How to Re-Glue a Ukulele Bridge

[@marianaquesada7156]

Thank you very much. I don't know anything about this kind of repairs, but you just gave me a hope about my broken uku :(

[@fishpotpete]

I hope your uke gets fixed!

[@moki6903]

I have a broken ukulele too, the bridge popped out :'((

[@isaacvaladez108]

My string broke off the bridge and bridge is broken 😔

[@mondragonmsaul308]

I bought a $250 uke for 90 at gc because the bridge is losening

[@sarablowers0927]

No cats were yelled at during the curing of this glue :) made me laugh! Thank you for this video. Going to try and reglue my Uke bridge now.

[@fishpotpete]

You should see them when I change strings on my guitars! More fun than a laser light :-)

[@anneeisinger45]

Thanks for this. My beloved uke’s bridge popped off today, and now I know I can fix her up myself.

[@fishpotpete]

Excellent! Let us know how it turns out!

[@joshgarcia4324]

i had my uke broken long time ago, and this was the only time i can actually try and repair it, ur video helps so muchh

[@michaelbailey680]

Just watched your video and followed it. Thanks, I just rebuilt a very nice curved back ukulele for my wife after she bought two in a box at an online auction. I used the parts from one and under 1/2 an hour she now has an electric acoustic concert ukulele by marshall. Much appreciation to you sir.

[@fishpotpete]

That is awesome!

[@MrTelboy1962]

I pulled my Eko Uke out of it's bag today and found the bridge had detached itself! I thought about how I might repair it then watched this video. You just made that repair so much simpler (I was looking at using clamps etc) So When the glue arrives I'll be getting on with the job. Many thanks

[@fishpotpete]

Hope it works out for you! The one in the video is still going strong :-)

[@senorkapowssite]

Thank you very much. Been searching for a video like yours for a few hours now. I have a very old Charango which are about the size of an Ukulele. Family friends borrowed it for about 20 years, yep that long, and it came back to me with bridge no longer attached. Will give your method a go in the next few days, once I can get the glue. Thanks again.

[@fishpotpete]

Wow! What a reunion... "Here's your Charango back. BTW, it's broken." - Best of luck with that! Let us know if you fix it.

[@fishpotpete]

I just watched a couple of videos with Charango players. Very cool! I never heard or heard of them before. Of course, now I need to get one :-)

[@senorkapowssite]

@@fishpotpete There is lots of Charango in Simon and Garfunkel "el condor pasa". I think there are 3, including one with metal strings.

[@davidhart6900]

A good piece of work never gets old Well done my friend-:)

[@fishpotpete]

Thank you! And my granddaughter is using the ukulele now and she loves it!

[@davidhart6900]

@@fishpotpete Hi I’d like to know the title of the song you played; i want to learn that Tune-:) Thank You 🙏 for your video I just Re glued a yoke for my wife’s ukulele Hura-:)

[@fishpotpete]

@@davidhart6900 This will give you the basic chords I based my version on. I do a lot of finger picking, so I added the melody notes. But you don't have to make it hard on yourself to enjoy the song! Just strumming the chords is a lot of fun also! www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/49323177/five-foot-two-eyes-of-blue-doctor-uke

[@davidhart6900]

@@fishpotpete Wowie Hey 👋 thank you 🙏 very much, I really appreciate you-:)

[@NoodlyNobody]

Just wanted to come back and say thank you for your video! I broke the bridge on my acoust-electric "Les Paul" style ukulele about two years ago in the trunk of my car 😰 and was postponing getting it repaired because I thought it would be expensive, so I kept thinking "maybe I'll just do it myself--but what if I completely wreck it?!" Fall 2020, I finally looked up and found out that the repair was only about $20 less than if I just bought a brand new of the same uke. I watched your video about two months ago and felt really confident, and my buddy gave me some glue just like yours and sandpaper last week so I'm finally gettin it done! I did the first steps yesterday, I didn't have any clamps or anything like that but luckily my ukulele lays pretty flat and balanced naturally, and I stacked a small pile of books on top, a more "plush, soft cover" book at the base and then some shorter hardback books on top of that. Just sat down today to finish up and I started getting worried because I had a decent line of tape stuck under the edge, so I wanted to come back to your same video again and check if there was any tips or warnings I forgot about getting the tape out -- A RAZOR! DOH! Yesterday I was using bent up old post-its to get the wet extra glue seepage out, I forgot the razor! Anyway, I'm just finishing up now and it looks great and seems really secure, good-as-new I'd say! I'm really glad you made this video and I'm so happy I found it and took the plunge to do the repair on my own. In my case, the glue job was a lot better from the factory than I think the uke in this video was, so I didn't even sand my surfaces down completely flat, just so everything was smooth and there was no jagged edges, but still just some "rolling hills" and I used an alcohol wipe to get all the dust gone before gluing. I think I may have used a little heavy on the glue but I made sure to really try to squeeze and squeegee it out while still wet, and I found that having the matching "hills" made it really easy to make absolutely sure the placement was correct, as it still softly "notched into place" when gluing. If I ever have another mishap, or come across a good deal on an already-broken ukulele, I know where I'll be referring back to!

