Ukulele Boneyard

So I am currently out of town and as usual, have brought my uke with me. After checking in and noodling around with the uke for a while, it decided to jump out of my hands and the darnedest thing happened... the floor decided to hit my uke square on the binding.

Since Luthiers are far and few in between where I live, the repair will cost almost the price of a new uke so I guess this is heading to the "Wall of fame" / " boneyard".

I was hoping for just a finishing crack.. but when I prod the damaged area, it keeps making popping and cracking noises and is rather soft to the touch.....

Anyone else have boneyard stories to share?

Ouch!!!! No stories to share here...knock on, ahem, wood!

Sorry for your mishap!!!

YIKES! Looks like the top is cracked and lifting away from the binding...

So sorry this happened. Worry about things like this are also why I always have a strap in use, for I dont trust myself to not drop it.

Hopefully you have another uke to play until you can get that repaired somewhere?

In another thread, Rappsy (Lenny) has mentioned luthier Todd Mylet of Portland Fret Works, in Portland, Oregon and many folks have said he is very good as well, but I have no experience with him.

see http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...tory-Perhaps-the-most-interesting-thread-EVER

Maybe it's worth at least contacting him to see about the cost etc? Can't hurt to have a second opinion, no?

How does it play/sound now? Boneyard player?

Booli said:

YIKES! Looks like the top is cracked and lifting away from the binding...

So sorry this happened. Worry about things like this are also why I always have a strap in use, for I dont trust myself to not drop it.

Hopefully you have another uke to play until you can get that repaired somewhere?

In another thread, Rappsy (Lenny) has mentioned luthier Todd Mylet of Portland Fret Works, in Portland, Oregon and many folks have said he is very good as well, but I have no experience with him.

see http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...tory-Perhaps-the-most-interesting-thread-EVER

Maybe it's worth at least contacting him to see about the cost etc? Can't hurt to have a second opinion, no?

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Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I live in South East Asia and return shipping will cost a fair bit. The crack in back of the uke.

deschutestrout said:

How does it play/sound now? Boneyard player?

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Plays just fine for now. As to sound, It sounds like a little resonance and bass was lost. After prodding the crack and realigning the pieces, it sounds better...but it does separate throughout the day and I'm afraid the constant realigning will cause the split to grow.

About 2 weeks after I bought my Kala KAATP-CTG-CE tenor cutaway, wearing it with a temporary makeshift strap, I slung it around my back while walking across the rehearsal room and the tail end of the strap came off, bang, the uke hit the hard floor. It sustained a finish crunch on the binding of the lower front bout and the same on the top corner of the headstock. Did not damage the wood, but you can be sure as soon as rehearsal was over I ran over McCabe's and bought a good strap, as I have for all my ukes. In fact, I have a separate strap for all my instruments because I didn't want to take the chance of the strap holes loosing by moving it from instrument to instrument.

buganeal said:

So I am currently out of town and as usual, have brought my uke with me. After checking in and noodling around with the uke for a while, it decided to jump out of my hands and the darnedest thing happened... the floor decided to hit my uke square on the binding.

Since Luthiers are far and few in between where I live, the repair will cost almost the price of a new uke so I guess this is heading to the "Wall of fame" / " boneyard".

I was hoping for just a finishing crack.. but when I prod the damaged area, it keeps making popping and cracking noises and is rather soft to the touch.....

Anyone else have boneyard stories to share?

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Yes.

To be continued.


(I have to go take a pic of it I'll be back. You'll feel better. Much better).

This is just one of the many reasons my primary Ukes are a Flea and a Fluke. When I drop one, it bounces!

Deeply sorry for your loss, but this could be a great opportunity to dabble in some do-it-yourself luthierie.


Scooter

It's a perfect excuse to buy a new uke though. Do this before you look into fixing it though, in case it's cheap to fix and your excuse to indulge in a bit of UAS vanishes.

When I was a kid I used to mess about with model airplanes (the kind that fly.) So when a cousin had a free fight plane crash into his back yard I fixed it up well enough that we too managed to lose it (the last we saw of it, it was about a thousand feet up and climbing in a thermal.) It was balsa wood and all I did was glue on some nylon patches with Duco glue and warp the wings with steam so it would glide correctly. So, take some pictures of your little accident (inside and out,) post them on the Luthiers Lounge and ask for some DIY advice. If you all you want is that the uke works and doesn't creep anybody out with how ugly the fix is then they might be able to get you through this. It doesn't hurt anything giving a do it yourself fix if you get professional advice because as you said the uke is headed for the bone yard anyway...

