Uke just arrived. How long to wait before unboxing?

Evan.

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(Not sure where to post this but couldn't find a similar thread and since I'm new here... I picked this sub forum.)

My first ukulele just arrived! It's a Mainland Mango Tenor. I got it from Mainland Ukes (great support) and it was shipped in a big box inside of a hard case that I also bought.

It's a really hot day here and my uke was on the UPS truck all day. The box was hot. I pulled the hardcase out of the box and took the plastic bag off of the hard case. I haven't opened the hard case yet.

My question: How long should I wait to open the case and how long should I wait to tune it to normal pitch?

I don't want to jolt it by bringing it into an air conditioned, cool house after a long hot journey. Am I being too cautious?
 
You have shown extraordinary patience. Open the darned box. (I don't really know if this is a good idea, but really? Grab that thing and play!)
 
Yes, you are showing a lot of patience. :)

I've never waited more than a couple hours. And I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but I think it's worse to open a freezing cold package in a hot house than vice versa.

Congrats on the arrival of your first! Pics are obligatory on a new uke day. :p
 
Ok. 2 hours have passed. I just opened the case. :drool:
I'll give it a few more minutes while I write this. Wow, it looks so much nicer than I expected.

Wow. ...wow!
 
Congratulations! Post some pics when you get a chance!
 
When receiving a package in very cold weather, it's wise to allow to leave the instrument in the box and let it acclimcate to the indoor temperature slowly. That's because the the wood and the finish will contract in the cold weather. If the instruments is exposed to warm temperatures quickly, it will expand back quickly-- the only problem being that the wood will expand faster than the finish, which can cause fine finish cracks known as crazing. If you see an instrument with spider web finish cracks, that's probably what happened.

The good news is, it's not so big a deal going from warm to cool. While it's never a good idea to submit your intrument to rapid climate changes, the risks of going from warm to cool are far less.
 
Martin guitars advise that when receiving one of theirs in the mail, leave it 24hrs!
 
We lost power due to the big storm and I haven't had a chance to respond with pics until now. If it's better to post pics in another location on the forum, please let me know.

For now, here's a quick link to my tumblr page with several shots taken the night I got it.

http://turnpagenow.tumblr.com/search/ukulele
 
That wood grain is just stunning! :) The mango, matte finish and amber buttons really go together well. I love my Mainland red cedar, but they only come in gloss. Given a choice, I would have opted for satin if it had been available.

Glad to hear you got your power back. At least you had something new and fun to entertain yourself with during the outage. We had a "wind event" that left us without power for 2-1/2 days a few months ago. I read the entire Dummies book I'd just gotten and when it got dark, I had a battery powered clip-on light for my music stand. My husband (the video game junkie) was jonesing the whole time, but I just switched gears and tried to make the best of it. :p

How are you liking it so far?
 
That wood grain is just stunning! :) The mango, matte finish and amber buttons really go together well. I love my Mainland red cedar, but they only come in gloss. Given a choice, I would have opted for satin if it had been available.

How are you liking it so far?

Thanks. I'd say "stunning" about captures it for me too. :) It far exceeds my expectations in just about all ways. I'm very happy. I think I wouldn't mind gloss body too much - but gloss necks can feel pretty sticky. The neck on mine is satin as well and it feels quite nice. I'll have to post a pic of the back if I didn't already. I hadn't seen (or heard) mango before so it was a little gamble for me that paid off big.

I really like the tone. I'm sure there will be plenty of better tone locked away, waiting for me to get better - but from what I'm able to hear at this point, I'm pretty happy.

I think learning some of Sanz pieces will be really fun on this. I just got Rob MacKillop's Sanz book in the mail today - so I'm excited about that too.
 
I think learning some of Sanz pieces will be really fun on this. I just got Rob MacKillop's Sanz book in the mail today - so I'm excited about that too.
That's a really good book IMO. My favorite is "Las Hachas", especially the second part where it really gets into campanella. So much fun to play! :)
 
That is a beautiful ukulele. The grain pattern reminds me of waves on a shoreline. Very nice indeed.
 
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