Saddle lifting.

Hi Peeps, I bought a used ukulele off eBay and it's a good looking piece of wood. It's a Kala spalted maple and only cost me £145 so I wasn't expecting K brand quality, but I have to say it sounds great with bags of sustain. It's sounds a little on the bright side but that can be sorted with new strings.
My reason for posting is as follows.......
Upon receiving it, it was obvious that it had seen very little playing time, no scratches on the sound board or button/zip scratches on the back. The neck feels super silky and the strings feel and sound new.
It does however have a little dint in the purfling that the seller highlighted in pics. This is why the price was discounted and I'm ok with that.
Over the course of the first hour of playing it after delivery, I noticed that I had to keep tweaking the strings in order to keep it in tune. I thought that this could be the strings " bedding in " .
Now I've had the chance to closely examine the saddle, I can see that it's lifting ever so slightly. I've also noticed that there seems to be excessive glue around the saddle just on the side where the strings break. It looks like either a messy glueing process during manufacture or someone has tried to repair it at some point.
There's now way I can prove that the seller knew any of this and I will give them the benefit of the doubt, so it looks like I will have to deal with the issues myself.
One thing I'm hoping that you Peeps may be able to tell me regards the holes in the saddle where the strings run through it. There are 8 holes in it ! I've never noticed before if other Ukes have this. I always thought it was one hole per string. ( see pics enc. )
Does anyone have this kind of set up ?
Oh dear, I can't upload pics for some reason, will try again later.

Some photos of the bridge and saddle would help other senior members to identify the issue and help. Or you could take the uke to any luthiers close by.

It sounds like talking about the bridge, when mentioned the 8 holes for tie strings. Some Kala models have 8 holes on bridge instead of 4 holes.

Without photos, its hard to identify the exact issue.

BTW, congratulations on your new uke!

Jools1050 said:

One thing I'm hoping that you Peeps may be able to tell me regards the holes in the saddle where the strings run through it. There are 8 holes in it ! I've never noticed before if other Ukes have this. I always thought it was one hole per string. ( see pics enc. )
Does anyone have this kind of set up ?

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My Korala's bridge is exactly the same as that, I believe they're made in the same factory as Kalas anyway. I didn't find out till my first string change though, as the strings it came with were all tied off along the bridge, but I was pleased when I did see it, made re-stringing it a whole lot easier as I used the two holes to make a loop to feed the string back through. Very secure and very tidy.

Can't really help you on the raised bridge issue, but I'm sure someone will soon. Got any pics of the uke itself?

Hi guys and thanks. There are some pics at the top of my post. Aren't they visible to you ?

Jools1050 said:

Hi guys and thanks. There are some pics at the top of my post. Aren't they visible to you ?

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Yeah, I can see those, meant some pics of the uke as a whole, purely for ogling purposes, you see

I think I may be able to oblige.!!!!

I posted a vid of me playing Something by the Beatles if you wanna hear it too.

First of all I doubt you'd be able to prove the seller cheated you, which he/she probably didn't. Second the saddle looks fine. You must mean the bridge. If you try to glue the bridge down yourself the repair will probably be ineffective unless you have experience. To do this right, you'd have to remove the bridge, scrape off all the original glue, and replace the bridge. Just shoving glue under the bridge as it sits manages to attach the old glue on the bridge to the old glue on the soundboard at best. It will not hold. And there is the likelihood that you would actually extend the problem, lifting more of the bridge (if not all of it) by using a tool to push the new glue in. I would leave it. The tuning issue is most likely just the strings settling (or mostly the strings). If the bridge pops off, then you figure out what to do. Or, if the strings don't settle in after a few weeks (I'd give it maybe even six weeks) the bridge may be the problem. But even then, I would try a new set of strings to see if it will settle down. Try the easiest and cheapest solutions first, the first being just waiting.

The eight hole bridge is unusual for an ukulele, but I've seen a few Lanikais just like that. It's actually system more commonly found on classical guitars. I think it's rather elegant looking. So much so that I had a custom instrument built by Dave Talsma using the same principle design (below).

