Brand new Pono, changed strings & now a buzz

rreffner

rreffner

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I bought a new Pono concert yesterday. It came with Ko'olau strings. This morning I put Aquila strings on and I have a buzz on the 'A' string when played open. I didn't have a buzz with the Ko'olau strings. All the other strings seem OK. Any suggestions. Mahalo
 
You can also try playing it for a few days. When I changed my strings out for a Low G set, there was a buzz too, but now it went away. Not sure why, though.
 
Is the string coming in contact with the first fret? If so, you might be able to raise the saddle with a shim but don't get the action to high at the 12th fret. The other option is to fill and recut the nut or, if it is not glued in, put a shim underneath. One other thing to check is to make sure that the locking nuts on the tuners are tight. Sometimes on new ukes they loosen up and then buzz when you play.
 
Aquila strings tend to be a bit thicker than other strings, so that may contribute to it. As other people have mentioned, sometimes the buzz just goes away after the strings have settled. Another thing you can try is putting on worth strings, which are a bit thinner. But sadly that might mean you wasted the Aquila set.
 
experimentjon said:
Aquila strings tend to be a bit thicker than other strings, so that may contribute to it. As other people have mentioned, sometimes the buzz just goes away after the strings have settled. Another thing you can try is putting on worth strings, which are a bit thinner. But sadly that might mean you wasted the Aquila set.
Click to expand...

Would not a thinner string set lower and therefore increase the buz?
 
Is there any twist to the neck that you can see? Also, if you can get the nut out, slide two or three slivers of paper underneath to see if that cures the problem.
 
Or you could always put the Ko'olau's back on. I've got three Pono ukes and they like the gold strings. That's what they were set up with at the factory. It's not worth the hassle to me to try and get other strings to work. My KoAlohas like Worth, the Kalas like Aquillas and the Ponos want Ko'olau gold strings. I might get a little better sound by switching but there always seems to be a buzz somewhere. I finally decided that the folks that built the ukes know what string works best on it.

Jude
 
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