Quickie Resto

Wade_Wilson

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So, I saw this little guy on Letgo for 10 bucks, and thought Id have a go at giving him a good home. Never tried fixing a uke, and really just kind of made it up as I went, but I think its a pretty decent repair. All the cracks are stabilized and solid, and theres wood where there wasnt wood before. I guess thats a win? Ill spare the details of the work as anyone who actually repairs ukes will likely cringe. (Spoiler, there was CA glue involved.) It sounds pretty good! Well worth a hamilton! All the repair materials were items I already had laying about, so zero dollars there. As an aside I assumed this uke would be some kind of birch plywood, but after cleaning up its definitely solid. Not sure what though? The top appears to be different from back and sides? Anyone know?? Screenshot_20181014-084551_letgo.jpg20181014_095500.jpg20181014_095422.jpg
 

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Nice job. So you glued in a strip of wood with CA adhesive?

I have an almost identical Roy Smeck from about 1940. A friend used it in music class in high school. Mine has no screws in the fretboard, and that curvy end that overhangs the top is painted on. Funny.

Roy Smeck.jpg
 
I used the ca in all the cracks it actually kinda soaked into the wood and sealed the hairline cracks I couldnt figure out how to get wood glue in. The patch however is wood glued in. I put a little cleat on the inside and glued the patch to it. Then added a little wood filler to the gaps and sanded everything smooth
 
Yours is in really nice shape!! And more the color Id expect. I have a 1950s silvertone thats almost identical. This uke is weird much lighter wood. With short horizontal stripes across the grain. Catches the light really nice.
 
Very nice job. Horizontal stripes are usually called curly or flame. Also, let me make a suggestion when you post images, hit a couple of carriage returns before you add the image so the paragraph does not spread out. You can edit your post and add the carriage returns any time.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos
 
Ah! I thought mahogany may be the answer. Very cool! Im going to throw a set of geared tuners at it, and call it good. As for posting pics. Apologies. Dooing this on my phone. Not a super mobile friendly process. Ill get it though.
 
Some may cringe at your repair techniques but I say good on you for finding a way to rescue a vintage Uke and bringing it into shape so that you could play and enjoy it! :music:
 
Great start fixing ukuleles. My first ukulele had intonation issues. I took it to a luthier who charged me 50 bucks 1988 dollars and took a month to move the bridge about an 1/8 of an inch down. Figured I could do that myself, got a beaten up cheap 50s soprano and proceeded to operate, 30 plus ukuleles later I've developed a few chops and enjoy the challenge of each one. You will find it quite fun if you have a hankering to tinker.
 
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