Ukulele Neck Repair

pattonist

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Hey y'all. So, to make a long story short, some kids were messing around in my classroom, ended up throwing a medicine ball that promptly landed on my uke. Broke the neck clean off close to the headstock. Tried to glue the head back on with woodglue but quickly realized the frets are beyondd repair. (Broke directly on a fret.) So, I'm basically just going to replace the entire neck. My question- how exactly should I go about taking off the neck/fretboard? For reference, it's a Lanikai LU-21T Tenor uke, and I'm going to be putting on one of these-
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071RTC8B7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Any advice/tips for the process?
 
My take is that the Amazon product is for a tenor guitar, the scale length should be 17.25" for your ukulele. The fret might be secured with super glue if the gap isn't too wide. Send pictures of the project, it could be rescued.
 
My take is that the Amazon product is for a tenor guitar, the scale length should be 17.25" for your ukulele. The fret might be secured with super glue if the gap isn't too wide. Send pictures of the project, it could be rescued.


People in comments said 26 inch is the scale for the entire estimated instrument, actual size of the neck/fretboard is 17 inch as you said. Already tried to superglue it in but the fret buzz was horrible no matter how much I tried.
 
Getting the fretboard off isn't to difficult but getting the neck off without damaging the sides isn't so easy. Unless you want to get into a boy scout project, my advice would be to toss the uke in the trash and buy a new one. They are inexpensive instruments and I found one for less than $100 USD.

uke.jpg
 
It sounds like a fun job for an aspiring hobyist. At best if the fretboard is reasonably flat you might be able to fill the gap at the missing fret with superglue and fine sawdust, recut the slot using a suitable saw. Reinsert the missing fret. A junior hacksaw can do the job. Otherwise you may try to reflatten and refret the fretboard, this can be a daunting task for the beginner.
 
If your new fretboard is not of the exact scale length as the original, you may have to move the bridge/saddle to maintain correct tuning and intonation.
 
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