Humidity Recommendations

Aloha!

I am pretty new to Ukulele's but within the past two years I bought two Ukulele's both to play and display. We live in Minnesota but our hearts are in Hawaii so we've decorated out Living Room and Dining Room in a Hawaiian theme. Part of that has us displaying the Ukulele's on the wall. The two Ukulele's we have are solid woods Mango and Koa, the Koa being the most recent addtion.

Dispite using a cord humidifier, the Mango Ukulele developed a surface crack on the the face of the body from the bridge to the edge with the grain. The crack disapears in the summer months and repairs in the winter. We want to continue to display the beautiful instruments and I definately don't want the same thing to happen to the Koa instrument. So the question is, I am thinking of getting a room humidifier and placing it under the Ukulele's for the winter. How effective do you think this would be and do you have any other recommendations other than leaving them in a case with a case humidifier.

Finally, I am looking into getting the Mango Ukulele reapired. I have contacted the manufacturer but they have not responded yet. Any recommendations for repair on the mainland if I don't hear back from them?

Mahalo!:shaka:

you can get 'sound hole tube' humidifiers which hang on top of the strings of the uke but don't give humidity coverage to the neck or fretboard. there's a couple of other types like sponge and gel but all in all these are meant to be used inside a case. as humidity is relative to the enclosed space. room humidifiers aren't generally good enough if you live in a dry region - the room may be an enclosed space but it's still so large that it contains air gaps. i think you want humidity somewhere between 45%-55%. i suppose a room humidifier might do the trick if you're not in a particularly arid place (i don't really know america) this is just stuff i've picked up online. no doubt there's somebody here who can offer some REAL expertise - so wait for them :shaka: all the best!

i can't help with the repair of the mango but again - someone here will know a lot more than me hope you get it sorted!

Try this article by Daniel Yong called "Maintaining Relative Humidity Levels for Ukuleles.” The link is at the end or go the files page.

What we've done is get a humidity gauge and make sure to run a humidifier through the winter. We keep all our ukes in one room.

What I did this last winter was keep the humidifier running so that things stayed between 45% & 60% and I'd open up the cases every day and let the ukes breathe it all in. It's worked so far.

since you want to display them, how about making or purchasing a display case that way you can control the humidity and set it up to dramatically show off your ukes?! I'll bet it can be done reasonably and your intruments will really appreciate the care.

Mahalo for the link, I see a lot of valuable information there.

Regarding a case on the wall, I'll have to consider that. While I love to look at them I am thinking the safest place for them is in the case with the humidifier. Just glancing at the article it doesn't sound real practical to do the entire room primairly based on the room size. I do have a whole house humidifier on the furnace that can help but my big problem is probably the size and location since we get the front door open to the space.