I think my new uke has bees inside of it

Is it common for a brand new ukulele to have a buzzing sound when playing certain chords. Do I just need to wait for the strings to stretch? Am I strumming too hard? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Aloha Mutha_Uku,
Welcome to UU, and the answer is no....I'd take it back to the store that you bought it at. Let them
take care of it or replace it with another one. If it's defective, they should do the right thing, you
wouldn't pay for anything else broken would you? It's the same with ukulele's. Good luck, and
before they say it's too long you've had it.....Keep On strumming them strings. Uke On...
MM Stan..

Does it buzz with every chord you play or only when you play certain chords? How about if you strum it when you are not holding any notes or chords? Before you take it back, know that sometimes when we are learning and even when we have more experience if we are not holding a chord cleanly a perfectly good uke can buzz.

Try adjusting your fingers and strum again and see if it makes a difference. That being said, some uke's that are not set up well or have another issue....like a loose brace or a high fret....or one of many other issues will buzz and that is a defect.

What kind of uke to do you have? If you can take it to where you got it and there is a uke player there to look at it, perhaps that would be helpful to tell you if it is the uke or if it is you.

A couple thoughts: Sometimes if your fingers are too close to the fret wire, you'll get buzzing. This happened to me *a lot* when I was first learning - you don't say how long you've been playing, but if you're fairly new this might be the case.

Also, what kind of strings are on the new uke? My beginner Ohana uke came with GHS strings and the buzz was terrible. I swapped them out for Aquilas, and the only buzz I hear now is due to operator error

Just in case, bee very careful.

My uke is a good quality one. It is a Mitchell MU-70 Concert. It came with GHS strings. I have it tuned correctly. It only does it on some chords. But I don't think it is my fault, because I will put my fingers perfectly (going really slow) and it will still buzz sometimes. When I strum without holding the strings it does not buzz. I am brand new to ukulele. Hopefully it is just the strings.

Returned my MitchellU-70 Concert ($100) for a Lanikai LU-11 Soprano ($50). My new lanikai is awesome! Came with aquilla strings and no more buzzing, unless I screw up! haha LOVE UKES!

Mutha_Uku said:

My uke is a good quality one. It is a Mitchell MU-70 Concert. It came with GHS strings. I have it tuned correctly. It only does it on some chords. But I don't think it is my fault, because I will put my fingers perfectly (going really slow) and it will still buzz sometimes. When I strum without holding the strings it does not buzz. I am brand new to ukulele. Hopefully it is just the strings.

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I loved the MU-70, but I had to take it back for the same reason. That plus the saddle was not set up right and there were tuning issues. But it is a pretty instrument for the price and the spruce top projects quite well. The quality control on these vary quite a lot.

OK, troubleshooting here: The reason it does buzz on some chords and not others is that certain strings at certain frets are buzzing and others are not. Play a chord on which it buzzes and then play each string that is being held down individually. Play another chord that buzzes and see if it is the same string. If it is, is is a set up issue that may or may not be able to be fixed.

If it is not, it could be a frequency thing where, at certain frequencies, it is making something else buzz. Loose piece of wood, stray splinter or something. On my Cordoba, a loose tuning peg was buzzing like this, but only when I played certain frequencies. Hope this is of some help.

I never got another MU-70 and I know some people will diss them, but I loved the tone of mine, for what little time I had it. I have a friend who makes mandolins and he did some work for me on my Cordoba and I thought about getting the MU-70 and having him work on it, but I never did. Best wishes!
Mike