NUD: Emil Bader (S&J Crafts) Milo Concert Pineapple

robinboyd

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Please excuse my very amateur write up of this uke. I am by no means an expert. I’ve added a short video as well, so you can see my very inexpert playing along with the fluffed bit in the middle.



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In order to give you an understanding of where this uke came from, I need to give you a little backstory. A bit over a year ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Hawaii with my wife and I asked for suggestions about a good uke to buy while I was there. One of the suggestions from a UU member was a handmade uke from Emil Baderof S&J Crafts, which was within my budget and looked awesome. However, I was unable to go and have a look at any of his ukes in person, and I decided to get one that I could try before I bought it instead. However, I followed Global Creations, which is the only stockist of Mr Bader’s ukes, on Facebook. Just recently, they posted a photo of an absolutely gorgeous Milo Pineapple model that I just had to have, so I bought it over the phone and had them ship it to me. It was only $210 plus $65 shipping to Australia!

Firstly, I want to mention that Sharon at Global Creations was an absolute pleasure to deal with. She was totally on top of the whole process and she packed the uke meticulously so there was no chance of it being damaged in transit. I wholeheartedly recommend them if anyone is thinking about buying from them in the future. It is also possible to buy directly from Mr Bader, but I just happened to see a uke that struck my fancy on the Global Creations website.

Now, from this point on, I’m going to be a bit picky. I just want to make it clear at the outset that I love this ukulele and for the price I paid, I consider it to be an exceptionally good buy.

Having unwrapped the uke, there were a few things that struck me. Firstly, it is just as gorgeous as the photos. That Milo wood looks fantastic. It has a flat back, rather than the rounded ones that are in vogue these days, but I don’t mind that. It comes with friction tuners, which took a bit of getting used to, but I don’t mind them. Looking a bit more closely, though, you can see that the join between the two bits of wood on the sound board is a little bit off centre, and there is a strange rounded bit on the top left section of the body, where it looks like Mr Bader had an accident with the sandpaper. There are also a few matt spots in the varnish, such as on the top right of the body. Also the nut has quite deep slots, which means it catches my hand a bit when changing chords at the top of the neck, almost as if I were playing with a capo. However, these are relatively minor faults, and given that I only spent $210 plus $65 shipping on this uke, I can’t expect it to be built like a Kamaka or Moore Bettah.

I gave it a bit of a strum, and found that I had a strong dislike for the strings. I’m not sure what they were, but they were black re-entrant strings with a wound C string. The G string seemed a bit too thick, so I wonder if they were actually a linear set that was used as a re-entrant set. The C string was really rough and squeaky, making it difficult to slide along it. Anyway, I took them off and put some re-entrant PHD fluorocarbon strings on it. The fretboard looked very dry, so I put some “lemon oil” on it while I was at it, which totally changed the colour of the fretboard, but in my opinion, improved the look quite a bit. Once the new strings were on it, I found that it had a beautiful tone and sustain that went on forever. The intonation is not too bad. Nearly perfect on the E and A strings, and just a little bit sharp on the G and C strings. The action is pretty good at the nut, but gets a bit high closer to the bridge. The bridge is removable, so I might see if I can get it filed down at some point, or do it myself. I don’t have the confidence to do it myself just yet, but I’m doing a bit of research, so we’ll see.

Then I found that I was getting some weird sympathetic resonance whenever I play a high G, whether I played it on the G string or the E string. Chords with 2 Gs in them when played with an open G string, such as G, Em, and Cm, sounded absolutely terrible. It was like a rattly muffler in a car. The rattle seemed to go on forever. Far longer than the sustain of the note itself. I was absolutely devastated and posted on UU looking for solutions. I tried a bunch of things, but changing the strings again seemed to do the trick. I put on some Aquila Bionylons that I had lying around. In general, I don’t like the sound as much as the PHDs, and they threw off the intonation a little bit, but they fixed the problem. Now it’s just a matter of finding a set that fix the problem and sound great too.

Anyway, to sum up, although this uke does not have a perfect finish, has a few (fixable) issues with the action and took a bit of fiddling around with the strings, it looks and sounds absolutely beautiful, and it was an absolute steal for the price. I’m very satisfied. However, if this was my first uke and I wasn’t able to fiddle around with strings and action, etc., I might be a little bit put off.

Here is a short list of the pros and cons.

Pros:

Beautiful tone
Beautiful looks
Rare wood
Hand-made
Low price
Pleasant people to deal with

Cons:

Slight imperfections in the finish
Need to adjust action a little bit
Intonation is not perfect, but not too bad
Issues with strings and weird resonance issue
 
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great vid and TOTALLY gorgeous uke!!!!!!! so glad you got the buzz sorted, it sounds truly amazing now!
 