[@NoodlyNobody]

I forgot to say, just in case anyone checks the comments for advice -- before stacking the books, I spent probably 20+ minutes applying pressure with my hands and removing the excess glue, and once I couldn't seem to get any more glue out, then I did place one long strip of the same painting tape over the top of the bridge and wrapped it decently-taught to stick on the back of the body on each side as well; THEN start the book stacking.

[@fishpotpete]

Wow, what a wonderful DIY success story! I'm really glad you were able to do the fix. Folks like you are the reason I do these videos because I also depend on these videos just like you. I like to think I'm giving back to the DIY community :-) Thank you for sharing!

[@Benson_Bear]

@@NoodlyNobody Nice story. Like your piano pieces too, will look for some ukulele transcriptions ;-o

[@ToddLorencmusic]

Great job my friend I need to do this to one of my ukuleles! Thank you very much!

[@fishpotpete]

Best of luck on your repair! Let us know how it turns out!

[@robertdavidson1215]

That answered my questions , I have a Diamond Head soprano that the bridge came off of.

[@fishpotpete]

Good luck with that! Let us know how it turns out :-)

[@link-182]

Thanks for this video ive had two ukuleles bridge rip off. My second was a cleaner rip so im hoping i can fix it. I thought it was my fault some how but after watching this i looked and both bridges where warped so hopefully i can sand it down flat.

[@fishpotpete]

I'm really shocked at how many people tell me about these popping off! I've only seen one or two guitars in my life where that happened. And they have a lot more tension on the strings. Seems like the Uke makers need to step up their game.

[@link-182]

@fishpotpete yeah I'm gonna try to fix this one but I think I might look into a higher quality ukulele as well

[@twangmeister]

Great video as I've just come back from a holiday to find the bridge has popped off of one of my ukes in the hot weather. Could I ask about the approximate weight of the mic you used in place of a clamp?

[@fishpotpete]

I'm guessing about 3-5 pounds maybe? It just needs to be enough to squash the glue evenly and ensure good contact between the two pieces. I know some people will want to clamp things like this as tight as possible - but I don't think it's really needed. BTW - mine is still holding up to this day 🙂

[@CesarLardaro]

Bless thanks

[@GalaxyAV34]

Well in my ukulele they use screw instead of glue so when I try to glue it the screw block it and the bridge tilt a bit in the up. So I have a fears if I try to tune that you play again I will be broke that bridge again. What should I do?

[@fishpotpete]

I guess I'm not clear how they screwed the bridge on? Do you have a model/make on that? I know guitars will sometimes use screws to attach the bridge to the body, so I know it's not unheard of. Keep in mind that the Uke's strings don't put a lot of tension on the bridge (relative to a guitar bridge). But they do seem to pop off more that I would expect. Seems like you should be able to re-screw the bridge (maybe with some backing and new screws/bolts?) and not worry about gluing it. Do you have a model/make on that? Maybe I can find a picture somewhere and give you better advice.

[@GalaxyAV34]

@@fishpotpete well I try. It came off again. Should I use wood glue? But if it ruins the paint?

[@GalaxyAV34]

@@fishpotpete well you can check my channel. I post a shots about my broken bridge.

[@miahoover9225]

My bridge is still attached. The very bottom of the bridge has pulled up slightly. It's a cedar top.

