Humidifier question

I'm not worried about the ukulele...Pete's HPL laminates are pretty near impervious to any climate condition. The neck and fretboard are wood, and there's a chance that fret ends could become exposed, which isn't fatal in any sense...it just might require filing or sanding of the fret ends. I keep my Bonanzas humidified, as I do the school Mainlands (which, I believe, share a common neck). Now...if you put Pete's new corian fretboard on there...you'll never have an exposed fret end.

And if you ever truly want to experiment with fret end exposure, as I said, you are welcome to leave the ukulele with me at school for a winter...even a month in January...and we can see what happens. Not doing it with my ukuleles.
 
I'm counting on my Bonanza HPL standing up to anything. It will be packed on rafts and stuffed inside kayaks on rivers and lakes in all sorts of weather conditions and temperatures. It survived heat, sand, and teenage girls on a recent weeklong rafting trip.

Now I'm really curious to get my hygrometer and see just how dry my Utah air is. I ordered the hygrometer and another Nomad Humilele humidifier from Amazon. I made a couple simple humidifiers that I can use with the Bonanza.
 
And giving WCBarnes full credit, there really isn't much that you need to do with a HPL Bonzana, other than to play it. I do think some extra humidity in a house can avoid sharp fret ends...but the instrument's needs are nothing like a full wood ukulele that does need some care.
 
Just a word of warning regarding "cheap" hygrometers. I bought 7 digital ones for $12.00 each from Home Depot, kept 4 that registered the same and returned the other three. I thought I was all set and well equipped............wrong!!! After about one year and lots of research I bought three hygrometers made by Caliber 1V that are used by Burgess, considered the best. They appear to be the same ones sold by Oasis as well. When the humidity level showed 20% on all three Caliber units my cheapees would not register below 35%. They were useless because it is low humidity that we are concerned about. Winter time is very dry in Canada

I keep all my solid wood ukes in hardcases with an Oasis sound hole humidifier so they were fine. But it is nice to have one or two out on stands when I "know, really know" the humidity level is safe.

20170818_065208_001.jpg
 
Last edited:
So what about solid top ukuleles with laminate sides and back? Are we as concerned about them?
 
So what about solid top ukuleles with laminate sides and back? Are we as concerned about them?

I just got one and I will be humidifying it in the fall and winter heating months. I now have one of each kind, an all-laminate, a laminate with a solid top and an all-solid and I plan on humidifying each of them. After reading so many non-consensus threads and stuff on the internet I just started to experiment. At the time, all I had was my all-laminate and in the end, I found that humidifying it did make a difference. For certain it made a difference with the fret ends/feel of the fret board. I won't fall on the sword defending the claim but I think it made a slight difference in the sound as well. I guess the way I look at it is that the interior bracing and construction of the non-solid ukes is solid wood as are the fretboards so I'll try and take care of them just as I would the solid uke. Granted, my levels of concern are different. The all-solid and the solid top laminate will have inside the body humidifiers as well as a humidifier in the head/neck space. The all laminate will just have a couple of home-made humidifiers placed in the case.
 
I just got one and I will be humidifying it in the fall and winter heating months. I now have one of each kind, an all-laminate, a laminate with a solid top and an all-solid and I plan on humidifying each of them. After reading so many non-consensus threads and stuff on the internet I just started to experiment. At the time, all I had was my all-laminate and in the end, I found that humidifying it did make a difference. For certain it made a difference with the fret ends/feel of the fret board. I won't fall on the sword defending the claim but I think it made a slight difference in the sound as well. I guess the way I look at it is that the interior bracing and construction of the non-solid ukes is solid wood as are the fretboards so I'll try and take care of them just as I would the solid uke. Granted, my levels of concern are different. The all-solid and the solid top laminate will have inside the body humidifiers as well as a humidifier in the head/neck space. The all laminate will just have a couple of home-made humidifiers placed in the case.

This is pretty much where I'm at, except I've yet to get an all solid uke. I'm sure at some point, I'll upgrade from my mahogany laminate to a solid top or all solid. In the meantime, since I live in an arid climate with summer central AC and winter forced air heating, I'll humidify all my ukes. I now have a sound hole humidifier plus one at the headstock for the solid top tenor & the mahogany laminate concert, and a couple homemade ones in with the Bonanza HPL. I need to get a hard case for the Bonanza, but for now the homemade ones are in the zippered padded case with it. I haven't received my digital hygrometer from Amazon yet, so I don't know for sure what my RH is yet.
 
According the the digital hygrometer that came from Amazon today. The RH in the room where my ukes live is 43-45%. Inside the cases with humidifiers is 48-49%. I looked up the outdoor RH for Salt Lake City and was surprised to see that the average monthly RH dips below 40% only in June - August. I definitely have seen the difference in the frets on my Bonanza HPL uke before I added a humidifier. They were getting rough, and the fretboard looked dry. A humidifier in the case plus some fretboard conditioner and it's good now.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom