Ukulele Setup

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Cheon

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Hi guys

I recently bought a Ukulele off Thomann.de (the Kala Makala Concert, MK-C) but only later found out what people actually mean by "setup", which I thought to be only tuning related stuff. Now the Uku is on the way, probably here tomorrow or the day after and I have no idea how to tune or any tools. I don't know of any professionals in the place I live either and I heard doing the setup costs around 40€~ anyways, which doesn't seem to be a very good investment for a 75€ Ukulele.

So I wanted to ask; how do the Makala ukuleles usually look like out of production? Are they nigh unplayable without setting it up or can I use it for a while to practice? How will I be able to tell how "flawed" the ukulele is and if it is handicapping me? Can I teach myself to set it up (the saddle/nut I'm assuming) with household tools?

Thanks in advance!
 
 
"So I wanted to ask; how do the Makala ukuleles usually look like out of production?"

You'll know in about 48 hours. lol Let us know. Might be fine. Might not be.
 
My Makala Dolphin needed work, but was not awful. Lowering the nut and saddle made it much better. Many others experience the same with Dolphins. YMMV
 
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?94805-Makala-Concert-Ukulele
My review over a year of playing the MK-C.

I bought that same ukulele a year ago April. I did not have it set up. I enjoyed the heck out of that uke. After I got my Mainland, it was time to change strings on the Makala, so I did a little work on the saddle by lapping it down on a piece of sand paper to lower the action. Honestly, if there was any change in the playability by lowering the action like that, it was slight. Of course, there is always a clunker floating around, but if yours is anything like mine, you will get along just fine.

I would advise you to play it a while before you get all caught up with modifying it in any way. I learned a lot from my Makala, and one of the biggest was to just learn how to play it, and not to worry about the uke.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

Rllink said:
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?94805-Makala-Concert-Ukulele
My review over a year of playing the MK-C.

I bought that same ukulele a year ago April. I did not have it set up. I enjoyed the heck out of that uke. After I got my Mainland, it was time to change strings on the Makala, so I did a little work on the saddle by lapping it down on a piece of sand paper to lower the action. Honestly, if there was any change in the playability by lowering the action like that, it was slight. Of course, there is always a clunker floating around, but if yours is anything like mine, you will get along just fine.

I would advise you to play it a while before you get all caught up with modifying it in any way. I learned a lot from my Makala, and one of the biggest was to just learn how to play it, and not to worry about the uke.
Click to expand...

You have no idea how much you eased my mind with this! Hoping that yours wasn't a one in a thousand kind of ukulele and mine turns out well too. These videos posted here on how to setup seem rather complicated and I'm not very gifted in that kind of expertise.

What kind of strings did you get? I ordered some Aquila Nylgut with them. I guess I'll play a bit with the stock ones first so I can tell the difference between bad/good strings later on.

Will give you guys an update when I get the thing!
 
Cheon said:
Thanks for the replies.



You have no idea how much you eased my mind with this! Hoping that yours wasn't a one in a thousand kind of ukulele and mine turns out well too. These videos posted here on how to setup seem rather complicated and I'm not very gifted in that kind of expertise.

What kind of strings did you get? I ordered some Aquila Nylgut with them. I guess I'll play a bit with the stock ones first so I can tell the difference between bad/good strings later on.

Will give you guys an update when I get the thing!
Click to expand...
When my stock strings wore out, I started using Aquila Nylgut strings. They are better than what came on it, but someone posted that their Makala came with Aquila. Anyway play what is on it for a while, then change them out.
 
Wait till it arrives. Tune it up with the stock strings. Play it till it goes out of tune. Tune it back up. You might do this for a few days even. My Luna concert uke that came straight out of a Guitar Center store with no setup took forever until the stock Aquila strings settled in and held a tune. Those strings lasted for over 2 years before I changed them. It could possibly use a bit of a setup to be perfect, but I like it the way it is. I went to Martin M600 strings and love them. But before you panic, go throwing money into a setup, or do anything just play it for a while. Then when you do get a setup or change strings you will have a baseline to work from. How can you tell if an instrument plays better after a setup if you never played it enough before the setup to know? I just received a Kala tenor from HMS and they do a setup and inspection before delivery. Is it better now than before? I have no idea. But it plays like butter and I have yet to find a reason to think it isn't setup to perfection.
 
So I got it about an hour ago and it did come with Aquila strings stock.

