Taking Care of Your ‘Ukulele

You’ve just spent $1000 dollars on your dream ‘ukulele with a pickup. Here are some precautions you can take to make sure it stays in great condition.

Before I go into protective measures, know this. There are some people out there who are ’ukulele collectors and take extra care to make sure their instruments are the best they can be. This is great, there is nothing prettier than a spotless koa ‘ukulele, but if you are going to use your instrument a lot, this will seldom – if ever – happen. You should take care of your ‘ukulele, but don’t freak out if you get a drop of sweat on it. Rub marks from your fingers, dings, dust under the strings by the bridge, and oily fingerboards are all things that will happen over time. You don’t see Jake polishing his ‘ukulele in between sets. Use, but don’t abuse.

Ok, now we can move on…

A case is the best place to start protecting your ‘ukulele. If you don’t have one you will be walking down the street with your ‘ukulele by the neck. This isn’t going to pan out very well if you bump into somebody and drop it on the concrete.

There are two kinds of cases: hard and soft (gig bag). I would recommend a hard case just because it is much sturdier than a soft case. You can get hard cases with metal latches or softer foam ones with zippers. The ones with zippers aren’t as solid, but they have big pockets to put your junk in – just don’t stand on it and your ’ukulele should be fine. If you do want a case that you can stand on, get one with latches. These cases are made of wood or some sort of plastic I would guess, and have the whole rigid thing going on. Make sure you get one with heavy duty latches; the ones on my hard case fell off. Both of these cases have some sort of fuzzy lining to keep your instrument snug.

A gig bag is made of a thin nylon type of material and zips up around the edge. The padding for these cases is anywhere from half to a ¼ of an inch thick. That is only enough to protect from little dings and light rain. My favorite part about these cases is that they are way lighter than a hard case. They also have a pocket for gear. Some have backpack-like straps that are sweet. Gig bags are not so much for protection as they are a handle for your ’ukulele.

A humidifier is a must if you live in a dry climate. If you let your ‘ukulele go without a humidifier, expect shrinkage and cracks. Humidifiers go inside your case and provide moisture for your ‘ukulele. The water is released slowly over time, keeping the wood happy. For technical info about humidifiers go to Tonya’s blog and check out the Humidifier page. You can buy a humidifier at your local music store or learn to make one out of a Pez dispenser from Aldrine at UU. I used the Planet Waves humidifier while in California and liked it (but now I’m back in nature’s own humidifier – Hawai’i).

Polishing your ‘ukulele is a good idea every once in a while. Just use a clean soft cloth to wipe off fingerprints dust, and the tuning pegs. Also, you might want to wipe down the fingerboard occasionally. Use your fingernails (through the cloth) to clean right next to the frets. Depending on the kind of finish your ‘ukulele has, you might want to avoid cleaning the back of the neck. I find that the polish cloth takes the finish my thumb has created away and my hand can’t slide around as good, so only clean the neck if it really needs it.

Obvious stuff:

• Don’t put your ‘ukulele on the dashboard of your car when it is 105 out. The glue will get soft and your bridge will pull off.
• Don’t tune your strings up much more than ADF#B, especially if they are heavy strings. If you do, things will break.
• Don’t leave your ‘ukulele laying around.
• Keep your ‘ukulele out of water – wood expands when wet. (A while back, Rainsong was taking a poll on what instrument to build next. The results were in favor of ‘ukuleles. I’ve got my fingers crossed – an ‘ukulele I can play between sets!)

Less obvious stuff:

• If your case comes with a Velcro strap that goes around the neck of the ‘ukulele, use it! If you pick up your case and the case is open, guess what, the instrument is going to fall out. If you use the strap it can’t.
• Don’t set your ‘ukulele on your lap with the back down. It is imbalanced and prone to slide onto the ground. Instead, put the strings facing down.

Watch out for:

• other people (they sit on things)
• other ‘ukuleles (headstocks put dents in things, ‘ukuleles – and heads)
• rain
• flying instrument cable ends (the metal jack really can whip around)
• …cars…