A little advice please?

Hi,

I have a ukulele with a problem and wondered if I could draw on your collective experience and knowledge to what is the best way to remedy it..

I have a Pono Mahogany Tenor with a crack in the bottom left hand corner of the sound board. It was caused my (physical) pressure when in transit.. It definately goes through all the wood as there was a noticeable lip until a friend aligned the ridges together.. this makes it look better, but I am worried it will get worse- I have played it and it seemed to not get any worse but I think the winter/heating in the house is causing it to look a bit worse to my eyes. (It is less than a year old if that helps).

Could anyone advise on the best method of repair? or perhaps a luthier in southern Ireland could be useful?

Also, should I play it in this condition? It needs re-stringing and im worried when tensioning the strings it might crack more..



Thanks for your time,

Regards,

Joe

ukejoelele said:

perhaps a luthier in southern Ireland could be useful?

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I think you kind of answered your own question here. Much like you'd visit a physician to set a broken arm, you would do well to visit a luthier to mend a broken soundboard.

Sorry to hear of your damaged uke. I haven't had any personal experience with cracks, but I would get it stabilized by a local luthier (the sooner the better). To be safe, I would loosen the strings, and keep it in it's case with a humidifier. After it is fixed, you should be able to play it without much worry, and it should give you many more years of fun.

–Lori

Take the tension off the strings, and if you don't know how to repair it yourself, then take it to a luthier.

The repair itself isn't all that difficult to do, but does need to be done.

The repair needs to be done right. The first time. With perhaps a couple of cleats to support it.

Take the strings off until then.

Thanks for the replies, where I would like to learn the skill of repairing, as you say its prob a job for the pros -the thought of making things worse by attempting it hap-harzardly isnt a nice one! I have contacted a luthier in Dublin (awaiting response) and hopefully I can go down that road.. He's a guitar/mandolin luthier but does say he's worked on ukuleles... Otherwise if anyone knows of a contact in or around Ireland please p.m. me. In the meanwhile I've de-strung my uke and put it away with the humidifier as advised.

Thanks again,

Joe

I'm not so sure on the humidity advice. I'm not a repair guy so someone will correct me I'm sure. If I were attempting the repair I'd want to make sure the uke was pretty dry before doing so. Once it's repaired you'll have to watch the humidity to make sure it doesn't fall much below 50% or so. But until then I'd try to get that crack as open as is reasonable. Just my guess.

I get this kind of repair in my shop on a regular basis. Once I agree to do the work, I let the instrument acclimate to my shop environment for at least one week, longer if possible. My shop humidity level is always between 42 - 48%. I never know where the uke has been so that is why it is important to let the uke rest in a stable environment before it is worked on. I agree with Chuck that it should not be over humidified or left to get too dry. I don't know what the humidity levels are like in Ireland this time of year so use some common sense.