Does a Loose Brace Always Require Remedial Action?

Bill Sheehan

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I know there have been plenty of threads about how to remedy a loose brace, but my question is a little more general...

I noticed a couple of days ago, on an older pre-owned tenor Fluke that I purchased via the Reverb website not long ago, that the sound board brace running "east-to-west", in the area just "south" of the sound hole (between the sound hole and the bridge), has fallen slightly away from the sound board on one end, very near the place where the sound board joins the side. I can reach up under the sound board and kind of wiggle the brace with my finger at that location, although it seems to be sturdy along the rest of its length. I'm not seeing any kind of "dipping" in the soundboard, and the uke plays and sounds fine. Nor does the brace issue seem to be causing any kind of buzzing or rattling.

So, I'm wondering, have you ever discovered a loose brace and decided to just leave it be?
 
Hey Bill, no one seems to want jump on this, so I will offer my input. As you are not seeing any deleterious effects, you may certainly choose to leave it as is. Most likely it will continue to open up, causing a buzz, but there is no way to know for sure. But in the meantime I would not foresee this causing any catastrophic issues.
 
I know there have been plenty of threads about how to remedy a loose brace, but my question is a little more general...

I noticed a couple of days ago, on an older pre-owned tenor Fluke that I purchased via the Reverb website not long ago, that the sound board brace running "east-to-west", in the area just "south" of the sound hole (between the sound hole and the bridge), has fallen slightly away from the sound board on one end, very near the place where the sound board joins the side. I can reach up under the sound board and kind of wiggle the brace with my finger at that location, although it seems to be sturdy along the rest of its length. I'm not seeing any kind of "dipping" in the soundboard, and the uke plays and sounds fine. Nor does the brace issue seem to be causing any kind of buzzing or rattling.

So, I'm wondering, have you ever discovered a loose brace and decided to just leave it be?
String tension may eventually cause the sound board to belly up, but when I owned a flea that had the built in saddle, I wanted to put an under saddle pickup on it. To do so, I would have had to replace the bridge and saddle. I checked into it and found out the Fluke company sells replacement soundboards for people who want to paint their old sound boards. The cost to buy one and have them put it on the uke was quite reasonable. Its basically just glued on the plastic body. The company is very user-friendly. You could call them and see what it would cost to replace it.

Otherwise just play on if it isn't causing any problems other than to your psyche.
 
String tension may eventually cause the sound board to belly up, but when I owned a flea that had the built in saddle, I wanted to put an under saddle pickup on it. To do so, I would have had to replace the bridge and saddle. I checked into it and found out the Fluke company sells replacement soundboards for people who want to paint their old sound boards. The cost to buy one and have them put it on the uke was quite reasonable. Its basically just glued on the plastic body. The company is very user-friendly. You could call them and see what it would cost to replace it.

Otherwise just play on if it isn't causing any problems other than to your psyche.
Hahahaha! Yes-- my psyche! As you can see, SWB, I sometimes have a tendency to want to "out-think" things! But truly, thank you for that advice, and I may indeed consider just reaching out to Phyllis about a replacement soundboard, and see what her thoughts are. I had not thought about that, so thank you!
 
Hahahaha! Yes-- my psyche! As you can see, SWB, I sometimes have a tendency to want to "out-think" things! But truly, thank you for that advice, and I may indeed consider just reaching out to Phyllis about a replacement soundboard, and see what her thoughts are. I had not thought about that, so thank you!
Yes - Phyllis was quite helpful when I talked to her about new soundboards. A lot of people painted them back in the day. Its been close to a decade ago, but I don't expect that has changed. I wore out one of the plastic fretboards at the time and their price to replace that was at one time free. I think later they changed to a small fee. Great company for customer service.
 
So, I'm wondering, have you ever discovered a loose brace and decided to just leave it be?
I had an issue with one uke that caused a problem on certain notes. I decided to remove the strings, add some glue around (under?) the brace and was able to put a small squeeze ball through the soundhole to put an upward force against the brace. I imagine anything that pushes the brace against the soundboard will work. I let it dry for a few days.

It solved the issue and so far so good. It has been a few years but I don't know how well it will hold up long term. I'm not sure what the alternative would be. It is a soprano and I can't imagine being able to remove the old glue well enough in such a small instrument.

John
 
I had an issue with one uke that caused a problem on certain notes. I decided to remove the strings, add some glue around (under?) the brace and was able to put a small squeeze ball through the soundhole to put an upward force against the brace. I imagine anything that pushes the brace against the soundboard will work. I let it dry for a few days.

It solved the issue and so far so good. It has been a few years but I don't know how well it will hold up long term. I'm not sure what the alternative would be. It is a soprano and I can't imagine being able to remove the old glue well enough in such a small instrument.

John
Thank you, John! I greatly appreciate your thoughts. I have in fact considered leaving the brace itself alone, and maybe cutting a little wood dowel to a height where I could slide it inside the uke snugly enough so that it acts as sort of a "pillar" in the area in question.
 
Just to clarify. The squeeze ball I used was to apply pressure until the glue dried. Then it was removed.

