Background: I was a military brat, in the late ’60 my family was stationed on Oahu. We lived in military housing in Aiea on the north shore of Pearl Harbor. I spent 3-5th grade at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary where shoes were optional. Like most elementary schools in those days there was the mandatory music class. At Pearl Harbor Kai it consisted of a local gentleman and a room full of kids with ‘ukuleles playing a three chord version of the Hukilau Song and King of the Road over and over. My mom thought it would be nice to have a uke at home for me to play and as a remembrance of our time there. She bought a pretty one with a tiki on it. After that, Dad retired and we moved to Northern Minnesota and then Northern Wisconsin. In the ’70 in the northern Midwest teens were playing guitar not ukes so the poor tiki was off to the closet.
A year and a half ago my wife and I went to Oahu to do a midwinter thaw. After we got back she bought me a uke for my birthday and I was once again hooked. I joined UU and quickly found out just what that tiki represented. Neither my folks nor my brother claimed to know the whereabouts of the uke. Last December my brother found it while digging in his basement. It had some major cracks from 45 years of neglect.
With two big cracks by the bridge I was afraid that I might rip a big piece of the soundboard off if I tuned it up. There were other cracks in the top, soundboard, fretboard, back and side. The tiki had lost his legs somewhere along the way.
MMStan (MM = much mahaloz in this case!) advised me to call Tekla at Kamaka and get the factory to do the repairs. Back to Honolulu it goes. They were able to save the top, of which I am grateful. It would be a shame to have a 1 year old soundboard on a 45 year old uke.
It arrived today and I hope the finish is drool resistant. The Kamaka factory did a super job. It won’t win any beauty prizes. It has had a rough live between a young me and then my brother's kids toting it around like a toy but I am just very grateful that they could turn what could have been a wall hanging into a wonderfully playing instrument.
I would post a vid or sound bite but my Apple miniMac is too old for any current devices to work and my iPad is first generation. Besides, I couldn’t do it justice.
A big thank you to everyone that helped, I’m taking the rest of the day off!
The Bridge before/after
Soundhole before/after
A year and a half ago my wife and I went to Oahu to do a midwinter thaw. After we got back she bought me a uke for my birthday and I was once again hooked. I joined UU and quickly found out just what that tiki represented. Neither my folks nor my brother claimed to know the whereabouts of the uke. Last December my brother found it while digging in his basement. It had some major cracks from 45 years of neglect.
With two big cracks by the bridge I was afraid that I might rip a big piece of the soundboard off if I tuned it up. There were other cracks in the top, soundboard, fretboard, back and side. The tiki had lost his legs somewhere along the way.
MMStan (MM = much mahaloz in this case!) advised me to call Tekla at Kamaka and get the factory to do the repairs. Back to Honolulu it goes. They were able to save the top, of which I am grateful. It would be a shame to have a 1 year old soundboard on a 45 year old uke.
It arrived today and I hope the finish is drool resistant. The Kamaka factory did a super job. It won’t win any beauty prizes. It has had a rough live between a young me and then my brother's kids toting it around like a toy but I am just very grateful that they could turn what could have been a wall hanging into a wonderfully playing instrument.
I would post a vid or sound bite but my Apple miniMac is too old for any current devices to work and my iPad is first generation. Besides, I couldn’t do it justice.
A big thank you to everyone that helped, I’m taking the rest of the day off!
The Bridge before/after
Soundhole before/after
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I hope you get many more years of enjoyment out of your Kamaka.
