lifereinspired
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2018
- Messages
- 72
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I was sitting on the sofa the other day when I heard a strange popping noise immediately followed by something falling on the floor. Being engrossed in life at that moment, I didn’t investigate right then but noticed a piece of what I thought was plastic on the floor of my bedroom a little later. The piece was small but looked immediately familiar and had really easily seen numbers embossed on it. I kept running the numbers through my head trying to remember where I knew them from when it hit me, this looked like the graphite bridge piece from my ukulele. When I looked up at my four month old uke hanging next to my bed, with horror I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. All the strings were hanging down attached to another piece of wood or graphite. As this was finally coming into focus (for those few seconds that felt like an age, I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing!), I realized that the entire bridge setup had completely popped off - and this was what I had heard from the other room. Now, I’ve not played this new uke very much (not that that should matter, a four month old uke shouldn’t just fall apart) and it’s been in hanging in my apartment the entire time at 68-74 degrees, never lower and I’ve never taken it anywhere. This despite the fact that it actually is sold as being a take anywhere, strong, stable, temperature impervious, rugged uke.
Now, I’m not trying to bash any manufacturer. I get it, stuff happens. But I’m a new uke player. While technically I’ve been playing about 9 or 10 months, because of health issues and 9 surgeries between my spouse and I in the last year, my actual “play time” is quite a bit less than that and I’m no luthier. When looking at the build, I could see two small holes in the body of the uke that went just partway through the body (not all the way through) but I could see nothing that actually went into those holes from the bridge or other pieces that make it up. Meaning, it appears that it was only glue that held it in place, which kind of surprised me. I even wondered if I could have been wrong and the two little nubs that might have existed to hold into those shallow holes could have sheared off when the bridge fell off but I looked all over the bedroom floor and saw no signs that they ever even existed. I’m mentioning this because this even has me scared. A lot. It happened now at 4 months old with very little play. What happens if it does it at 1 year or 2? Or 4 or 5...when it will be much harder if not impossible to get the manufacturer to stand behind it. This uke was a gift and by the time all the little add-ons that were additional charges added up, it was a pricey uke (for me). Quite a bit more than I had originally intended. I don’t have unlimited funds and invested in this (birthday gift) because it was supposed to last forever and be impervious to travel, weather, etc - a rugged option I’d never have to worry about in our climate that’s hard on traditional wooden instruments.
So, I need your advice and expertise. What do I do? Obviously, I need to reach out to the manufacturer to ask them to make this right. But what exactly is that at this point? Is this a design defect? Again, I’m NO luthier and have precisely 0 experience with ukulele design but I would think that anything with as much tension as the bridge setup has on it, couldn’t hold well with only glue and would be questionable with the shallow holes/nubs and glue (if it indeed actually used those). Not that it should matter as no warning was given on which type of strings to use or not to use, but I did not use high tension strings on it (in fact, wanted to avoid high tension so went for the lower tension I could find to try to make it easier to play because I was surprised that I had some difficulty playing it just because of the higher action than my other uke and the higher tension strings). My worry is the underlying cause. Was this just an very unlucky incident? A poorly made uke (that just somehow made it through quality checks)? Or is it a design defect or at least poor design choice? Should I accept that they just repair my broken uke or would you be asking for an entirely new one at just four month old? Or, would you trust any uke that broke this quickly? I’m not trying to be overly dramatic with this statement but when one pays extra to buy a uke that’s durable and rugged so they don’t have to worry about something like this, it kind of shakes you about the whole thing.
Anyway, I’m obviously down about the whole thing and being a newbie to such things, I really wanted to try to learn fron this amazing community and ask for your advice and expertise as to what to expect, what you would do, and how you’d go about sorting this out (before I just start in on my own). Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks so much in advance!
PS Below are some attached photos for a quick look but I couldn’t get them to show up in a high enough resolution to show detail. So, here is also a link to the photos below (and some more) so you can see them more clearly, if that’s helpful (no signup or sign-in required to view):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FZQQFiUsobCtHYeu7
EDIT: I’ve added some additional information in post #7 below: https://forum.ukuleleunderground.co...-bridge-setup-FELL-OFF!&p=2127613#post2127613
Now, I’m not trying to bash any manufacturer. I get it, stuff happens. But I’m a new uke player. While technically I’ve been playing about 9 or 10 months, because of health issues and 9 surgeries between my spouse and I in the last year, my actual “play time” is quite a bit less than that and I’m no luthier. When looking at the build, I could see two small holes in the body of the uke that went just partway through the body (not all the way through) but I could see nothing that actually went into those holes from the bridge or other pieces that make it up. Meaning, it appears that it was only glue that held it in place, which kind of surprised me. I even wondered if I could have been wrong and the two little nubs that might have existed to hold into those shallow holes could have sheared off when the bridge fell off but I looked all over the bedroom floor and saw no signs that they ever even existed. I’m mentioning this because this even has me scared. A lot. It happened now at 4 months old with very little play. What happens if it does it at 1 year or 2? Or 4 or 5...when it will be much harder if not impossible to get the manufacturer to stand behind it. This uke was a gift and by the time all the little add-ons that were additional charges added up, it was a pricey uke (for me). Quite a bit more than I had originally intended. I don’t have unlimited funds and invested in this (birthday gift) because it was supposed to last forever and be impervious to travel, weather, etc - a rugged option I’d never have to worry about in our climate that’s hard on traditional wooden instruments.
So, I need your advice and expertise. What do I do? Obviously, I need to reach out to the manufacturer to ask them to make this right. But what exactly is that at this point? Is this a design defect? Again, I’m NO luthier and have precisely 0 experience with ukulele design but I would think that anything with as much tension as the bridge setup has on it, couldn’t hold well with only glue and would be questionable with the shallow holes/nubs and glue (if it indeed actually used those). Not that it should matter as no warning was given on which type of strings to use or not to use, but I did not use high tension strings on it (in fact, wanted to avoid high tension so went for the lower tension I could find to try to make it easier to play because I was surprised that I had some difficulty playing it just because of the higher action than my other uke and the higher tension strings). My worry is the underlying cause. Was this just an very unlucky incident? A poorly made uke (that just somehow made it through quality checks)? Or is it a design defect or at least poor design choice? Should I accept that they just repair my broken uke or would you be asking for an entirely new one at just four month old? Or, would you trust any uke that broke this quickly? I’m not trying to be overly dramatic with this statement but when one pays extra to buy a uke that’s durable and rugged so they don’t have to worry about something like this, it kind of shakes you about the whole thing.
Anyway, I’m obviously down about the whole thing and being a newbie to such things, I really wanted to try to learn fron this amazing community and ask for your advice and expertise as to what to expect, what you would do, and how you’d go about sorting this out (before I just start in on my own). Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks so much in advance!
PS Below are some attached photos for a quick look but I couldn’t get them to show up in a high enough resolution to show detail. So, here is also a link to the photos below (and some more) so you can see them more clearly, if that’s helpful (no signup or sign-in required to view):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FZQQFiUsobCtHYeu7
EDIT: I’ve added some additional information in post #7 below: https://forum.ukuleleunderground.co...-bridge-setup-FELL-OFF!&p=2127613#post2127613
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