NUD Possible Humidity Issues

I received shipment of a ew KoAloha Opio acacia concert UKE today day. This is a beautiful instrument. However, the strings buzz up and down the neck. At first I thought poor quality control, but then I realize, it’s winter and it is dry. I hope humidifying it will correct the problem. I suspect there may be some shrinkage. The fret ends are not protruding. Hopefully, this will be a Simple fix. It’s a lovely instrument and i would hate to send it back. Anyone else having similar issues?

Tom

My experience is that a dry uke will tend to buzz. Apparently the neck arches backward as it dries out...just my theory. I've had it happen to a minor degree...just 1 or 2 wound strings near the nut. Aggressive humidifying has always solved the problem for me. By "aggressive" I mean putting a full OASIS (or even 2) in the sound hole and another humidifier by the neck...all in a good case of course. Since it has been so dry this winter I have made this my normal routine and not waited until I get string buzz. I also have an OASIS hygrometer in the case and check it regularly. I get "aggressive" when the humidity in the case has been dropping and reaches the 34% level. I like it to be between 40 and 50%. This is all the opinion of an amateur. I'd like to see some makers weigh in on this.

I would let seller know and try the aggressive humidifying. I live in low humidity, semi desert in Canada. I use Oasis in sound hole, himidipacks and recentlt added the humidistat device. I take no chances. I try to keep humidity between 40-50%. Today one of my Pono’s got down to 37 so added water to humidistat and Oasis in sound hole and added two fresh humidipak. You can’t be too careful. You might want to put Uke in a plaric bag with a few wet sponges in Tupperware containers to bring it back. Good luck. I live KoAloha tenors

Thank you all for the good advise. I turned on the shower steamed up the bathroom and let the ukulele set for an hour or so, and then repeated. After that I put a Herco Humidifier in the case (don’t have a oasis ukulele humidifier) and let it set for several hours. Checked it few minutes ago, still have some buzzing but not nearly as bad as when it arrived. I plan to leave it over night and check in the morning. I think it will be ok. I’m not worried about the seller. He is a good friend and will make it right if I can’t correct the problem.

Tom

Camsuke said:

Congratulations on the new uke Tom, lets hope it's a simple fix

Click to expand...

Thank you, Campbell. Might we be cousins?

Tc

I wouldn't bother humidifying. Regardless of weather conditions, a brand-new instrument should not be buzzing. You can't dry out that new acacia enough to cause this. Even if the dry conditions were causing the issue, (unlikely) and you can sufficiently humidify your new ukulele to alleviate it, (even more unlikely) this would be nothing but a temporary solution.You need to let the seller know it's unacceptable immediately.

Update: Ukulele returned to sender. It did not respond to aggressive humidifying. Steve, you were absolutely right. I exchanged it for a Pono Mango Tenor Deluxe.