How to find someone to repair uke

I have an older Uke that a friend sent me. My brother in law, that knows guitars, says it needs some work. The wood below the sound hole is slightly caved in. My local choices are-have my brother-in-law fix it-he's repaired lots of guitars, take it to the local store, or take it to a guy that someone recommended that repairs guitars. The last guy I'm mentioning is the furthest away from me.
Do you think someone that can repair a guitar can repair a uke?
My brother-in-law says its solid mahogany, and is worth fixing.
I have no idea if it is or not.
It's a Kiwaya Famous uke.

I believe you may mean "Kiwaya" and if so it is likely worth having repaired. Unfortunately someone who "thinks" they can repair it may cause more damage so I would recommend having a professional do it. It is going to take someone humidifying the uke to get the area below the sound hole repaired. A good accoustic guitar builder or luthier should also be able to work on your instrument. A good violin builder or repair shop also may be able to do your work.

To me it it looks like normal "dishing" from a thin top...If it isn't cracked, just play it..To repair would require additional bracing of the top...a lot of work..good luck, those are nice ukuleles..

how close are these guys?
http://randeesmusic.com/guitar_index.html
They have high end stuff (Like the Taylor ukuleles) and that means they have at least one Taylor or Martin trained tech

If you ever get to Lansing, MI.............I have all my work on my instruments done by the luthiers at Elderly Instruments. They are top notch and will do it right. But, it's a distance from you. I've heard many horror stories of people getting instruments repaired by "people they know" who will "do it a lot cheaper", who end up doing more harm to the instrument. If you do it, I'd recommend a professional. Just my $.02 worth.

surfink said:

To me it it looks like normal "dishing" from a thin top...If it isn't cracked, just play it..To repair would require additional bracing of the top...a lot of work..good luck, those are nice ukuleles..

Click to expand...

To my eye, does not look like a top end Kiwaya. Although it may be solid wood (their laminates and solid woods are very hard to distinguish with the normal eye), so not terribly low end, it has no adornments or signs of extra workmanship. For instance, the sound hole isn't even well sanded. So, lets assume its a $300 instrument (it is not on par with Kiwayas $400 to $500 instruments that I have seen or owned... Famous is, I think, their tourist grade sold in Japan brand name)... then only you can decide if you want a luthier to put in more bracing (which will stop the dishing but not necessarily correct it), potentially ruin the sound, and cost you over a hundred bucks, I'm sure. The only way to remove the dish totally is to replace the entire soundboard, and I can guarantee you that will be cost prohibitive for a uke of this grade (and if for some odd reason it's a rare uke, you'd not want to replace it and devalue it anyhow)

I hope you sent these photos and a description (she's want to know model # etc from soundhole label) to Hitomi Kato at Kiwaya USA as I mentioned to you in your other thread, Normagal. She's a jewel, and will reply, and will help you with your uke value. I love Kiwayas, have owned several, and Hitomi has helped me by email every time. http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?74522-Uke-repair

If it were me, I'd remove the strings for a couple weeks, humidify the uke greatly, then restring ( most soprano strings are low tension, so just avoid the uncommon high tension ones, and don't use concert or tenor strings), and I bet the dish will be improved. Unless it cracks, like sirfink says, don't pay to fix it. My two cents.

Another option would be to carefully drill into the bridge (or have a luthier do it) to convert this to a string-through bridge design. Done properly, won't affect the sound adversely, and will then have upward tension on the soundboard.

Good luck. I have a sweet spot for Kiwayas, and I'd love to see this uke playable without breaking the bank for you, N.

If do you want to repair it, there's Spruce Tree Music in Madison who specialize in repair, though they carry instruments, including Kiwaya too, so they should be at least a little familiar with them.

http://www.sprucetreemusic.com/

Coolkayaker-I forgot that you had mentioned I could email her. Wil. Get some better pics, and do that.
How do I humidify the uke greatly?
Not sure i know how to restring this uke-the bridge looks different than my Dolphin.
I bought some Martin fluorocarbon strings that someone here recommended.

Thanks,everyone for your help.

This is a nice ukulele but don't spend much on repairs. If you look close you can see a laminated fretboard and the top laminations show at the soundhole, so it's a pretty inexpensive construction. Not like a modern Kiwaya but still a nice vintage uke! Coolkayaker's advice is good. You won't need to humidify it much, but a few days unstrung might relax the top a a bit. I have a similar soprano (unlabeled)that I cleaned up a bit, let it sit without strings while I waited for some Martin fluorocardon strings and now it sounds really nice.

Your Dolphin has a tie-on bridge, this one will need you to knot the ends before you pull them through the slot. http://www.pohakuukulele.com/pages/t_knots.html

http://takumiukulele.com/kiwayajapan.html

Mketom-thanks for the advice on how to restring it. So---getting some humidity to it may help it some?
I guess it couldn't hurt. I would like to get the finish on it looking more presentable too.