shellshocked beginner

well, i purchased a LU-21P ukulele from The Woodwind & Brasswind through Amazon about a month ago. it was my first uke, so i was all excited when it came in. when i opened the box, i got super syked since it came strung up with Aquila strings. i busted out my tuner & tuned the strings individually & strummed a C chord. that's when my excitement went away since it was out of tune. after more tinkering with it, i concluded that the instrument itself had bad intonation. i've been playing guitar for years, so i know i'm not crazy.

i turned around & sold it in hopes to use that money towards a new one, but now i'm kinda worried that my next one will have the same intonation problems. i mean, i've read reviews & such, and they mostly have said that Lanikai is a good brand, but i walked away with a dud. i don't want to get burned again.

that brings me to my question: are there any suggestions on what i should buy next/where to buy it from?

i know this question comes up a lot, but i don't know if everyone's had my situation before. i apologize in advance for any redundancy.

I see you are not new to musical instruments (you've played the guitar), so please excuse me if I am off-target with this suggestion. Ukulele strings take quite a while to settle down when they have been brought up to correct tuning tension for the first time. A new uke, freshly tuned, will keep going out of tune for some days before it settles down. After that it may hold correct tune for a day or so, but it is quite usual to have to tune it several times a day, even with a well settled instrument. I've never played guitar, but I understand they will hold their tune for MUCH longer than a uke.

It may be your Lanikai just needed to be nursed through the settling in period. It can be maddening, when you want to get on with playing the thing, and you have to keep stopping every minute to re-tune.

I'd recommend that you buy from a shop (music store). That way you can satisfy yourself that the uke is to your liking, and don't have to walk out of the door with something that is not satisfactory. It is very unusual for any mass produced uke (above the toy/novelty level) to have serious intonation problems.

Welcome to the wonderful world of uking!

Ukantor.

You really can't go wrong with MGM. He sets up and checks all the ukes he sells before shipping them so you're pretty much guaranteed to get a playable uke out of the box and in the off chance you do get a bum uke, his customer service is excellent. I bought a Makala MK-S "Dolphin Bridge" uke from him a while back and have no complaints.

If you want to stick with the ~$50 range I'd go with a Kala KA-15S. It's not a pineapple like your LaniKai but it's probably the most uke you can get (new) for $50. You can email MGM with your price range and what you're looking for in a uke and he'll set you up with some nice recommendations.

Also, check out this thread for good beginner ukes.

What Ukantor said.

I'm in a band where six of us have started playing ukes fairly recently (it's a 9-piece). Every single one of us had tuning and intonation problems at first, regardless of how cheap or how expensive our ukes are.

The strings certainly do need to stretch and slip for a while before settling. Even when they settle, the stretchy nature of uke string material means that a uke will need tuning much more frequently than a guitar.

Another factor that makes it seem as if a uke has poor intonation is the fact that many, many (most?) ukes leave the factory with the action too high, especially at the nut. This means that as you fret chords you are stretching the strings out of tune.

The first thing I have done on all my 4 ukes (which are all cheap or cheapish), and all my bandmates' ukes has been to lower the action at the nut - and at the saddle on a couple. In every case it has improved, or completely fixed, the intonation issues.

One last thing, those stretchy strings are easy to push out of tune by freting too hard. Try fretting notes lightly - with just enough pressure to hold them against the fret wire. Don't push all the way down to the wood of the fretboard.

Good luck. :shaka:

Lanikais are pretty good, overall, and I've never seen one with a serious intonation problem. I second what others have said here: the strings take some time to settle, so you may have acted hastily.

It's amazing what a few days of playing can do for a uke. What sounded out of tune one day may sound fine the next. Don't despair or give up - be patient. And keep playing.

Also, the neck may bend a bit - changes in humidity during shipping, changes in its new environment, etc. can cause some small shifts that affect intonation and tuning. Once it's in its new home for a few days, it should be okay. Make sure to keep a humidifier in the case if you're in a dry climate. Look through the forum for comments on humidity and ukuleles.

Play some, retune, play some more, retune, repeat as necessary. In a few days you'll find you don't need to retune as often. And at some point you'll realize you haven't had to retune for quite a while. That's the way of most uke strings.

And yes, MGM is a good eBay seller to speak with.

I agree with Ukantor. I have two Lanikais and the strings on both took a few days to settle in. It's the same with my Kamaka. When I put on new strings they went out of tune after about 2 minutes and took around 2 days to settle properly but still required tinkering after a while.

Obviously this doesn't help your current situation but for your next uke give it a few days before you decided on it.

thanks to everyone for their suggestions and advice.

i guess i made it sound like i sold the thing within a few days of receiving it. i actually had it for a month and sold it yesterday, and it was still having the same intonation problems. it wasn't that the strings were going out of tune too fast. it was that i'd tune each string with my tuner, then see if it was in tune with itself (playing a fretted note to match an open string note) and it would be off.

adjusting the nut & saddle isn't exactly my forte. i've thought about doing that with one of my guitars, but i've always been afraid of messing it up. & i tried all sorts of fretting/pressure with the same results.

i probably should have made this post before i sold it.

Was the uke was so far off tune that you could hear it, or were you looking at the tuner, and seeing a small difference which your ears might not have detected on their own? Perfect intonation on a uke is a difficult thing to achieve.

It sounds as though it needed to be set up properly. As a previous poster has said (Buddhu, I think it was), if the action is too high it will throw the notes sharp when you press the string down.

I recently tried to get my Ohana SK35 to intonate perfectly. I managed to get it very close, but eventually had to accept that it was as good as I could get it. It sounded fine even BEFORE I set it up, but I was trying (in vain) to satisfy my electronic tuner. It is a superb instrument for the money.

Ukantor.

oh, i could hear it. like the second string would never be in tune if i tuned it to itself. i had to do a weird thing where it'd be noticeably flat from the first string & sharp from the fourth string. if it was on pitch with one, it'd be super sharp/flat with the other.

yeah, it probably needed some adjusting, but i know nothing about that. instead of paying more money to get it adjusted, i'd rather put my money towards another uke.

well, it's all a moot point now. hopefully i have better luck with my next one. thanks again for all your help. :worship:

bizzy said:

[...] yeah, it probably needed some adjusting, but i know nothing about that. instead of paying more money to get it adjusted, i'd rather put my money towards another uke.[...]

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Good luck, bizzy.

Be aware that, unless you buy a more expensive uke, or buy from someone who does a great pre-delivery set up, it is really very possible that you may encounter tuning issues with other ukes too. They may not be as serious as the ones you found with the first instrument, but new strings and high action are the norm. Even when the strings settle, a high action can make good intonation very, very elusive.

In these days of computer controlled machinery and template mass production it is comparatively rare to find factors such as inaccurately cut fret boards, or mis-aligned bridges causing intonation issues. High action and heavy fretting technique are probably the most frequent causes of poor intonation.

Whatever you buy, if you are not confident to do DIY setup, I would recommend budgeting for a good set up.

At the risk of courting disagreement, IMHO a good setup is essential for any string instrument. I have never owned a guitar, bass, mandolin, fiddle or uke that wasn't transformed by a good setup. A well set up cheap instrument will sometimes play better, and more in tune, than a poorly set up expensive instrument.

I think all uke players would do well to buy a Mahalo or Makala cheapie, a stock of nut and saddle blanks and get used to doing some basic setup tasks. Even go so far as to consider buying a set of nut files. If you're a normal UAS-infected player who is likely to work his/her way through a dozen or more ukes in a few years, it is a worthwhile investment of time and money.

As I say, good luck with your next uke.