I would think a permanent brace to the back would limit the soundboard from vibrating properly and have an adverse result.

If the loose brace didn’t impact the sound, I might have just left it.

John
 
Just to clarify. The squeeze ball I used was to apply pressure until the glue dried. Then it was removed.

I would think a permanent brace to the back would limit the soundboard from vibrating properly and have an adverse result.

If the loose brace didn’t impact the sound, I might have just left it.

John
Thanks for that clarification, John. For the time being, I think I'll probably just "keep an eye on it." Have a good weekend!
 
Hey Bill, no one seems to want jump on this, so I will offer my input. As you are not seeing any deleterious effects, you may certainly choose to leave it as is. Most likely it will continue to open up, causing a buzz, but there is no way to know for sure. But in the meantime I would not foresee this causing any catastrophic issues.
Brad, please forgive my oversight in failing to acknowledge or respond to your January 13 response! I don't know how I managed to overlook it, and I greatly appreciate your thoughts. For now, I think I'm just going to monitor the loose brace, and if at some point it seems to be worsening, I may consider sending the uke to the folks at Magic Fluke and seeing if they can swap a new soundboard in there for me. Thanks again to you, and all, for your perspective!
 
Brad, please forgive my oversight in failing to acknowledge or respond to your January 13 response! I don't know how I managed to overlook it, and I greatly appreciate your thoughts. For now, I think I'm just going to monitor the loose brace, and if at some point it seems to be worsening, I may consider sending the uke to the folks at Magic Fluke and seeing if they can swap a new soundboard in there for me. Thanks again to you, and all, for your perspective!
No worries brah, glad to help in any way I can.
 
Don't forget that the braces are structural. A stringed instrument's top is trying to distort under string pressure, and the bracing resists that.

I'd get it fixed, as over time more and more of that brace is likely to come unglued. Fixing it now is easier and cheaper than later on.
 
Don't forget that the braces are structural. A stringed instrument's top is trying to distort under string pressure, and the bracing resists that.

I'd get it fixed, as over time more and more of that brace is likely to come unglued. Fixing it now is easier and cheaper than later on.
Thank you, Chris. I definitely see your point and will reflect further on it.
 
Don't forget that the braces are structural. A stringed instrument's top is trying to distort under string pressure, and the bracing resists that.

I'd get it fixed, as over time more and more of that brace is likely to come unglued. Fixing it now is easier and cheaper than later on.
This. The designer/manufacturer thought the bracing was necessary for a reason. Since it is a Fluke it may be more resistant to developing an issue, but it could become a problem over time.

If it was a more conventionally constructed instrument my answer would be an unqualified, "yes, always."
 
Thank you, Chris. I definitely see your point and will reflect further on it.

You detailed the particular brace in your original post.

Quite a while back now I purchased a second hand Lanikai LU21P (Pineapple Soprano) that came to me with the same fault - can’t say I was happy about that but I didn’t pay too much for it. The soundboard was dipping and likely to take a permanent set so I worked out a repair through the sound hole, ask if you want more details. The repair was a success and I still kick myself for later selling that Uke … I really do need a much bigger room to store all of the Ukes that I’d like to keep. If I can carry out that simple enough repair then a big percentage of other folk can too; rather than risk further damage - and possibly the hassle and costs of getting a new soundboard - I suggest seeing what you might be able to manage sooner rather than later.
 
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You detailed the particular brace in your original post.

Quite a while back now I purchased a second hand Lanikai LU21P (Pineapple Soprano) that came to me with the same fault - can’t say I was happy about that but I didn’t pay too much for it. The soundboard was dipping and likely to take a permanent set so I worked out a repair through the sound hole, ask if you want more details. The repair was a success and I still kick myself for later selling that Uke … I really do need a much bigger room to store all of the Ukes that I’d like to keep. If I can carry out that simple enough repair then a big percentage of other folk can too; rather than risk further damage - and possibly the hassle and costs of getting a new soundboard - I suggest seeing what you might be able to manage sooner rather than later.
Greatly appreciate that, Graham. In all honestly, just a couple of days ago I came to the realization that 1) I seldom seem to give fair play time to any tenor-scale uke that I might happen to own, as I have become such a soprano lover; and 2) it didn't make sense to hang on to an instrument that had this issue which would probably further discourage me from wanting to get attached to it. In other words, why go to the trouble of getting it fixed if I wasn't likely to play it very much anyway? So, I sold it to a local pawn shop. And now I'm re-focused on my soprano. But I truly do appreciate all of the good input that you and many others have offered here!
 
Greatly appreciate that, Graham. In all honestly, just a couple of days ago I came to the realization that 1) I seldom seem to give fair play time to any tenor-scale uke that I might happen to own, as I have become such a soprano lover; and 2) it didn't make sense to hang on to an instrument that had this issue which would probably further discourage me from wanting to get attached to it. In other words, why go to the trouble of getting it fixed if I wasn't likely to play it very much anyway? So, I sold it to a local pawn shop. And now I'm re-focused on my soprano. But I truly do appreciate all of the good input that you and many others have offered here!
So it's no longer a Fluke. ;)
 
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