Skitzic
Well-known member
Hello my ukulele building comrades! I originally posted this in Uke Talk, but I figured I would get the insight of some luthiers as well.
I picked up a 1927 (that's what the guy said, I cannot confirm nor deny) tiple. It needs quite a bit of work, I'm not even sure if it's fixable. It would need nut. Someone swapped out the nut for a hunk of wood made for 4 strings. They also filed 4 slots into the bridge for the strings, but it looks like it takes a saddle, and with a saddle one wouldn't have to worry about the slots on the bridge right?. Neck is straight, but needs to be reset (obviously). Frets are really worn. A chunk of bracing fell off, it's the one right above the sound hole. The plastic around the sound hole is falling off, and the cracks all appear to go through. The big crack looks like it may go under the bridge (which has obviously been reset).
I sent out a few emails to various restoration people, only one got back to me and he said it wasn't worth repairing because I wouldn't make my money back on resale. He did not respond to my request for a ball park figure.
I don't want to give up on the thing, but at the same time I can't spend thousands of dollars trying to get it playable.
I've just linked to the photos, they're all quite large.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0251.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0252.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0257.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0258.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0259.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0260.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0261.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0262.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0263.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0264.jpg
I picked up a 1927 (that's what the guy said, I cannot confirm nor deny) tiple. It needs quite a bit of work, I'm not even sure if it's fixable. It would need nut. Someone swapped out the nut for a hunk of wood made for 4 strings. They also filed 4 slots into the bridge for the strings, but it looks like it takes a saddle, and with a saddle one wouldn't have to worry about the slots on the bridge right?. Neck is straight, but needs to be reset (obviously). Frets are really worn. A chunk of bracing fell off, it's the one right above the sound hole. The plastic around the sound hole is falling off, and the cracks all appear to go through. The big crack looks like it may go under the bridge (which has obviously been reset).
I sent out a few emails to various restoration people, only one got back to me and he said it wasn't worth repairing because I wouldn't make my money back on resale. He did not respond to my request for a ball park figure.
I don't want to give up on the thing, but at the same time I can't spend thousands of dollars trying to get it playable.
I've just linked to the photos, they're all quite large.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0251.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0252.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0257.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0258.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0259.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0260.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0261.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0262.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0263.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/Skitzic/Tiple%20Project/DSCN0264.jpg