Ukulele Repair S.S. Maxwell

Ukulele Repair

S. S. Maxwell

Back when you could take summer school for "fun," my parents would insist that I attend. During my middle school years('74, '75, '76), that meant heading to Nimitz Junior High School in Huntington Park, away from the nuns that taught me normally at St. Rose of Lima in Maywood. The interesting part is that a dozen years later, I would begin my teaching career back at Nimitz, and many of the teachers were still around.

Pried off bridge to attempt to reglue.

I signed up for Woodshop one of those summers, thinking that would be interesting and quickly discovering that I had no aptitude for wood working. In hindsight, I think it reflected my incredible lack of patience, and though the lessons I learned sunk in, I was unable to use them at the time that I learned them. (On a side note, the Shop teacher was still at Nimitz when I started teaching there, but of course did not remember me in the slightest. Word was that Alzheimer's was kicking in, and he would occasionally be seen wandering the campus during his final year. I don't remember his name, meaning that perhaps my age is finally getting to me).

As some kids raced through projects, making cutting boards and bowls and stools and such, I think I was able to make a shark and a crooked skateboard. I think there was something else, too, but I don't remember what it was. 

Residue

With Elmer's

But I did remember many of the things we were                                                                                                                                                                                                                             supposed to learn, and have used them for various projects here in the house, including a bench that I'm very proud of and shelves in the closets. When I accidentally left my vintage  S.S. Maxwell outside after a barbecue, which was then followed by a light rain, the bridge popped off and I figured that I had enough skill to glue it back on again.

Popped Again!

Not a lot of information is available for the S.S. Maxwell. It was made in Chicago by Regal, and I'm guessing this one to date from the mid '50's. It appears to be solid wood, but I don't know what kind of wood. Basically, it's like the zillion other ukuleles produced in Chicago by Regal, Harmony and others. Initially, I used some Elmer's Wood Glue that I had laying around. My first attempt had the bridge slide a bit when I clamped it, bring the A string too close to the edge of the fretboard, and making the uke a bit of a challenge to play. I took the bridge off to try again, but this time the bridge popped right back off when I was tuning it up. I'm sure that I've had the Elmer's for at least five years, and apparently, glue has a shelf life. Surfing the internet and looking at ukulele repair, I learned that hide glue is what is supposed to be used.

Pencil Marks

Titebond Hide Glue

The hide glue that most luthiers use comes in pellets and has to be melted down in a special burner-far more than my limited patience and ability was ready to handle. Then I found a few websites that refer to Titebond Liquid Hide Glue in their repairs, saying it was much easier to work with and seemed to work about as well.

I just won an auction for an old Silvertone guitar with a broken bridge, and also picked up a Richter Ukulele that lost it's bridge when I was changing it's strings. So since I have a few more instruments that need bridges glued on, I figured that buying the Titebound was a "sound" investment.

Clamped Again!

Another View

I remeasured the bridge placement on the S.S. Maxwell, and after I sanded away all the previous residue, I marked the bridge placement with a pencil and glued the bridge back on.

Leaving the bridge clamped for almost 30 hours seemed to work. I strung it up yesterday, and everything was still attached today, and even staying pretty close to in tune.

If I were a really conscientious ukulele repairman, I'd figure out a way to remove the excess glue. Initially, I had the ukulele clamped up straight, but that caused glue to run down the face and on to my workbench. Using a paper towel, I quickly wiped that up, and put the ukulele on it's back. I used a wet paper towel to clean the excess.

Glued on and ready to play!

Here it is after the repair.

Here's what it sounds like.