What happens when a uke "opens up"?

I searched the fora for this topic and, since nothing showed up, can someone explain what is physically happening when a uke "opens up'? Is is a time related phenomenon or dependent on the amount a uke is played?

Curiously yours,

Gillian

I'm guessing, but I think it's the amount played. Something about the vibrations.

When a uke opens up, it begins to share its honest thoughts and feelings. It's not easy to for most ukes to share intense emotions, so many ukes take a while to open up to a new person.

Sing lots of songs that express your own feelings with a new ukulele. The uke will be quickly grow more comfortable with you, and will soon open up.

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm also curious. I asked the flip side of this question in a thread on a 80+ yr. old uke that had not been played much: can the instrument/wood "close down"? I don't recall that anyone had an answer.

When the uke and you become one.

This topic was often discussed on the Acoustic Guitar forum. It has to do with the top vibrating from playing and the sound becoming better with time. www.acguitar.com Discussion forums.

I do like Ralf's explanation better though.

I've always taken it to be like breaking in a new pair of shoes. You bend them and flex them through wearing them and they become more comfortable once they've been worn in. They've adjusted to their use. They've reached their steady state, as it were.

JP

Solid instruments unlike laminates tend to crack. When they crack, that lets more of the sound out.

No one really knows why stringed instruments open up, but many have speculated as to the cause. Stew-Mac sells a product called a Tonerite that vibrates new instruments so that they open up, and it seems to work according to the reports I've seen. And, yes, instruments will "go to sleep" if left unplayed for a while. Interestingly, this phenomenon is not limited to wooden instruments. I have a carbon fiber mandolin that has opened up over time.

any time you build something you induce stress into that item
so at some point in time these stresses will either make the materials conform to the stresses or not when everything is settled it is done until new stresses are induced

Gillian said:

I searched the fora for this topic and, since nothing showed up, can someone explain what is physically happening when a uke "opens up'? Is is a time related phenomenon or dependent on the amount a uke is played?

Curiously yours,

Gillian

Click to expand...

Not sure what makes it happen but I'd recommend keeping your fingers away from the sound hole when it happens, those buggars grow a nasty set of teeth.

I've been using a ToneRite (guitar model, but it seems to work OK) for several months now and I think it has made a positive impact
on the instruments I've 'tonerite-d'.

I read somewhere that since the instrument is made of different pieces of wood (and whatnot) bonded together, that the constant
playing/vibrating tends to make the combination start vibrating as a whole, in sync as it were.

Anyway, I've used it on my favorites and beaters and I think it has made a positive impact.

I figure that if I can't play all the ukes all the time but I still want that 'broken-in' sound, that the ToneRite could do the job for me.
So far I'm pleased with the results I've gotten. As they say, it won't make a bad instrument good, just as good as it can be -per
its construction and materials.

I have a $7 tourist souvenir uke (Leolani-older model) that's a beater for me when I return to the Islands, and it's been on the
ToneRite for days on end and it's working. Sounds pretty good for a cheap (really cheap) laminate.

'nuf said,

Keep uke'in',

your mind opens up and you start appreciating the uke you bought was not that bad

How about leaving your uke in front of a stereo speaker and let it vibrate out...hmmm

That technique is at least 45 years old now...

So, from the responses so far, I'm imagining little microcracks in the glue, perhaps, allowing the parts of the uke to vibrate better? or perhaps the glue is contracting as it dries even more, pulling the parts of the uke together so they vibrate "as one"?

Don't overanalyze. Unless you want to, I mean.

I had a custom made last year. My luthier told me it would open up this year. Granted my hearing may not be the best, but I can't tell a difference. Doesn't mean the sound didn't change. It's been strummed and picked a bazillion times.

In my particular case it's going to be difficult to determine how much my ukulele has opened up. A year from now I will be a better player and the sounds I can produce from any given uke should be better than what I make today as a novice.

Apparently this question has been debated for many years in musical circles. For me personally, it doesn't much matter whether my ukulele has opened up or whether I've opened up. What matters is that we make more beautiful music as the weeks go by. I'm looking forward to that journey.

sukie said:

Don't overanalyze. Unless you want to, I mean.

I had a custom made last year. My luthier told me it would open up this year. Granted my hearing may not be the best, but I can't tell a difference. Doesn't mean the sound didn't change. It's been strummed and picked a bazillion times.

Click to expand...

This "opening up" should be measurable. I have several ukes, play them all the time, and I can't discern a difference in their sound either, so I'm approaching this phenomenon from a skeptical viewpoint. I can see it coming in useful to a seller who is trying to unload a mediocre sounding uke... "Oh, It'll sound much better when it opens up'.

What do people perceive when their ukes "open up"? more resonance? purer tones? longer sustains?

You will notice a considerable difference in the first day with strings on a brand new instrument. Then more though the first week and perhaps into the second. You don't even have to play it, just have the tension on, and the tone and responce changes.

From there it's generally a slower burn and you will not likely hear the difference from day to day, but perhaps week to week for the first few months. And depending on the species of wood, how it was braced. What it was braced with, the glue used etc. there will be subtle changes as the instrument gets older. Many instruments that don't jump out of the gates so to speak really come into their own a year down the track. Volume, sustain and clarity seem to be the most noticeable. Then depending on the instrument the subtle differences come out.

What causes this opening up.....well lots of things. First off it's all the parts of the instrument moving under string tension. Some parts going into compression, others into tension. Some parts pull up, others flatten out or even dip. Wood is rather elastic and this happens slowly but surely. Then there is the wood ageing as well as the glues.

I don't believe for one minute that the instrument needs to be played for it to open up as most people think. If that were the case then it wouldn't reverse the process if it was left unplayed for a time.

What playing (or sitting it in front of a speaker) does do is warm the instrument up. Gets all those wood molecules vibrating and causing heat. And anyone who has been in an orchestra knows that you don't go on stage without warming up your instrument (and yourself) by playing it for 15 - 20minutes before the curtains go up. After the show that instrument is sounding as good as it can, but let it sit for a day and come back to it. You'll need another 15 - 20 minutes of playing to get the same sound as before.