"Opening up with time"

GreyPoupon

GreyPoupon

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 20, 2008
Messages
189
Reaction score
4
Location
Westchester, NY
I often read that a solid wood uke will 'open up with time.' Which I assume means it will sound even stronger and fuller with more playing and time.

Question: How much time are we talking about?

Will it sound better after a few weeks? Months? Years?

And when does this opening up process come to a conclusion?

I've had a DeSilva uke for a few months now and this past week it just started sounding a couple of steps richer and I was wondering if this is the opening up process, or if I was just getting better at playing it - and was curious if this was just the start of more wonderful things to come, or the conclusion of this process.

???

Thankx in advance for the words of wisdom.
 
GreyPoupon said:
I often read that a solid wood uke will 'open up with time.' Which I assume means it will sound even stronger and fuller with more playing and time.

Question: How much time are we talking about?

Will it sound better after a few weeks? Months? Years?

And when does this opening up process come to a conclusion?

I've had a DeSilva uke for a few months now and this past week it just started sounding a couple of steps richer and I was wondering if this is the opening up process, or if I was just getting better at playing it - and was curious if this was just the start of more wonderful things to come, or the conclusion of this process.

???

Thankx in advance for the words of wisdom.
Click to expand...
Much of this depends upon the kind of wood the uke is made of and how much you play it. As far as a conclusion is concerned, it's hard to say....again it depends on what I just mentioned.
 
I agree that instrumentsd do open up with time but I truly believe it takes years not weeks or months to do so. I truly believe that those who own new ukuleles and say that it is opening up after a short period of time are just hearing the strings settle in and their ears and expectations get used to the sound the uke makes...thus its familair and sounds better to you soon but did the sound really change? i rather doubt it...This is my opinion and I may be wrong but i play alot of ukes and really have never noticed a drastic change in sound in a short period....Hmmmm But as a salesman maybe I should say

" oh dont worry It will open up in a week or so and you will love it" LOL
 
Spruce

Spruce seems to be more "closed" at first as compared to cedar. My Ko'olau is a 2002 and in 2004, after I thought it'd pretty much opened up, it took a giant step wider (I guess one would say).

Ukes are cool!...:)
 
MGM said:
...This is my opinion and I may be wrong but i play alot of ukes and really have never noticed a drastic change in sound in a short period....Hmmmm But as a salesman maybe I should say

" oh dont worry It will open up in a week or so and you will love it" LOL
Click to expand...

Have we all thanked you lately for being so open with all your knowledge, especially when you could just push products?
 
MGM said:
I agree that instrumentsd do open up with time but I truly believe it takes years not weeks or months to do so. I truly believe that those who own new ukuleles and say that it is opening up after a short period of time are just hearing the strings settle in and their ears and expectations get used to the sound the uke makes...thus its familair and sounds better to you soon but did the sound really change? i rather doubt it...This is my opinion and I may be wrong but i play alot of ukes and really have never noticed a drastic change in sound in a short period....Hmmmm But as a salesman maybe I should say

" oh dont worry It will open up in a week or so and you will love it" LOL
Click to expand...

Whole-heartily agree. They do open-up and years later, there is a huge difference.

I know some people that believe there is a short-term "settling" of the top and braces if you play an instrument a ton at the beginning, but there is no real evidence that it is more than what Mike says, the strings settling a bit and the player getting into it.

With guitars, it is even more noticable because the volume is greater and the top is much larger than ukulele, but listen to vintage Martins and compare to new ones. I remind people that give the new Martin the same duration of time the vintage ukes have been around and THEN they will be just as sweet.
 
Here's the latest of many contentious discussions on this subject to be posted over at Guitar Talk, the Acoustic Guitar Magazine forum:

http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=029750

Most of you have never heard a brand new instrument with strings on it for the first time ever. When you hear that and hear the first 24, 48, 72 hours, you'll become a believer. And then if you follow that same instrument and play it or vibrate it a lot for a few years, you'll know even more.

All this is one reason I tend to build slightly stiff...so the instruments will play into their ultimate tone and be properly balanced. If you build too loose, the instruments may become tubby sounding with age. I can now tell pretty much what a guitar or uke will sound like down the road when I've just strung it up, but it takes making a lot of instruments to get to this point.
 
Thanks Rick for sharing that link. This has been discussed before on this forum and I'm glad to see that there are others who not only believe but can hear their stringed instrument open up. I have a few ukes that I've heard open up. My newest uke started blossoming within a few months and now that its 1 year old, I can still hear the gradual changes, an in my case, the changes are improvements to my ear. The best way for me to describe the change is a fuller more "open" sound. I can even hear a difference in sound from when the uke first leaves the case to an hour or two into playing. Call me crazy, but that's what I hear.
 
I have a Koa Kamaka pineapple circa 1972 which was played plenty by previous owner, you can see ear on the fretboard and finish in neck. This 'ukulele is without a doubt my best sounding broken in very well with use.
 
Ukes may open up more slowly than guitars and mandolins. The lower tension nylon strings and the relatively low volume probably mean that the vibrations passing through the wood are less strong, but there is no doubt in my mind that solid wood acoustic instruments open up.

Not only do they open up over a long timescale (years), but with mandolins I experience a similar phenomenon which is known as "waking up". If I pick up a mandolin that hasn't been played for a while, it may sound a little dead, muffled or quiet until I've been beating on it for 20 minutes or so. After that warm up the instrument starts to sing. I haven't seen that with a uke yet, but I expect it happens to some degree.
 
Very cool.

Thanks all! That was as an impressive and an informed array of responses as one could possibly hope for!
 
I really think there is something to this "opening up".

I bought a KoAloha concert about a year ago and I play it every day. I keep thinking that it sounds a little richer and louder but then think I am just making myself hear that......then the other day my wife who is not a player suddenly says "your uke sounds a lot better". I asked what was different and she said it sounds louder and warmer. She has never played and instrument and has never heard of instruments "opening up".

I got a vintage Martin that hadn't been played in 30+ years, strung it up, and have played it daily for about three months. At first it sounded kind of dull but after a while it really sounds amazing. Louder, brighter....

Might be the strings like MGM says....but something has changed on both of those ukes!
 
My anecdotal thing is that I've got two Koaloha concerts made a couple months apart.
One was apparently played a lot. There's wear on the first three frets and some finger oil staining. It was played.
The other one somebody bought on a trip to Hawaii and then spent most of its life sitting in the case.

The one that was played a lot definitely has a much deeper richer tone than the one that sat in the case. It has a lot more mojo, if you will.

Currently I try and do all my practicing on the less played one to see if I can bring out the same qualities in it. Time will tell.

As it is there is a pretty stark difference in tonal qualities between the two at least to my ear. Whether that's due to the vagaries of wood and build variation or "opening up" I can't say. I want to be skeptical, but...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
New Uke Opening Up
2 3
Replies
45
Views
2K
Oldscruggsfan
Oldscruggsfan
U
Myth, magic, truth...ukulele "opening up"
7 8 9
Replies
175
Views
10K
kissing
kissing
Loska
New ukulele and opening the box
Replies
4
Views
392
Loska
Loska
A
aNueNue USA Grand Opening!!!!!!!!!
2 3 4
Replies
65
Views
8K
chenx2
C
A
Baseball songs for (not) opening day
Replies
3
Views
2K
dgame
dgame
Top Bottom