It looks fine to me except two things:
- when I mute the strings and shake the ukulele there's a rattle sound coming from the head (no idea why)
- the first fret is incredibly hard to press down

The first fret is around 1.6 mm from the strings, the last one around 4 mm. I'm guessing this is a little high, what numbers should I aim for? Is it as simple as taking out the nut/saddle, going a bit with sandpaper over and putting them back?
 
Cheon said:
So I got it about an hour ago and it did come with Aquila strings stock.

It looks fine to me except two things:
- when I mute the strings and shake the ukulele there's a rattle sound coming from the head (no idea why)
- the first fret is incredibly hard to press down

The first fret is around 1.6 mm from the strings, the last one around 4 mm. I'm guessing this is a little high, what numbers should I aim for? Is it as simple as taking out the nut/saddle, going a bit with sandpaper over and putting them back?
Click to expand...

As far as the nut is concerned, removing it is not recimmended. It should be glued in place. Taking it out and trying to put it back cleanky and kevel is a bit complicated.

The usual fix for the nut is to file the slots to get the string to a comfortable height. The danger is using a file which widens the slot so the string vibrates sideways (buzzing) and going too deep (making a slot higher is not easy, either). The most inexpensive and effective files are "welding rid tip cleaners" sold at all major hardware stores, usually in a blue metal case for $5-10 (EBay has them, too).(see photo) The tips are like mini circular files of various diameters. The blue case set should have a tip of the same width of each nut slot. Also, since the tip is a round file, the bottom of the slot is alsi rounded, and that helps prevent any pinching ir gouging ofthe string.

The saddle can be removed and the base sanded to bring it down. The danger is to sand off too much so that when a string is fretted that that the string makes accudental contact with another fret closer to the body. Shims can be put into the saddle slot to boost the height if too much is sanded away, but it is better to just be conservative and careful.

Hope that helps a little

image.jpg
 
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SteveZ said:
The usual fix for the nut is to file the slots to get the string to a comfortable height. The danger is using a file which widens the slot so the string vibrates sideways (buzzing) and going too deep (making a slot higher is not easy, either). The most inexpensive and effective files are "welding rid tip cleaners" sold at all major hardware stores, usually in a blue metal case for $5-10 (EBay has them, too).(see photo) The tips are like mini circular files of various diameters. The blue case set should have a tip of the same width of each nut slot. Also, since the tip is a round file, the bottom of the slot is alsi rounded, and that helps prevent any pinching ir gouging ofthe string.
Click to expand...
I got a set of Aquila soprano fifths-tuned nylgut strings. The .027" wound low G was just a tad wide for its slot in the plastic bridge of the cheap Kohala KT-SPI 'uke. I have no mini-files and didn't know about welding tips. Solution: a wound .028" guitar string just removed from another axe I'm working on. A little back-n-forth nicely widened and smoothed the channel. Now I need merely wait a week for the strings to finish stretching. :rolleyes:
 
Cheon said:
- when I mute the strings and shake the ukulele there's a rattle sound coming from the head (no idea why)
Click to expand...
Have a look at the various washers on the tuners, something might just be loose there - in any case I wouldn't worry too much about it.

- the first fret is incredibly hard to press down
The first fret is around 1.6 mm from the strings, the last one around 4 mm. I'm guessing this is a little high, what numbers should I aim for?
Click to expand...
First of all: don't fret too hard (this is a common mistake), the uke strings need a lot less pressure than you think ;-) Press down gently until the sound is clear and try to remember this amount of pressure - there's no need to squeeze the string into the fretboard...

Regarding modifications:
(1) sooner or later you might try some fluorocarbon strings from ukumele.de (in fact I'd prefer them over the Aquilas on that uke); changing strings is pretty easy.
(2) with regards to setup I would recommend to join a ukulele meeting in your area (don't know where that is so I can't be more specific - the German Ukulelenclub forum might be a starting point) and ask for help there, you'll always find someone with the necessary skills and tools to help you lowering the nut action.
 
k0k0peli said:
I got a set of Aquila soprano fifths-tuned nylgut strings. The .027" wound low G was just a tad wide for its slot in the plastic bridge of the cheap Kohala KT-SPI 'uke. I have no mini-files and didn't know about welding tips. Solution: a wound .028" guitar string just removed from another axe I'm working on. A little back-n-forth nicely widened and smoothed the channel. Now I need merely wait a week for the strings to finish stretching. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I've done that, too, before I found out about the welding rod tips. Got thie info about thw elding rod tips on a mandolin forum. Have one of those mini-hacksaws (holds about half of a regular havksaw blade) and used to wind the guitar string around the binding posts. The $5 welding rod tips really saved a bunch of money over buying special files from a luthier supply shop and definitely cut down on the profanity while trying to get the nut trimmed.
 
