Hey All,
Bighead here...and I'm not here to stir anything up and I know the Mele thread has been closed so I cannot respond to the many posts since I last visited. I gave up long ago thinking that I'd get my Uke replaced so I set about trying to repair it from a very cool video someone posted on the closed thread. In order to re-humidify the koa uke, I placed two moistened dampits in the instrument and replaced them every two days, putting the uke back in it's case. I have been monitoring the cracks in the uke and they have been greatly reduced over the last two weeks! I am encouraged! I'm planning on continuing this method until the cracks are completely closed (or as close as I can get to it). I'll be happy to post new photos comparing the uke before and after. I imagine I'll take it to a luthier to sand down the cracks once I'm satisfied it has absorbed all the moisture it can. I'd like to thank the poster of that cool video but I can't seem to find him on the closed thread. To answer a few questions, I am Lenie Colacino, an original member of the Broadway show Beatlemania and I still play Paul in the Cast of Beatlemania. Among the various hollow bodied instruments in my humidified room are five hollow bodied Hofner basses, One vintage (1963) Hofner 6 string, a couple of Epiphone Casinos, a Gibson ES 345 (1970), a Martin D-28, and a Blueridge BR-160 to name a few. I'm not going to say one more word about the Mele company as I'm just gonna try to bring the uke back to some level of playability and I believe I'm on the right track. It was not my intention to ruffle any feathers, rather to tell my experience with my uke.
Thanks to all,
LenieC
Bighead here...and I'm not here to stir anything up and I know the Mele thread has been closed so I cannot respond to the many posts since I last visited. I gave up long ago thinking that I'd get my Uke replaced so I set about trying to repair it from a very cool video someone posted on the closed thread. In order to re-humidify the koa uke, I placed two moistened dampits in the instrument and replaced them every two days, putting the uke back in it's case. I have been monitoring the cracks in the uke and they have been greatly reduced over the last two weeks! I am encouraged! I'm planning on continuing this method until the cracks are completely closed (or as close as I can get to it). I'll be happy to post new photos comparing the uke before and after. I imagine I'll take it to a luthier to sand down the cracks once I'm satisfied it has absorbed all the moisture it can. I'd like to thank the poster of that cool video but I can't seem to find him on the closed thread. To answer a few questions, I am Lenie Colacino, an original member of the Broadway show Beatlemania and I still play Paul in the Cast of Beatlemania. Among the various hollow bodied instruments in my humidified room are five hollow bodied Hofner basses, One vintage (1963) Hofner 6 string, a couple of Epiphone Casinos, a Gibson ES 345 (1970), a Martin D-28, and a Blueridge BR-160 to name a few. I'm not going to say one more word about the Mele company as I'm just gonna try to bring the uke back to some level of playability and I believe I'm on the right track. It was not my intention to ruffle any feathers, rather to tell my experience with my uke.
Thanks to all,
LenieC
