New Uke Opening Up

[Jerryc41]

I have an Ohana TK75CG maple/spruce combo that I have had a quite sometime. Have not played at all for quite sometime. I kind of stopped playing like maybe a few weeks after I got it for some unknown reason. Anyway, I starting back and was wondering if ukes open up, as they say, like other stringed instruments? also, is the change usually very noticeable ? Thanks

I've been hearing that your years - the uke opens up over time the more you play it. I've never experienced that, probably because I don't play one uke enough. It just seems too much like magic to me. I think you would need sophisticated audio equipment to tell the difference.

 

[John Colter]

I regard the subject of ukuleles "opening up" much as I do religious belief. If it brings you comfort and a sense of belonging among like minded souls, then there is no harm in it.

 

[badhabits]

...
Find the internet discussions about...

that might be kinda tough if the discussants have deleted their posts...

 

[Mike $]

I regard the subject of ukuleles "opening up" much as I do religious belief. If it brings you comfort and a sense of belonging among like minded souls, then there is no harm in it.

Amen. I wonder when there will be bloodshed between the "Open-uppers" and the "Settle-inners". The Tone Wars. Are people who don't believe in either Atonists?

 

[Kenn2018]

Quoting and agreeing with @ripock, "I have a hard time believing that the change that naturally befalls wooden objects would have a predictable, graduated, and discernible effect". Though I wholeheartedly concur that it's difficult to conceive of even "sinker" tone woods, oddly but genuinely preserved during many decades of constant submersion, undergoing some sort of physical acoustics-properties transformation after being kiln-dried, I also have yet to hear a reasonable explanation for the relatively small volume of sap that continued to seep out of the kiln-dried, primed and painted spruce corner boards on the exterior of my Georgia (US) home during at least five summers after its original construction.

The sinker tone woods actually have minerals that replace some of the resins in the wood that are leached out during its submersion. Somewhat akin to the process of fossilization and helped by the higher pressures underwater. Much of the wood is "old growth". The grain is often tighter and the wood denser than more recent growths of trees.

One of the things luthiers often do is to season the lumber for several years to allow it to dry out and cure. Kiln dried is a method used to speed the process up.

From the CFP Woods blog:
"Torrefied wood consists of heating the wood at a very high temperature (from 190 C to 240 C), in a torrefaction kiln (autoclave) at controlled atmosphere and low in oxygen. The length of the process, as well as the temperature degree sustained during a determined period, depends on the species and the desired color. This technology requires a pre-drying process using conventional kiln driers, to lower the moisture level between 6% and 10%. After that, the torrefaction kiln lowers the moisture level to 0%. Finally, the wood is placed in a conditioning chamber where the temperature is gradually lowered by controlled steam injection. The moisture level of the product is increased between 3% and 6%, in order to give back to the wood its natural flexibility. This conditioning stabilizes the wood and allows better quality manufacturing."

As a luthier once said to me, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, "We spend all that time removing the water from the woods we use. And then the instrument owners are determined to put it all back in."

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

The sinker tone woods actually have minerals that replace some of the resins in the wood that are leached out during its submersion. Somewhat akin to the process of fossilization and helped by the higher pressures underwater. Much of the wood is "old growth". The grain is often tighter and the wood denser than more recent growths of trees.

One of the things luthiers often do is to season the lumber for several years to allow it to dry out and cure. Kiln dried is a method used to speed the process up.

From the CFP Woods blog:
"Torrefied wood consists of heating the wood at a very high temperature (from 190 C to 240 C), in a torrefaction kiln (autoclave) at controlled atmosphere and low in oxygen. The length of the process, as well as the temperature degree sustained during a determined period, depends on the species and the desired color. This technology requires a pre-drying process using conventional kiln driers, to lower the moisture level between 6% and 10%. After that, the torrefaction kiln lowers the moisture level to 0%. Finally, the wood is placed in a conditioning chamber where the temperature is gradually lowered by controlled steam injection. The moisture level of the product is increased between 3% and 6%, in order to give back to the wood its natural flexibility. This conditioning stabilizes the wood and allows better quality manufacturing."

As a luthier once said to me, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, "We spend all that time removing the water from the woods we use. And then the instrument owners are determined to put it all back in."

Excellent point, Ken. I'm consciously avoiding posting inane comments so I intend this as my final one. My late Dad was a master carpenter. I once ranted to him that my 6x6 pressure-treated yellow pine porch columns were starting to crack and laterally twist. He grinned and said, "Son, wood is wood. When it's out in the weather, there are just two kinds: That that's already cracked and twisted and that that ain't done it yet."