Detuning

I read that it's good to detune or loosen the strings on your ukulele when not playing it for an extended period, but what is considered an extended period....a week of not playing, a month? And by how much are the strings loosened?

wildfire070 said:

I read that it's good to detune or loosen the strings on your ukulele when not playing it for an extended period, but what is considered an extended period....a week of not playing, a month? And by how much are the strings loosened?

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I wouldn't bother unless you're reasonably sure that you are not going to be playing it for a few months. I wouldn't loosen them completely because you want a little tension on the neck.

I loosen the strings on my guitars, especially acoustic guitars, if I am not going to be playing them for several months as I figure it prolongs the time until the neck will need to be reset. I'm not sure there is enough tension on nylon-strung ukuleles to make that a concern.

John

Yes I agree with John that's just about the way I see it too.

UUer MarkR1 popped a bridge from , he suspected, leaving it fully tuned. I detune my vintage ukes if I will not be playing one of them for over a week or two.

coolkayaker1 said:

UUer MarkR1 popped a bridge from , he suspected, leaving it fully tuned. I detune my vintage ukes if I will not be playing one of them for over a week or two.

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Mmmm...maybe in the case of a really old vintage instrument...though honestly I think it's a six-of-one vs. half-dozen of t'other whether the bridge/top join of any particular specimen is going to be more affected by a steady higher tension or frequent changes in tension. I suspect it depends a lot on what's going on with the chemistry of the glue, etc. If detuning them makes you feel better though go for it.

Re. vintage instruments, it is good to remember that the older ones were originally designed for gut strings which are probably considerably lower tension than many of our modern strings. So you've got not only age and dried out glue working against you but the fact that the design wasn't meant for today's strings.

I think if I owned a vintage instrument that was a good player but a little too beat up to ever be especially valuable I'd convert it to string-through-top as I've done with some of my modern ukes.


John