I wanted to share a fascinating thing that happened to my banjo uke while it was in its gig bag for several months last Fall and Wnter. But- lets start at the beginning........
Last year,in early summer,if memory serves,I had won the banjo uke you see in the photo above for a mere $78 plus modest shipping as it was coming from the Southwest region of the USA. I'd been looking for a modern banjo uke for some time,as I don't like taking my 20's Stella out of the house. I had played one of these GT models that a former student had purchased and was impressed with it.
When it arrived,however,there was one glaring flaw. A pretty bad case of fret sprout. The desert climate it had been in had shrunk the wood on the neck enough to where the fret ends really stuck out, making it very uncomfortable to play...if not nearly impossible. I wanted to take it to a luthier but at that time the Omicron variant was really ramping up. Not wanting to risk getting sick, the banjo uke sat in its gig bag for the next several months untouched. During that time,we had a lot of dampness in Southern CA,not to mention one week of solid rain. The damp weather continued right thru into Jan 2022.
A friend of mine who lives close to a music store came to visit,and I asked him if he'd take it to the luthier to get the frets dressed for me. He wanted to see the Gold Tone,so I took it out of its case and discovered something amazing.
Over the 4 months of just sitting around,the humidity level in the house was enough to plump the neck back up to the point the fret sprout had disappeared! I was absolutely astonished. No trip to the repair shop was necessary. While I know the importance of keeping any instument properly humidified,never before had I seen such a dramatic difference in an instrument before. I also know now that on this particular uke, to humiidify in Spring before we get into summer to keep the neck and fingerboard plump!
#fretsprout #humiidity #ukulele #uke
Last year,in early summer,if memory serves,I had won the banjo uke you see in the photo above for a mere $78 plus modest shipping as it was coming from the Southwest region of the USA. I'd been looking for a modern banjo uke for some time,as I don't like taking my 20's Stella out of the house. I had played one of these GT models that a former student had purchased and was impressed with it.
When it arrived,however,there was one glaring flaw. A pretty bad case of fret sprout. The desert climate it had been in had shrunk the wood on the neck enough to where the fret ends really stuck out, making it very uncomfortable to play...if not nearly impossible. I wanted to take it to a luthier but at that time the Omicron variant was really ramping up. Not wanting to risk getting sick, the banjo uke sat in its gig bag for the next several months untouched. During that time,we had a lot of dampness in Southern CA,not to mention one week of solid rain. The damp weather continued right thru into Jan 2022.
A friend of mine who lives close to a music store came to visit,and I asked him if he'd take it to the luthier to get the frets dressed for me. He wanted to see the Gold Tone,so I took it out of its case and discovered something amazing.
Over the 4 months of just sitting around,the humidity level in the house was enough to plump the neck back up to the point the fret sprout had disappeared! I was absolutely astonished. No trip to the repair shop was necessary. While I know the importance of keeping any instument properly humidified,never before had I seen such a dramatic difference in an instrument before. I also know now that on this particular uke, to humiidify in Spring before we get into summer to keep the neck and fingerboard plump!
#fretsprout #humiidity #ukulele #uke
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