Cleaning Inside a Ukulele?

This is going to be an odd and embarrassing question, but I recently noticed that there was a fair bit of me accumulating inside of my new ebony-bodied ukulele. Mostly I think it is bits of dandruff from my beard (eww gross, I know.) Peering in through the sound hole I can clearly see the dark wood of the back is unevenly speckled with hundreds of tiny me-bits.

Turning the uke over and shaking does not appear to dislodge them at all. So far the sound of the instrument does not seem affected, but given the current situation after only after only six weeks or so I fear it might become truly ghastly over the course of years.

Has anyone else ever found this to be an issue? I must not be the only person that sheds while playing. Is there an accepted method for reaching in there and cleaning this up without damaging anything?

MopMan, I once bought a uke from a fellow forum member, and noticed when I received it that the prior owner had apparently been a cat lover, which of course is great, but a fair amount of cat hair had found its way down into the sound hole. So I simply removed all the strings (wanted to do a string change anyway) and used the long narrow "crevice" attachment of my vacuum cleaner to suck it all out of there; worked very nicely! (P.S. With all that dandruff in there, I'll bet the sound of that uke is Head 'n Shoulders above your other ones...)

A common method that doesn't require string removal is to take a handful of rice and insert it in the soundhole , then shake it around for a bit, making sure it reaches everyplace. When you subsequently dump it out the soundhole, all sorts of lint and grunge will come out with it. Oh, and make sure the rice is uncooked. ;-)

(LOL and groaning at "Head 'n Shoulders" comment above.)

bratsche

I have used rice to clean a guitar. Since you have a dark coloured uke I’d suggest a handful of dark coloured rice.

bratsche said:

A common method that doesn't require string removal is to take a handful of rice and insert it in the soundhole , then shake it around for a bit, making sure it reaches everyplace. When you subsequently dump it out the soundhole, all sorts of lint and grunge will come out with it. Oh, and make sure the rice is uncooked. ;-)

(LOL and groaning at "Head 'n Shoulders" comment above.)

bratsche

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More groaning than laughing, I'm guessing, Bratsche...

If it has a pickup, be wary not to loosen any wires or under saddle pickup with a vacuum or shaking rice- a- roni in it.

First, I’m not sure it’s you. There’s dust everywhere and maybe because of the color of the wood, you just see it more. Do you store the Uke with the sound hole pointing up when it’s not being played?

As to cleaning it, I might just hold it upside down and compress some air in there. I have a camera lens blower that might be perfect for that application. I don’t know about a can of compressed air. Maybe a bit too violent?

Bill Sheehan said:

MopMan, I once bought a uke from a fellow forum member, and noticed when I received it that the prior owner had apparently been a cat lover, which of course is great, but a fair amount of cat hair had found its way down into the sound hole. So I simply removed all the strings (wanted to do a string change anyway) and used the long narrow "crevice" attachment of my vacuum cleaner to suck it all out of there; worked very nicely! (P.S. With all that dandruff in there, I'll bet the sound of that uke is Head 'n Shoulders above your other ones...)

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Haha--Head 'n Shoulders above, indeed! I blame David Ingalls for that rather than my shedding issue. But props to you for the zinger!:rotfl:

Interesting idea using the vacuum cleaner edging attachment. Seems like it could be dangerous but with care it might work.

bratsche said:

A common method that doesn't require string removal is to take a handful of rice and insert it in the soundhole , then shake it around for a bit, making sure it reaches everyplace. When you subsequently dump it out the soundhole, all sorts of lint and grunge will come out with it. Oh, and make sure the rice is uncooked. ;-)

Click to expand...

Lacole said:

I have used rice to clean a guitar. Since you have a dark coloured uke I’d suggest a handful of dark coloured rice.

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Interesting idea with shaking rice around in there... this is something that is a recommended procedure? I guess uncooked rice grains are soft enough that they wouldn't scratch anything up so it wouldn't hurt too much to try it.

To clean out desktop computers, I use an 18in length of garden hose with one end wrapped with tape so it plugs into the hose of a vacuum cleaner. I'll use the same thing on my ukes when needed. The hose will squeeze in between the strings and the sound hole, so no need to remove strings. The soft hose will cause no scratches.

Cool. Thanks for the recommendations, guys.