My concert Ohana came with absolutely no setup and did not play smoothly at all. I took it to the local guitar shop and had a set up done. Plays like butter now.
 
Another source of files for the nut is needle files such as are used by model makers. I have some from my model railway days and I used one to file down the nut on one of my ukes. They are tapered so you can control the filing if you are gentle. I used a triangular one whose profile matched the nut slots pretty well but I also have a round one. It's a matter of loosen the strings file just a little, tune up and check. Repeat as necessary. I ended up with better intonation but I still had to be careful about not pressing down too hard as the fret wires were quite large but it plays very nicely on the whole. I left it as I did as I didn't want to overdo it and end up with buzzing frets.
 
Rllink said:
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?94805-Makala-Concert-Ukulele
My review over a year of playing the MK-C.

I bought that same ukulele a year ago April. I did not have it set up. I enjoyed the heck out of that uke. After I got my Mainland, it was time to change strings on the Makala, so I did a little work on the saddle by lapping it down on a piece of sand paper to lower the action. Honestly, if there was any change in the playability by lowering the action like that, it was slight. Of course, there is always a clunker floating around, but if yours is anything like mine, you will get along just fine.

I would advise you to play it a while before you get all caught up with modifying it in any way. I learned a lot from my Makala, and one of the biggest was to just learn how to play it, and not to worry about the uke.
Click to expand...

Bingo! Most ukes are playable but not perfect. I'm guessing we tend to think a perfectly set up uke is going to make us play much better from the get go. But that's not the case. My first uke was a cheapo. I learned a ton on it. I also figured out eventually that it had a bad buzz on the 12 fret on the A string. But I never knew. Had I known I think I would have been in a state of high anxiety about it even though I never used it and hence I may never have made the progress I made.

So while a nice set up is certainly desirable I'll bet there's been a lot of great players (by my standards) who knew little to nothing about it.
 
ubulele said:
For any uke you actually intend to play, a good setup is worth whatever you have to pay for it, regardless of the cost of the uke itself. Don't get trapped in the mindset that, since your instrument was cheap, everything for it should be cheap as well. One reason they're cheap is because no one spent the extra time required setting them up for good playability. Consider setup a standard hidden cost, and spring for it.
Click to expand...

+1

Having had the experience of buying an instrument from a "real music store" in the mid to late 80's I assure you every instrument sold was not allowed to leave the store until it had been inspected and setup.

Today's consumer is only looking for the best deal so the setup is now thought of as something only good sellers do or only expensive instruments deserve. Yes playing a badly setup instrument will discourage you from playing and much worse will help you develop bad habits.

Spend the 40 and have it done professionally for your first ukulele. This way you have something to go by next time. Good god dont knock off your nut like that guy in the crappy video. Welding tip cleaners are simply not made to remove material besides built up carbon on welding tips. I dont understand good results with them. I use cheap "files" from HF myself. You could cut lines in the edge of a feeler gauge and make a better file than a welding tip cleaner.

Of course the real files are sold at stewmacs and other places but consumerism says good enough will do. lol
 
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Inksplosive AL said:
Having had the experience of buying an instrument from a "real music store" in the mid to late 80's I assure you every instrument sold was not allowed to leave the store until it had been inspected and setup.
Click to expand...
Two of my last three 'ukes came from 'real' small-town music stores fairly recently. I could have bought those models for less online. But coming from the stores, they were perfectly setup. (Their crews really hadn't much else to do in their copious spare time but put instruments into shape.) My Kala KA6 tenor 'uke and Arts et Lutherie maple guitar both came from People's Music in Sebastopol CA -- great folks! Of the five stringed instruments I've bought online, three (a simple soprano 'uke, a fretless cigar-box guitar, and Rogue RM-100A mando) were just about perfect; one (an ancient banjo-uke) needed a total re-doing; and the last (a Les Paul clone) needed extensive setup. I managed to squeak through that last one thanks to a guitar setup guide.

If I buy from a shop, I expect the instrument to be instantly playable before it leaves the door. (That's my rule for pawnshop exes too.) If I buy online, I expect the worst and am quite happy to get something better. And if I order some higher-end instrument online for a 'bargain' price, I'll expect it to be worth paying for a pro setup. That's just part of its cost.
 
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