[@Benson_Bear]

I bought a ukulele to give as a gift, and I didnt notice the bridge was already lifted at the back when new. It appears to lack glue under that part. The owner didin't use it until after the warranty was up and the store won't do anything about it except reglue the bridge which I gather costs about as much as the ukulele, so I may try myself. But it seems that one needs a lot of tools. Most videos I saw have some fancy expensive clamp as I gather you do for guitars. But you found that a heavy weight like this did the job okay? It seems one can't use that heavy of a weight since it will press the top down too much when not balanced by force from the other side of the clamp? If its okay to use a heavy weight on one side, I may proceed to attempt to remove the bridge and replace it with an amazon purchased replacement (bridge is already warped out of shape). Otherwise I will just leave it until it comes off on its own. Does this make sense. Thanks

[@fishpotpete]

I agree - lack of clamps is a watch-out. And I think they're too expensive to only use once. But like you say, you have to be careful about piling a bunch of stuff on top of the uke. The little mic stand I used only weighs a little over 2 pounds. That was plenty of weight to keep things secure and "clamped". The bridge is still holding up after 2.5 years so I think it worked just fine. Alternatively, if you really needed some clamping power without clamps, you could build up a bracing system inside the instrument itself so much heavier weighs could be used. But I'd fell safe using up to a 5 pound weight without back bracing for something like this. As you're putting weight on the sound board, just look for any deflection/etc that would indicate excessive weight. As far you your bridge is concerned, if it's more or less in the same state of partial attachment as before, you might want to go ahead and carefully remove it now. If you wait for it to come off on it's own, it might take some of the soundboard with it. I would CAREFULLY use a heat gun (or even a hair dryer) and a razor blade and start on the side that's still attached - try to heat the just the bridge, not the soundboard! Maybe mask off the soundboard with some cardboard while you do that.

[@Benson_Bear]

@@fishpotpete Thanks for the further tips. Despite the gap, the bridge appears to be stuck on pretty solid, so I think it is okay to leave it for a while. Unless I have to, I am not keen on trying this and messing up the ukulele which currently can still be played by its owner. Not sure she would want me trying this at this point. I am still going to try to get the manufacturer or dealer to do something about it since they sold it in this condition to begin with. But eventually I may have to try this. Actually it seems like an intriguing challenge.

[@fishpotpete]

@@Benson_Bear Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[@phoenixkay7191]

👋 I have a vintage baritone that needs some glue to the sound box. Could you tell me what kind of clamps would work? I know you didn't use them for this project but thought I'd ask anyway.

[@fishpotpete]

If it's a vintage/EXPENSIVE baritone, then I might suggest taking it to a luthier. Not seeing what the actual issue is, it's hard for me to suggest anything. Can you email me some pictures? I'd be happy to take a look. [e-mail]

[@briannaguzman636]

I have a question does wood gorila glue work????

[@fishpotpete]

Yes, any quality wood glue if perfect. Good luck!

[@kakashix7220]

My ukulele bridge has 2 nails in it and it’s off on one of the nails and the other nail is in tact. Idk what to do or how to fix that. Help please?🥺

[@katrinabirss4747]

Mine too, mine isn't coming off as such but has a crack under the saddle 😭

[@haroldrull4943]

Nice job. If you think the bridge is too low, just change the saddle. I remember of that curator at the Smithsonian, was that you or just sounds the same... keep strumming.

[@fishpotpete]

He must be my doppelganger!

[@rafaquino8281]

whats a saddle sir?

[@fishpotpete]

@@rafaquino8281 The saddle is the thin white piece that fits in the bridge and is the part the strings actually sit on. I don’t talk too much about it in the video, but you first see it at 16:40. It’s the long white insert on the sound hole side of the bridge. Those are removable (and easy to loose!) and can be adjusted/replaced as needed.

[@rafaquino8281]

@@fishpotpete sir can i replace it? because mine broke

[@rafaquino8281]

@@fishpotpete ooohhh thank you sir. you really helped me a lot. i thought the saddle is irreplaceable. *phew* what a relief

[@13001958]

hows the bridge holding, since aug 2018

[@fishpotpete]

It's doing fine. I pull it down from time to time to to let my grandkids make some noise with it and it's none the worse for wear :-)

[@13001958]

@@fishpotpete the reason i asked is, i just did same thing with my uke and i used titebond, but the came off after 4 days

[@fishpotpete]

@@13001958 Wow, I wouldn't have expected that! Where the two surfaces sanded down to the bare wood and the Titebond their wood glue product - or some other Titebond product?

[@13001958]

@@fishpotpete Titebond Liquid Hide Glue - 118ml (4floz) 600224

[@jeffreycunningtown5730]

I prefer to build with Woodglut plans.