Ukulele Repair

[Gordon Eyre]

My son has a Ukulele that has a crack in the back of the instrument and has come to his wood working father for help. Now being a smart father I know that there are many specialized woodworkers that are much smarter than I am so here I am, hat in hand so to speak. Your advise would be much appreciated.

Here is a picture of the crack:



image-1048033395.jpg

[Jim Creech]

As there does not appear to be any sort of impact damage I would suspect the cause is low humidity. I start getting nervous when the Rh drops below about 40%. Assuming the instrument "dried out" you will need to rehydrate it. There are all sorts of methods for doing this but it is time consuming. Properly done, the crack should close nicely and you can then glue, adding a few thin cleats across the crack thru the sound hole.

[Gordon Eyre]

As there does not appear to be any sort of impact damage I would suspect the cause is low humidity. I start getting nervous when the Rh drops below about 40%. Assuming the instrument "dried out" you will need to rehydrate it. There are all sorts of methods for doing this but it is time consuming. Properly done, the crack should close nicely and you can then glue, adding a few thin cleats across the crack thru the sound hole.

Thanks for the suggestions Jim, I suspect you are right about it drying out since humidity is very low (teens) where he lives. The cleat is a good suggestion.