DougNC
Well-known member
Good News! See #26: Sunken belly on my OU7T!
My Oscar Schmidt Spalted Mango OU7T was my first uke (just a short 6 months ago) and I still love it. Since it is laminate construction, I didn't have any concern with keeping it out all of the time.
I picked it up to play one night and noticed that the string action seemed much lower than usual, but I just passed that off as poor recollection. As I played it I realized the C string, fretted at the first fret, had a terrible buzz.
After a thorough inspection, I discovered that the belly of the uke has sunken in. It's as though the bridge was built on a sinkhole. From my guitar experience I know this can be a symptom of a severely dehydrated wood instrument, so I am "super-hydrating" it in a spare guitar case. I haven't found any loose braces yet, but we'll see after I've hydrated it for a few days. I've got 2 full-size sponges in plastic bags (with small holes punched in them) inside the case too. I'll give it a couple of days before I will check it.
My question is: how is it that a laminate instrument would be so susceptible to shrinkage from low humidity? I thought laminate was very stable and resistant to low/high humidity conditions that can severely affect solid wood instruments. And the OU7T is solidly built (some say it is over-built) so it seems even less likely this should have happened.
What do you think?
Doug
My Oscar Schmidt Spalted Mango OU7T was my first uke (just a short 6 months ago) and I still love it. Since it is laminate construction, I didn't have any concern with keeping it out all of the time.
I picked it up to play one night and noticed that the string action seemed much lower than usual, but I just passed that off as poor recollection. As I played it I realized the C string, fretted at the first fret, had a terrible buzz.
After a thorough inspection, I discovered that the belly of the uke has sunken in. It's as though the bridge was built on a sinkhole. From my guitar experience I know this can be a symptom of a severely dehydrated wood instrument, so I am "super-hydrating" it in a spare guitar case. I haven't found any loose braces yet, but we'll see after I've hydrated it for a few days. I've got 2 full-size sponges in plastic bags (with small holes punched in them) inside the case too. I'll give it a couple of days before I will check it.
My question is: how is it that a laminate instrument would be so susceptible to shrinkage from low humidity? I thought laminate was very stable and resistant to low/high humidity conditions that can severely affect solid wood instruments. And the OU7T is solidly built (some say it is over-built) so it seems even less likely this should have happened.
What do you think?
Doug
Last edited: