Rllink
Well-known member
It is the time of year to start talking about humidity, hygrometers, and humidifiers, and I take it seriously. I mean, why wouldn't I protect my investment? And I do take care to keep my ukulele humidified. But also, seriously, how fast does a ukulele dry out? I get the feeling that some people think that the humidity falls below 35% and their ukulele explodes, or maybe implodes.
So here is my story. My grandfather was a fiddler, and he brought a fiddle back from France after WWI. He played it at dances and in bars. He was quite the fiddler and quite the carouser, according to family lore. He died when my mother was three. My mother played that same fiddle in high school, what, maybe twelve years after he passed? I'm quite sure that she never even considered the humidity. My mother gave it to me twenty years ago, and I had a violin teacher at the university look at it. He said that it was drying out and that the back was separating, but that it was still playable, and I remember him playing it. I put it up on a shelf in the family room and hardly touched it. I never played it. It sat on that shelf for at least ten years, then went to the basement. A few weeks ago a friend who is learning to play violin went to tune it up, and the neck came off. He took it to a Violin Luthier, who said that the whole thing was dryed out and should be rebuilt, but that he could probably clean it up and glue the neck back on, and it might be playable.
We are talking one hundred years or more here. Just wondering how long it takes a ukulele to crack, separate, then become unplayable due to drying?
So here is my story. My grandfather was a fiddler, and he brought a fiddle back from France after WWI. He played it at dances and in bars. He was quite the fiddler and quite the carouser, according to family lore. He died when my mother was three. My mother played that same fiddle in high school, what, maybe twelve years after he passed? I'm quite sure that she never even considered the humidity. My mother gave it to me twenty years ago, and I had a violin teacher at the university look at it. He said that it was drying out and that the back was separating, but that it was still playable, and I remember him playing it. I put it up on a shelf in the family room and hardly touched it. I never played it. It sat on that shelf for at least ten years, then went to the basement. A few weeks ago a friend who is learning to play violin went to tune it up, and the neck came off. He took it to a Violin Luthier, who said that the whole thing was dryed out and should be rebuilt, but that he could probably clean it up and glue the neck back on, and it might be playable.
We are talking one hundred years or more here. Just wondering how long it takes a ukulele to crack, separate, then become unplayable due to drying?
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