Ukulele Care

Ukuleles are easy to care for. There are still a few things you should consider.

Humidity

If an ukulele gets exposed to dry air for a long time, the wood will dry out and may warp. This may result in several types of damage, like fractures in the sound board, or scratchy sides of the fretboard due to protuding fretwires. The optimum humidity is normally between 45% and 50%. Modest deviations from these ideal values are no problem, though. Strong deviations are no problem too, if they don’t last long. One of the biggest dangers are dry living quarters in the winter due to heating, where the humidity can get as low as 20%. Not every ukulele can cope with this.

There are several means available to deal with these dangers:

Es gibt verschiedene Möglichkeiten, dieser Gefahr zu begegnen:

• Use a hygrometer for monitoring the indoor climate. Compensate strong deviations by airing, using a humidifier, etc. High humidity is less dangerous than low humidity.
• Alternatively, use a small case humidifier. That way your instrument can be protected even if the indoor climate is very dry.
• Alternatively, climatize a cabinet.

Of course, not every ukulele is equally sensitive. A high-quality instrument with a thin solid wood sound board will be much more prone to damage than a cheap instrument with a heavy, laminated top.

Uke Accomodation

A case or at least a gig bag won’t hurt. Soft cases offer good protection against dropping. Avoid placing your ukuleles on wall hangers at outer walls, or at places where they get exposed to direct sun light.

Aging

The word is that the sound of instruments like the ukulele improves due to frequent playing. This is not easy to verify, however I believe that my good ol’ solid wood Brüko sounds a bit better now as it did at the beginning, when it was new.

Maintenance

If an ukulele is played frequently, wear may occur over time, e.g. at thefretboard, the body, or at the frets. However, frets will last very long if no metal or wound strings are used. If some work is necessary, it can be done by a luthier. However, it usually takes many years of frequent playing to get that far.

Fretboard Care

Personally, I never had problems so far with dirty fretboards, it was always enough just to sweep my ukes with a soft cloth from time to time. Maybe that’s because I don’t have sweaty hands, and I always put my ukuleles into cases or gig bags. So, I don’t have much experience with this topic. However, at times it may be reasonable to perform some fretboard care when changing strings. There are care products for guitar fretboards available, these should also be applicable for the uke. You’ll also find some tutorials about guitar fretboard care in the internet.