Congratulations Robin. Emil builds beautiful instruments.
I bought a mango concert pineapple from him in 2011 as a Christmas present for my daughter.
She still loves it. :)
Here's to many years of enjoyment with it mate.
It's lovely.
 
That is such a pretty uke, Robin ... and it sounds gorgeous. So pleased you got the "teething problems" sorted.
 
Congratulations Robin. Emil builds beautiful instruments.
I bought a mango concert pineapple from him in 2011 as a Christmas present for my daughter.
She still loves it. :)
Here's to many years of enjoyment with it mate.
It's lovely.

Thanks Mate. I didn't know you had bought one of his ukes. I've already got a mango, so I avoided those this time. The Milo is really different to my mango uke, which is great!
 
That uke looks and sounds gorgeous, Robin ... ...

I agree and I am very happy for you. :)

However that saddle looks HUGELY tall.

A rule of thumb as per Chuck Moore is that when the saddle sits in the slot on the bridge, there should be as near as possible an equal amount of saddle height above the bridge to the amount of saddle that sits in the slot, i.e., near 50/50.

Too much saddle height above the edge of the bridge that faces the nut and you run the risk of the front of the bridge being compromised due to the forces of string tension that are essentially pushing the saddle TOWARDS the nut at all times...

...and too little saddle height above the edge of the bridge and you run into the possibility that the arc of the vibrating string will touch the top of the bridge and then buzz, which will also reduce volume and sustain.

Please keep in mind that this may all be variable from one uke builder across different models, as well as different from one uke builder to the next, since the instruments' designs can vary quite a bit.

The 'string action ruler' will allow you to get the action where it needs to be.

@Val, a 'string action ruler' looks like this below and is used by folks that do a setup on a uke and want it to be at an exact, repeatable height:

ycnth2sg



Best of luck with the new instrument Robin! :music:
 
However that saddle looks HUGELY tall.

I agree. When you look closely, you can actually see it getting pulled forward by the strings. The ruler is in the mail ($6 from eBay). I'll fix it ASAP. Until then, I've loosened the strings to prevent damage.
 
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Glad you like it, sounds nice, a bit like mahogany. :)

I measure my string height with a plastic ruler that I cut the excess of the end, a steel rule would also work. ;)
 
Glad you like it, sounds nice, a bit like mahogany. :)

I measure my string height with a plastic ruler that I cut the excess of the end, a steel rule would also work. ;)

Yeah. If one of those fancy things was going to cost a lot of money, that's what I'd do too, but $6 is not a lot. I might as well get one and do it right.
 
Congratulations on a nice ukulele at a great price!
I have two Milo ukuleles Emil built for me.
Milo wood is very special and more rare than koa,
and was often reserved for the ali'i (chiefs).
It is also the most prized wood for making to'ere, which are the traditional log drums featured prominently in Tahitian music. My Milo concert is LOUD in a good way.
Glad you have it a sorted and best of luck getting it all set up just how you like it.
 
Congratulations on a nice ukulele at a great price!
I have two Milo ukuleles Emil built for me.
Milo wood is very special and more rare than koa,
and was often reserved for the ali'i (chiefs).
It is also the most prized wood for making to'ere, which are the traditional log drums featured prominently in Tahitian music. My Milo concert is LOUD in a good way.
Glad you have it a sorted and best of luck getting it all set up just how you like it.

Thanks for the info. I already love it, and I think I will love it even more once I take the saddle down a little bit.
 
Just to update you guys, I've been taking the saddle down bit by bit over the last few days. The action started out way over 3.5 mm at the 12th fret. After taking more than 2 mm off the saddle, I have got the action down to somewhere between 2.75 and 3 mm. (The guage is really hard to read). It is a whole lot easier to play now and still sounds great. I might try taking it down a smidge more at some point, but it will certainly do until I'm ready to change strings again.
 
You scored Robin, I don't think you could get a milo uke anywhere else or even the wood for that price,
It sounds nice too, happy strummings
 
And now I've found that one of my frets pokes up under the A string so I'm getting fret buzz... I thought they were even, but I was checking down the middle of the fret board, not over on one side. I know this is fixable, but it's really frustrating. It really shows you the value of buying a uke that has been set up properly.
 
Id take it to a luthier to get a full set up and crown the frets

Yep. I'll give them a call tomorrow and see what I can arrange. The prices they have quoted on their websites seem a bit much, but that's for a guitar, so I'm guessing they would do a uke for less.
 
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