-- Gary

I have fixed a fair number of cracks following instructions offered by a luthier friend of mine. You will need a bar clamp, some rare earth magnets and wood glue. Press the glue into the crack, all along the crack. Use the bar clamp to pull the crack closed from side to side. Glue will squeeze out on the top, so you should wipe it off with a damp rag. Don't worry about any thin layer of residue remaining; you can clean that off after it dries. Use the magnets, inside and on the top to clamp the crack so that the wood is even on either side of the crack. Here is a video demonstration of the use of rare earth magnets I've described. The luthier in the video is installing a cleat. You probably don't need one. Anyway, the method is the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afGrReRWbD4

Because the sound hole on the ukulele is small, it is unlikely that you will be able to get your hand inside to position the magnet. What I have done is center the magnet over the crack on top, and drop the other magnet inside the ukulele while holding the magnet on top in place. The magnets are strong enough that the inside magnet will snap into place.

Let it dry. Remove the bar clamp first. Then, carefully remove the top magnet and the inside magnet should drop. You can then shake it out. If it doesn't drop because the glue is holding it in, you can poke at it with some kind of tool, like a screw driver, to release it. Use a damp rag, or if necessary, a damp kitchen sponge with a slightly abrasive side, to clean any remaining glue residue off of the top. Wood glue will not stick permanently to most finishes, so you shouldn't have difficulty cleaning it up.

It probably sounds more complicated than it really is. It's actually fairly easy to do.

Good luck!

I have a soprano which had a big crack in the back, the back lifting away in two places, and a small crack in the front. White wood glue sorted all the cracks except the front which I ran thin superglue down. It was never going to look great as the cracks were way to big to ever be invisible, so I decided it was an opportunity to do something a bit unusual! By the way - it now plays beautifully, and I love it! Oh and I used sellotape over paper towel to hold each crack closed, I did one crack at a time, and used a few heavy books for more pressure....
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I'd mask around it, wick some thin CA glue into the cracks, scrape back to the finish (not through it) when dry then buff it. It might not hide the crack but it would fill and stabilise it.

I would avoid CA glue, and use hot hide glue instead (it's easier than you think). Clamp well, and the rest of the instructions above are perfect (first mask, dry-fit, then glue-and-clamp, scrape back, buff).

Also, if that length-wise crack is wiggly, I would consider glueing a small piece of wood on the inside.

It looks like a rather thick PU finish, so it probably will still look the same as now, but it will be much more stable.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I will try the DIY repair when I get back and until then will do more reading up!

Does the damage seem to have any effect on the sound? You didn't say. If it's not buzzing or the sound isn't diminished, why the boneyard? A crack on the back doesn't revoke its license to make music.

stevepetergal said:

Does the damage seem to have any effect on the sound? You didn't say. If it's not buzzing or the sound isn't diminished, why the boneyard? A crack on the back doesn't revoke its license to make music.

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It resonates less and has slightly less bass... still plays fine for now.. but every few hours I have to realign the crack and it will probably continue cracking if I keep doing that. So If I were to send it to a local luthier, It will be cheaper to just buy another uke.. hence the boneyard. It never dawned on me to try a DIY fix. If that fails, the worst case scenario is still "the boneyard".

Debussychopin said:

Yes.

To be continued.


(I have to go take a pic of it I'll be back. You'll feel better. Much better).

Click to expand...

This is my brand new Francisco Navarro student classical guitar. Luthier in paracho Mexico. Not my most expensive guitar, not by a long shot, but I loved this guitar and after only owning it for more than a week I stupidly tried to go catch it while it slipped off my chair and by doing so it bounced off my hands into the air about head level before it bounced once on my hardwood laminate floor and bounced a second time splitting it cleanly in half.

A guitar center guy believes it can be fixed since it is somewhat a clean break. But I was so sad.

Ouch - that looks horrible . But it also looks fixable. A few years ago a friend of mine reversed his car over his cello. Although it was in a case it was no match for an estate car.... Fortunately it was insured and in spite of a lot of damage to the body it was restored beautifully - you honestly could not see where the damage had been.