How much can we lower the action on the first fret?

Aloha, Booli!

Thank you for the link of nut and saddle sander. I am afraid that I have already done this job before your information. But I've put it in my wish list. It is bit pricey to me. I wonder if we could find similar item very cheap in aliexpress.



I sanded the first string side of side face (d in the figure) a bit in order to fit it in the nut slot. We always need to sand unimportant side. Side e is more important than side d, because side e face to the fret board edge. And top is important side and bottom is unimportant side. We sand bottom. C is the sanded one and B is the original one. I sanded it until the 1st and 6th string has appropriate clearance (see the circle in the figure). I set the clearance almost zero on them this time. Acoustic guitar (in this case) has radius fretboard, I sometimes need minor adjustment for it in nut grooves. But most ukulele are straight and normally I just sand the bottom and am ok. If we are very careful and check several times, we can manage the bottom very accurate with only sandpaper (see the figures).



Why I lower the action as much as I could was that I wanted to play this hammer on more easily in arpeggio. And I am very happy to play it now and it turns to my favorite instrument.

I've just received two pieces of nuts (74mm x 3mm x12 mm) this morning from aliexpress. I shaved bottom of the nut (see the figures) by sandpaper. Action is 2mm on 6th string and 1.5mm on 1st string. Intonation is good.



When we lower action 1/2 mm, we need to shave 1mm (see the figure below).

Those are bridge saddles, mate. Nut is the other end.

With all due respect to zztush, I do like him and his posts, this thread needs to be moved. Either Uke Talk or Uke Tech Support would be more appropriate. As a beginner I came to this subform to ask questions on the very basics, like strumming patterns or how to switch from F to G. Someone new to the ukulele might be very intimidated by all this technical stuff, we have subforums for that.

This is just my opinion, no ill will is intended.

Camsuke said:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Dave. I agree that these posts need to be placed in an area where they will receive a balanced response from experienced members. Placing posts such as this in the beginners section is quite simply asking for trouble.

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Too much information for beginners that's for sure.

buddhuu said:

Those are bridge saddles, mate. Nut is the other end.

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The diagram shows the relation ship between nut, 12th fret and saddle in terms of action. This is a important point in this thread.

zztush said:

The diagram shows the relation ship between nut, 12th fret and saddle in terms of action. This is a important point in this thread.

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It may be important, but you refer to "nuts" and post a picture that shows saddles. If the image of saddles somehow relates to the nut adjustments you've been discussing then I'm afraid the text of the post doesn't make it clear.

I'm moving this thread to Tech Support as quite rightly suggested. I feel that this thread would benefit from contributions from more people with experience of instrument repair and set-up. As it stands I'm not convinced that some of the advice given is best practice and so the Beginners' area probably isn't the best place for it.