help required.

Talk about musical instrument construction, setup and repair.

Moderators: kiwigeo, Jeremy D

Post Reply
mickeyj4j
Blackwood
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:57 pm

help required.

Post by mickeyj4j » Fri May 27, 2016 2:06 pm

Hi all a while ago I posted about my Baritone ukelele here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6054#p69117
It has a crack in the soundboard. Currently the crack has gone right to the edge of the sound board cracked the binding and into the side.
Image
Image
Image
Image

I am wanting to ask if there is anyone in Auckland who may be willing to help fix this. My current situation is. I work as a support wprker for people with an Intellectual disability. I have currently 111hrs a week and a winz topup. When not working I sometimes volunteer at a drop-in center community group also for people with disabilities.
I play guitar, bass and ukulele. I play mainly guitar and bass in church and write my own stuff etc.

If anyone sees this and feels compelled to help I would be grateful.
Blessings gs to you all.
Just a simple musician who plays for fun and enjoymet here.

mickeyj4j
Blackwood
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:57 pm

Re: help required.

Post by mickeyj4j » Thu Jun 02, 2016 10:30 am

Thanks to all who have viewed this so far. Appricate any help you can offer. Not asking for a total free be or anything G I will pay what I can.
Just a simple musician who plays for fun and enjoymet here.

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: help required.

Post by kiwigeo » Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:36 am

Anybody in Auckland want a repair job??
Martin

seeaxe
Blackwood
Posts: 768
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:20 pm
Location: Auckland NZ

Re: help required.

Post by seeaxe » Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:56 am

Hi Mickey

I can't speak for anyone else but I struggle to find the time to get into my workshop to work on my own projects. Hence, I can't help you and suspect that would be the reason why no one else has offered either. Sounds like you have plenty of time if not much moolah.

You are probably already aware that If you want to fix that properly, you would need to remove the neck and all the bindings, take the bridge off, take the top off, remove the pickups if they are on it if you can, bin the top and get a new one, brace and refit the new top, refit the neck, fit new binding, refinish and re-fit the bridge. Its all doable but that's a lot of work and some of the more difficult stuff to attempt as a novice.

Done by a professional, I suspect that is probably going to cost you more than the instrument cost in the first place. You probably know that too! So as I see it, your options seem to be (assuming it is playable) to carry on and play it as it is, do some form of holding repair or go and buy another one.

Assuming you don't have the readies to buy another, lets assume you have a go at fixing this yourself.

The trick with a holding repair is not to do anything that will get in the way of an eventual proper fix (although you seem to be able to buy a pretty nice Chinese uke for not much these days, in which it may never be fixed)

You have two main issues - keeping the top together and fixing the binding/making it look better.

That looks like celluloid binding so you need an appropriate celluloid solvent glue eg Weld-ON or similar - go to the glue guru in Kaimahi road in Glenfield, he can advise the best product. Glue, a bit of tape and a lot of patience should sort that out. Long rubber bands wound around the body are great for exerting a lot of pressure in a specific spot.

For the top the most common fix for a crack like that is to glue a patch across it from the inside of the uke, much the same as we glue a back strip inside the back across the main central joint. Wood grain needs to run at right angles to the top (think like plywood) The patches will ideally be small, rectangular and not very thick, maybe 2 to 3 mm. Your challenge is finding a way to get them to the right place and apply some pressure while the glue goes off as you wont be able to get your hand in there. Maybe some system of levers through the sound hole, or rare earth magnets. Again, patience will be your friend.

As you are going to bin the top eventually it doesn't matter what glue you use - it doesn't have to be removable (eg hide glue). Super glue is OK but you need to be sure you will get your patch to exactly the right place. Titebond or similar strong pva is probably best.

I'm assuming that no main braces are intersected by this crack. If there are and one has failed, I would use that uke as a paperweight and save your pennies for a new one.

Hope that helps
Cheers

Richard
Richard

lauburu
Blackwood
Posts: 229
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2010 7:25 am
Location: Auckland NZ

Re: help required.

Post by lauburu » Fri Jun 03, 2016 8:31 am

I'm in the same boat as Richard (above) plus undertaking renovations so no chance to get to the workshop for anything that approximates fun. Also, as Richard's post indicates, this could be a "how long is a piece of string" repair which just keeps on getting more complicated. Sorry
Miguel

simonm
Blackwood
Posts: 176
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 7:09 am

Re: help required.

Post by simonm » Sat Jun 04, 2016 2:40 am

From the thread you mentioned above.
mickeyj4j wrote:I have a Greg Bennet Samick Baritone ukulele … This ukulele only cost me $150 NZD. (roughly $125 USD) so if i was to take it in would it be worth fixing. ....
Just getting the crack glued and cleated would cost twice that or more …

User avatar
Allen
Blackwood
Posts: 5252
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:39 pm
Location: Cairns, Australia
Contact:

Re: help required.

Post by Allen » Sat Jun 04, 2016 6:24 am

From the photo's it looks to have a thick polyester type finish on it. I've had a couple of repairs to instruments with that on them, and it's nothing but a complete pain in the ass to deal with. The instrument would need to be worth well more than $1k for it to make it worthwhile to do the repair. For me it would be easier just to build a new one.
Allen R. McFarlen
https://www.brguitars.com
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

mickeyj4j
Blackwood
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:57 pm

Re: help required.

