bought smelling ukulele - safe to keep it near my other ukuleles?

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zivilars

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Hi everybody,

I bought a used KoAloha Soprano a few days ago and made the terrible mistake to not ask if it comes from a smoker – the ukulele smells extremely of cold smoke, cigarettes or cigars, I honestly don't know. Maybe even a house burning, I can't rule out anything ... It hurts my heart as the instrument itself looks wonderfully and the playability is top notch.

As I probably have no other chance to keep the KoAloha: It is at least safe to place it besides my other ukuleles – or is there a risk that it will "contaminate" those, too? They are not touching each other, of course, but there only a few centimeters between them. Couldn't forgive myself if this happens, so I better want to be safe than sorry, even if this fear sounds a little bit paranoid ...

I already have tried to put the ukulele in its case with fresh coffee pulver which is said to neutralize smoke smell. No success. I think I am stuck with this smell, so my main concern now is that at least my other ukuleles definitely won't absorb it through the air, too.

Thanks in advance for any input!
 
I don't think it's that likely your KoAloha will infect the other ukes. I would try to air it out as much as you can. Get it a new case, if you haven't already. Also try cleaning it with whatever polish won't harm a KoAloha's finish, including the fretboard.
 
A trick with books that smell of stale smoke is to seal them in bag with sodium bicarbonate for a few days. I've tried it and it works OK, gets rid of most of the smell. Not sure if it would work with a uke, you'd need a big bag and lots of bicarb.
 
Thanks wayfarer75 and Picker Jon for the answers and suggestions. Already cleaned the ukulele with a polisher and the fretboard with my guitar oil two times - unfortunately it didn't help. The nicotine probably also is INSIDE of the ukulele, I guess ... Will inform myself about sodium bicarbonate.
 
zivilars said:
Will inform myself about sodium bicarbonate.
Click to expand...

sodium bicarbonate = baking soda...buy a couple big boxes, pour it inside and let it sit, shaking it around occasionally, after a couple days put fresh in and repeat. Good luck!

Also, try putting it in a sealed container with a bowl of white vinegar.
 
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You could also take an old sock and put about 8-12 oz of kitty litter in the sock (but make sure it will fit in the soundhole) and tie it closed well with a rubber band or baggie tie, and then put the sock in thru the soundhole, and then leave the uke in the case for at least a week and the litter should absorb most of the smell.

I'd go for a small bag of the Arm & Hammer ODOR CONTROL cat litter...

If all the smell dont come out the first time, repeat the process. Worked for me.

Also, once you get the smell out, if some still lingers, you can get some citrus potpourri and put that in a sack, or another sock (the mate from the pair that used for the cat litter?) and leave that inside the sound hole for a few days to a week to infuse the wood with NEW and DIFFERENT smell from the smoke smell....

Hope this helps...:)
 
Thanks UkerDanno and Booli for the additional suggestions. Have a lot to try out now. :) Hopefully it helps! At least there is hope ...
 
I would pour the baking soda into a knee-high hose to keep it together and then place that inside the soundhole and leave it for a few days.
I would also not use the case it came in, perhaps put the uke in a plastic trash bag while you are doing the baking soda thing.
Sorry this happened to you.
Good luck.
 
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Hi Johnson430 - already bought a knee-high hose for another coffee powder test. Will try soda and cat littler first now. Thanks!
 
I'd give it longer than a few days with any deodorizer you try, like maybe a few weeks. The odor compounds take a while to migrate out of the wood.
 
Yes, the trash bag is a good idea.

Also, certain brands of cat litter has a sort of 'dust' that comes off the sand granules, you want to see if you can get litter that is 'dust free' and also UNSCENTED since I do not think you want to replace the smoke smell with some funky anti-cat-pee smell which could end up being worse, and/or even harm the wood -

at this stage you want to remove smells, not add to them or mask them yet, not until you can draw out as much as possible first....
 
If it were me, I'd try filling the cavity of the body with cedar shavings, the kind they sell for pet gerbils, mice, etc. I'd leave it in there for at least a week if not longer and shake it around in there several times a day so that the cedar shavings are, in effect, "scrubbing" the inside surfaces of the body. Maybe the absorbency of the chips coupled with their aromatic scent will do the trick.
 
All great ideas. Definitley, definitley, definitley throw out the old case. No sense (pun intended:p) going through all the trouble of removing the smell from the uke then "restinkifying" it when it goes back into the smokey smelling case.
 
Thanks for the replies Kayak Jim, mikelz777 and DownUpDave. Great tips, I'll definitely try everything out. I don't mind if it takes weeks or even months to get the smell out of the wood, if it goes away someday, I'll be a happy man. The only thing I am afraid of that it will be sitting in there forever..
 
Being a pipe smoker, my grand kids love to smell my pipes when they come over. I smoke "aromatic" pipe tobacco and it actually has a very pleasant, vanilla odor to it. I put a small pouch of un-burned aromatic tobacco in my ukes. My grand kids always want me to bring out a uke and play for them, but first, they find the need to bury their noses in my ukes. They love the smell of Grandpa's pipes, and tobacco, and the smell of the ukes because "they smell like Grandpa!!". I think it is cool, and will always be nice aromatic memories for them long after I'm gone. I have awesome memories of my Grandpa's and my father's pipes. It keeps them with me. Not sure if I am any help, but it does relate as smells are either a good, or bad memory for people. The sense of smell is very long lasting.
 
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Hi Tudorp,

I can understand liking "pipe smell" – I somehow do, too, but only temporarily if somebody is smoking a "real" one in front of me ... :) Although even that smell makes me feel sick (as a natural reaction of my body, not willingly hating it).

The smell in this ukulele however is hard to take (at least for my nose). As already mentioned, I don't even know if it were cigarettes, cigars or pipes which made it smelling so bad – I wouldn't even rule out a burnt down house, with the ukulele as the only thing saved from it ... :)

I'll try my best to get the smell out of it. Otherwise, I'll just live with it – just have to be sure that it won't "infect" my other ukuleles.
 
If the humidity allows for it dont put it into a case for a while, you're trapping the air.
 
lakesideglenn said:
I second the idea of filling it with cedar shavings...worked pretty well on a mandolin i had
Click to expand...

Do you directly fill the inside of the body with cedar shaving or do you put them in a knee-high hose or similar to get them out more easily later?

cml said:
If the humidity allows for it dont put it into a case for a while, you're trapping the air.
Click to expand...

Agreed – however: While trying to get the "main" smell absorbed by coffee, baking soda, cedar shaving or similar in the first step, it's better to leave it air-trapped while doing so for full effect, isn't it?
 
I would recommend putting the shavings in there directly so there is wood to shavings contact. My thinking is that the cedar chips would absorb the smoke scent on the surface of the ukulele interior and perhaps deposit some of the cedar scent to the interior wood. The shavings wouldn't be so fine that they wouldn't be relatively easy to shake out of the uke when you were refreshing with clean shavings or done with the process.
 
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