Beach question

Hi everyone, how should I cover up the quarter-inch jack in my Fluke which I am taking to a beach resort?

Masking tape? Would this leave sticky glue residue?

Blu Tack?

Thanks! Will try blue painter's tape

I'd just take a beater uke if you have one, or one that doesn't have electronics.

Hi Dane, thanks for your suggestions. Alas, all my ukes have electronics. I would take my Kala, which is cheaper, but the Fluke is lighter... Sigh, decisions...

If you have any disposable foam earplugs lying around . . .

That's a very good idea! And even if I were to buy the earplugs, they wouldn't cost too much. Thanks!

Andy Chen said:

That's a very good idea! And even if I were to buy the earplugs, they wouldn't cost too much. Thanks!

Click to expand...

And they're reusable as long as you clean the wax out of your jack every once in a while.

Are you planning on setting it in the sand?...

You could try and and unmount the jack so that the surface you have to tape is flat. It would be a pain to put it back, but anything is possible.

Hi Brad, No, I am not planning it on the sand. I am just being cautious, perhaps overly so.

I take my ukes to the beach and sand gets in everything. Got to shake it out of the body. You have to wipe down the metal cause the salt in the air will rust it. My concern would be getting rust in the jack. You could lightly spray the internals with silicone spray to help protect the metal. WD40 oil based spray might make any sand that gets in stick. Like Bill1 suggests you could get a 1/4 jack from RadioShack or an old non-functioning cable and snip off the wire mounting tabs and make a plug.

Wipe down the exposed jack parts and tuners with warm water at when you are done each day and put a little oil on a rag and wipe the metal. The parts inside the body should get less salt but be aware the closer to the water you get and the bigger the waves the more salt. On a windy day with the wind coming in from the sea I have had to wipe down my strings cause the Salt makes them sticky. I bring a bottle of water and a small towel just for this.

As a non related aside, last year I put my uke under a beach towel to protect it from the sun and set it on my chair while I went back to the house. I realized I forgot to put on sultan lotion on my feet and sat down to do that. It sounded like a big Twix candy bar being crunched. It made me sick to my stomach. I still feel bad about it as it was my first nice solid wood uke. Unrepairable.

Have fun at the beach and be safe!

We bring my daughters makala dolphin places when I know its going to be hot or stay in the car. I would be fine bringing any of my $300 ukes to the beach, I got them to enjoy them. The car thing however often forces me to use the dolphin because I don't want to have to bring the uke inside every place with me. Also my daughter always winds up stealign the dolphin back, as it is hers.

I would say get a piece of foam stuff it in there, then pop on the blue painters tape and you have two layers of protection, heck even toilet paper could be stuffed in it. For some reason the idea of the spare plug put in there bothers me, metal on metal and if moisture got in you couldn't see I could see the metal sticking together and maybe being hard to pull out? I like the idea of something that sucks up moisture being put in the hole, like cotton balls or something that naturally would take the moisture in even if its invisible to my eye.

I would spend the cash on a dolphin, shark, or an outdoor Uke... You'll always have it for other similar occasions such as camping, lake etc...

Man, it does sound like I have more to worry about than just sand and water.

I have an Outdoor tenor uke on order, but that has been delayed...

Thanks, everyone, for your input. Maybe I shall consider bringing one of my daughters' BugsGear Aquleles with me instead. But that's a soprano scale, which I don't like so much.