I visited a local Utah music store today and half of their solid tenor ukes looked as if the tops had shrunken just a bit and pulled the neck down, resulting in high frets where the neck joins the body (not a real back bow like I've seen on some guitars, but moving in the same direction). The repair guy told me it happened regularly through the dry winters. With a little fret leveling they will likely play fine, but that fretboard will never be completely flat again. They were on wall display hangers, so I suppose were victims of the ambient indoor humidity. Have those of you with cold dry winters seen a lot of this?
Humidity, top movement and "back bow"
- Thread starter dusty
- Start date
Ukejenny
Well-known member
Ouch! Glad I don't live in Utah, if the conditions are that tough on wooden instruments.
Kayak Jim
Well-known member
I'd be shopping at a different music store.
OldePhart
Well-known member
:agree: Even Guitar Center has their nicer stuff in a small, separate humidified room. And that's Guitar Center - the home of the "we open the box and hang it on the wall" folks! I can't imagine an independent dealer that wouldn't take better care of instruments...
John
seneystretch
Well-known member
Yes, bigtime. Saw 20 straight days of -20 degree F mornings this winter, and 45 total. The Big Lake froze over so the outdoor humidity went real low. Uff da. The indoor RH went below 15% and sometimes below 10%. Man, that was hard on the respiratory system.
I put each uke in a trashbag with a wet (not damp) washcloth. Saved them, the frets stayed put and no cracks and no buzzing. Wish I could have done that with the chairs and china cabinet. Now that Lake Superior ice has melted we're back to 45% RH indoors, thankfully.
In Feb I picked up an old uke at a second hand store for $10. The low humidity just about killed it. The plywood was cracked, strings buzzed, friction tuners wobbled in their holes. I gave it the trash bag treatment a few weeks and even wiped it down with a damp cloth a couple of times. The cracks closed and it doesn't buzz now, it actually sounds nice. It could be a mahogany plywood, it has a little oval gold and black sticker at the tuners identifying it as a tenor Weiss. There's no label or other identifier inside the body. I'm guessing it's a private label Harmony, any thoughts on vintage?
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