Post by mickeyj4j » Thu Jun 09, 2016 7:59 pm

Thanks for all your decent replies. I thought it would cost way more than its worth to fix. The back, sides, neck, frets tuners etc are all still in fairly good nick. Although I have time I don't have tools or a garage etc to do any work on this.

Would you guys recomend any use for the parts or even like them for a project. Shame this.Wonder if I could ditch the body and male a cigar box uke. Or similar. Without decent workshop space makes it hard.

The uke still seems to play ok. But I think what I may do is glue tne crack paint do a funkay paint job and hang it in my office/music room. Funkay art piece. Hat to do with the hard case I brought with it?
Just a simple musician who plays for fun and enjoymet here.

User avatar
Mark McLean
Blackwood
Posts: 1084
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:03 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: help required.

Post by Mark McLean » Thu Jun 09, 2016 9:18 pm

mickeyj4j wrote:The uke still seems to play ok.
Well, if it is not worth fixing up properly, just keep playing the thing - until it doesn't work any more.

mickeyj4j
Blackwood
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:57 pm

Re: help required.

Post by mickeyj4j » Thu Jun 09, 2016 10:42 pm

Mark McLean wrote:
mickeyj4j wrote:The uke still seems to play ok.
Well, if it is not worth fixing up properly, just keep playing the thing - until it doesn't work any more.
Quite right though I have already brought a Johnson JK-20 baritone one at christmass time which was in a resonance playing shape for a $100 uke (reduced for sale to $50 from memory).Yea I know it's not proper woods like the broken one. But great to chuck in when I don't want to take my guitar and jam along. Sounds ok with a stick on piezo pickup too.
Just a simple musician who plays for fun and enjoymet here.

dshaker
Myrtle
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 6:38 am
Location: Palo Alto, California

Re: help required.

Post by dshaker » Fri Jun 10, 2016 4:27 am

If it was my uke, I think I'd make up a little thin square of spruce or some other softwood, goop some liquid hide glue on one side of the square, reach in through the soundhole and put the patch over the crack on the inside (with patch grain going crossways to the crack).

The idea would be: I cant' afford to fix it but if it still plays OK, I'll try to make it last as long as I can.

Low cost, low risk. Maybe makes the uke useful for another year or ten -useful to someone else, if not to you.
-Doug Shaker

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: help required.

Post by kiwigeo » Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:31 am

dshaker wrote:If it was my uke, I think I'd make up a little thin square of spruce or some other softwood, goop some liquid hide glue on one side of the square, reach in through the soundhole and put the patch over the crack on the inside (with patch grain going crossways to the crack).

The idea would be: I cant' afford to fix it but if it still plays OK, I'll try to make it last as long as I can.

Low cost, low risk. Maybe makes the uke useful for another year or ten -useful to someone else, if not to you.

This is what I would do.......if it still plays ok and you can put up with the sight of the crack externally then do a patch up job from the inside to stop the crack getting worse.
Martin

joolstacho
Myrtle
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:33 am

Re: help required.

Post by joolstacho » Sun Jun 12, 2016 5:42 pm

A couple of small oval 3mm thick spruce patches epoxied on the inside spanning over the crack, positioned using magnets (ask), wick thin superglue into the split from the outside, and superglue to fix the binding. (IMO).

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: help required.

Post by kiwigeo » Mon Jun 13, 2016 6:12 pm

joolstacho wrote:A couple of small oval 3mm thick spruce patches epoxied on the inside spanning over the crack, positioned using magnets (ask), wick thin superglue into the split from the outside, and superglue to fix the binding. (IMO).
Would work but I'd be a bit concerned about the superglue discolouring the wood around the crack. My preference would be hide glue....
Martin

joolstacho
Myrtle
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:33 am

Re: help required.

Post by joolstacho » Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:49 pm

How could you get hide glue to wick into the crack?

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: help required.

Post by kiwigeo » Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:56 pm

joolstacho wrote:How could you get hide glue to wick into the crack?
Turn the instrument upside down and then rub the hide glue in. I'm not saying superglue won't work.....I was juts pointing out the risk of possible discolouring of the top wood which will make your crack _really_ visible.
Martin

User avatar
Nick
Blackwood
Posts: 3641
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:20 am
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Contact:

Re: help required.

Post by Nick » Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:50 am

kiwigeo wrote:I was juts pointing out the risk of possible discolouring of the top wood which will make your crack _really_ visible.
Wait for it........


plumber-crack.jpg
plumber-crack.jpg (18.42 KiB) Viewed 20012 times

Like you couldn't see that one coming!
Sorry Mickey, bit off topic but I couldn't resist. :wink: :roll:
"Jesus Loves You."
Nice to hear in church but not in a Mexican prison.

mickeyj4j
Blackwood
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:57 pm

Re: help required.

Post by mickeyj4j » Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:17 pm

Admins why did my images vanish from this post now ?
Just a simple musician who plays for fun and enjoymet here.

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: help required.

Post by kiwigeo » Thu Jun 23, 2016 3:23 pm

mickeyj4j wrote:Admins why did my images vanish from this post now ?
Youve posted http links to another website where I assume youve uploaded your photos. Ive tried a direct link to the photos on that site and get an error message. The problem is nothing to do with this forum.
Martin

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 73 guests