Thanks for the response Steve, and yep, I meant bridge ( note to self, wake up fully before posting ) . I agree with all you say. I have 2 sets of Living Waters so I will change them then I will let things take their course and deal with the results. Thanks again

Jools1050 said:

Thanks for the response Steve, and yep, I meant bridge ( note to self, wake up fully before posting ) . I agree with all you say. I have 2 sets of Living Waters so I will change them then I will let things take their course and deal with the results. Thanks again

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I wish you all the very best with your pretty-looking instrument. I've currently got a similar ongoing situation with a travel guitar (like a long-necked 6-string uke bought second-hand, bridge now lifting ... my local instrument repair technician is having a nightmare with it, pleased I didn't try to "have a go"!

I think that's a Gilbert-style bridge; I have a classical guitar and a tenor uke that use it.

Here's how I ended up stringing mine on an 8-hole bridge. Much easier and tidier than my efforts on the Dolphin.

Kypfer, I had the same problem with a classical guitar that I paid a disgusting amount of money for. The seller from Stafford wanted to send it back to Spain to be repaired. I pointed out that as my contract was with him, he was responsible for the repair. In the end he was so evasive, I got a local luthier to do it and no trouble since.

Reglueing a bridge is pretty easy, or a decent guitar shop can do it for about $30-$40. Anymore and you might want to look around elsewhere.

Rab11 - thanks that's very helpful, I was just trying to work out the best way to do it !

Here's a thought, but it might be more than you want to tackle; I'm about to change the strings on my Lanikai to Worth browns and as well, redo the bridge holes so that instead of tying the strings to the bridge, which puts the tension horizontally on the bridge, I'm going to drill holes down though the bridge and the top, then run the strings down through and tie them from the sound hole (I'm using little plastic discs as washers too). This way the string tension pulls the top to the bridge making the tension vertical. I saw a uke with that at the LA Uke Expo last week and it really inspired me (wish I could remember the manufacturer's name).

RAB11 said:

Here's how I ended up stringing mine on an 8-hole bridge. Much easier and tidier than my efforts on the Dolphin.

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Not a good way to string that bridge. The OP has it correct (except that its the bridge lifting, and not the saddle, as mentioned already). Personally, I run one string to the next, instead of all the way through multiple strings.

kohanmike said:

Here's a thought, but it might be more than you want to tackle; I'm about to change the strings on my Lanikai to Worth browns and as well, redo the bridge holes so that instead of tying the strings to the bridge, which puts the tension horizontally on the bridge, I'm going to drill holes down though the bridge and the top, then run the strings down through and tie them from the sound hole (I'm using little plastic discs as washers too). This way the string tension pulls the top to the bridge making the tension vertical. I saw a uke with that at the LA Uke Expo last week and it really inspired me (wish I could remember the manufacturer's name).

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I used to do pinless bridges early on, specifically for, in my mind, a greater break angle over the saddle, and a lighter bridge. Switched to 8 holes a while back for a few, and now just do a tie. When I did the pinless, I took David Hurd's technique and layed a carbon fiber sheet/patch under the bridge. I mention this because you may want to be sure your bridge patch, if there is one, is a hard-hardwood, and be sure you don't have any bracing where the hole is drilled.

Some interesting ideas there, I like the idea of drilling through the bridge. Could you explain exactly how you will tie the strings off to stop them slipping through the top please ?

I'm just going to put a large knot on the end of the string and even though my bridge does have a bridge patch underneath. I'm going to slip a small plastic disc on the string as an added washer. The steps are; feed the string down through the hole, grab it from the sound hole, slip on a disc, tie two or three knots on the end of the string, pull the string back up, attach to tuner peg and tighten. The knot pulls up against the washer, pulling the top and bridge together. The bracing is out of the way and the holes I'm going to drill are small, 1/16" drill bit.

That's everything I need thanks, I think I will try that myself. It might just negate any further lifting. Thanks for the destructions !!!

I would suggest strongly that you get the bridge seperation fixed. If you don't, dirt will accumulate under the bridge and it WILL get worse with time. Don't kid yourself, these thing don't fix them selves. The bridge needs to be firmly attached to the top for the uke to sound and peform as it should.