Don’t let your prized ukuleles end up in the UKULELE GRAVEYARD – protect your investment with proper storage and care solutions.

Racks

The closer your ukulele is to the ground, the closer it is to being six feet under. Get your collection of instruments up and organized on a rack or two, and you’ll not only have them looking nice and tidy, but when they’re designated to a specific area and separate from toys and games, they’re less likely to be treated like a toy. Some teachers opt for mountable wall hooks to keep their ukuleles out of reach from little goblins and ghouls. You can even use pegboard to design your own custom ukulele mount area.

Cases

A ukulele is kind of like a vampire – sleeping in a coffin helps it live for a thousand years! If every ukulele had a coffin, or case rather, we’d see a lot less ukuleles scratched, dropped, broken, or dried out and cracked from low humidity. It’s not always realistic to purchase a hard case for every instrument, so gig bags do a great job keeping ukuleles safe from light dings and dents. A gig bag also helps keep the dust at bay – if the bridge starts pulling away from the front of your ukulele, dust can make its way in and continue to push the bridge up and off, and before you know it, you’re attending an unexpected burial.

Humidification

Ideally, you want your ukuleles and guitars stored at 45-55% relative humidity, year-round. As temperatures drop and furnaces kick on, the indoor humidity can get down to 25% or 15%. At these humidity levels, wood starts to dry out and shrink, metal and glue stay in place, and instruments start to crack and split at the seams. Be careful of your frets – they’ll begin to poke out the sides of the neck and cut your fingers! While guitars are under more tension than ukuleles and are more susceptible to humidity changes, you’ll want to keep an eye on your ukuleles as well. You can control humidity by keeping instruments in a case with a small humidifier, or with a larger room humidifier near your ukulele storage. Ukuleles and guitars that show signs of dryness can often be saved by returning to proper humidity levels with a case and humidifier. Plastic ukuleles tend to be more durable and are less prone to these issues.

Cleaning Supplies

If your ukuleles start to look spooky from grime and dirt and sticky candy-coated fingers, a quick wipe down should get them right again. Dirty instruments are more likely to be treated like dirt – cleaning your ukuleles for just a few minutes a week will help make sure they command respect for years to come.

Extra Strings

The longer a ukulele sits with a broken string, the more likely it won’t get repaired and won’t get picked up and played again. Keep extra strings on hand so your ukuleles are always ready for a strum. If you don’t enjoy tying loose nylon ends onto a bridge, you can purchase strings with easy-to-use ball ends instead.

Over the years, we’ve seen way too many instruments prematurely laid to rest in the UKULELE GRAVEYARD – follow these recommendations and your ukuleles will make it through many more full moons, Friday the 13ths, and Happy Halloweens!