myth (?) of better not stressing the neck by removing all strings together still keeps hunting in my head ... I guess there's truth in it for some guitar scenarios, but not our ukuleles with relatively low tension? Especially if you don't have your ukulele lying around unstrung for days or weeks ...

I just want to finally have peace of mind as I'm still overly cautious and only doing one string at a time – which makes fretboard cleaning difficult.

Thanks in advance for any answers!

It's safe. It was built without strings attached after all. But I generally change one string at a time as it is easier to tune that way to me. Helps avoid "tuned it an octave too high" mistakes.

Hi Jim,

thanks a lot for the answer. Sounds logical that it was built without strings. Although I thought the problem, if there's any in the first place, would be that the neck could deform after it got used to the tension and set up with strings attached. However, as mentioned in my original post, I change the strings within a few minutes so I hope it wouldn't be an immediate "reaction" (and I carefully losen the strings before cutting them off, too, so there's no sudden disappearing tension "shock")

As to the tuning, if I am unsure, I will simply use one of my other ukuleles as reference (or an online tuner) to not tune the ukulele an octave to high.

Thanks again for the reply, very appreciated.

And I thought that I was the only one to tune a string an octave too high by mistake! I now feel better about myself.

Removing all the strings once in a while is necessary in order to lemon oil the fretboard, maybe twice a year at most. You first remove the middle strings together, then the two outer strings (or vice versa).

All other times I do one string at a time, and yes I notice a difference in the amount of settling needed. Stringed instruments are designed to be under tension, period. That includes travel and long-term storage.

Depending on the model, sometime the saddle will fall out and then I couldn't find it as it had slid under the couch. Freaked me out at first, as I didn't know which way to put it back. It's all good now......

chikon2000 said:

And I thought that I was the only one to tune a string an octave too high by mistake! I now feel better about myself.

Click to expand...

No, you are not the only one. I've taken them all off before with no problems as a result. It would be nice for a luthier to chime in though, just to add a little authority to the discussion.

Thanks for the input, folks – this forum is the best. I'll put the strings all off from now on with good conscience – will make things much more easy when the fretboard needs some care ...

I just take scissors to them all, boom!

coolkayaker1 said:

I just take scissors to them all, boom!

Click to expand...

I wouldn't do that. I like using my old strings for fishing line.

We recently made our front room into a music room, where I converted the baby grand piano that my wife grew up playing into a bookshelf. My wife had me buy instrument hangers and place them on the walls so I could put up my ukuleles and our guitars. There is room for our digital piano, but no room for the tuba.

Anyway, when we took my wife's Takamine guitar out of its soft case (which was stored in the basement) to hang on the wall, we found out the neck was cracked in a crescent shape on the back side, between the headstock and the first five frets of the fretboard. What a bummer, and the guitar is no longer made, and not worth having a luthier repair.

What I decided to do was to put Gorilla wood glue in the crack, and clamp the neck together. I had to take all the strings off to do this.

This is where the story relates to the post...the nut was not firmly connected when I went to put strings back on the guitar. So while taking of the strings wasn't an issue...I had to alternate putting on the strings so the nut would stay in place. That might be the only challenge with your ukulele re-stringing.

The repair is functional...the guitar plays and the crack is "frozen," but you can still feel the break and ultimately we will just have to replace it someday. My guess is that something landed on the headstock while the body was suspended, while the guitar was upside down. I have no idea how that happened, and I last had the guitar out in 2010. We have three boys, however (16, 8, and 4), so I would be willing to wager that one of them had something to do with it, even if unintentionally. I guess you can't take it with you, but in this case, you also cannot sell it or pass it on to the next of kin.

rappsy said:

Depending on the model, sometime the saddle will fall out and then I couldn't find it as it had slid under the couch. Freaked me out at first, as I didn't know which way to put it back. It's all good now......

Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen! It took me a few minutes to realize it was missing, then I just stared at it wondering how it went back on... Ahhhh... All the things we learn through trial and error.

If you want to clean and oil your fretboard you don't have to remove strings. Loosen them enough to pull them to the side and do your cleaning. Blue painting tape can help. Both the nut and the saddle can be loose so take a little care with them. Some saddles are compensated and need to stay in the same orientation.

coolkayaker1 said:

I just take scissors to them all, boom!

Click to expand...

+1 but no boom boom for me, I loosen em first before snipping. I then give the fretboard and saddle a nice coat of fretboard oil and string it back up. 1x a year the frets get taped off and polished. Quite relaxing.

Don't remove them all at the same time on banjo ukes with floating bridges. That's a major hassle getting it back up and under tension and in the right place- not fun

Just wanna say thanks again for all the additional replies – it's nice to see such a helpful community. Really appreciated.

One at a time is not necessary.

Jim Hanks said:

It's safe. It was built without strings attached after all. But I generally change one string at a time as it is easier to tune that way to me. Helps avoid "tuned it an octave too high" mistakes.

Click to expand...

Jim, if you think about it a bit, all you need to really do is leave on one original string because the tuning of all the other new strings can be done from it.

-- Gary

igorthebarbarian said:

Don't remove them all at the same time on banjo ukes with floating bridges. That's a major hassle getting it back up and under tension and in the right place- not fun

Click to expand...

I was going to add that. The first time I changed strings on my banjo uke, I had actually realised that it's better to remove and replace them one at a time but then I went and knocked the bridge over. Bummer.