A Beginner Adjusts his Action

I've been avoiding it. Adjusting my Action.

But enough. I bought a beautiful Ohana CK-75CG and the action was too high. I didn't notice it in the shop. I was just happy playing the open end, cowboy positions. I got home and tried to play the higher fret area and I was like jumping hurdles hurting myself.

So I decided to make it my slide uke. HUNH???? Its way too pretty to get all dinged up with a slide.

Crazy, so I decided I'd do it. I got a cup of coffee and a flat piece of sand paper and did part of the saddle and part of the nut.

I thought I took too much off but that was because I loosened the strings to take both the saddle and nut off. Once I tightened the strings, I saw I really only went half way which is fine with me.

Never overdo it is the rule.

Most of the best action change was at the nut. I don't think I can go much further on the saddle or else I'll get some buzzing.

ANYBODY out there have any caveats on this matter before I proceed to lower it again?

I know that if you reposition the nut wrong, you will get some wild sounds. I found a gap that I had to push it back into position to eliminate the gap/wrong position.

Contemplating the exact same process. Black coffee and a fresh sheet of sand paper is a great start to many successful endeavors. Very nice Uke. Bone nut and saddle. Any more info or photos? Half way lowered the strings how much? Are you going all the way?

I'll try and post some pics. Its hard to get the standoff correct with a camera because you got to be perfectly perpendicular to the fret board AND the strings. ai! caramba.

My Pono was the lowest action before. Straight out the box. I thought it was too low but it is just right for fast flea action. I then just recently purchased a Fluke and that has low action too and it sounds good.

The Ohana was written about being one of the louder ukes for the money and so I thought - I need to get it into playing shape. So, I base my qualitative measurements as "halfway there" meaning my next pass at lowering the action will be from experience and I'll feel confident that my action wll be very close to where I want it.

Also, if you only have to lower the nut and not the saddle, that takes part of the guessing out of it.

I'll do a fret check to make sure the frets are perfectly even before I lower the action. But I tested all the frets with playing each note and no problems.

pics to follow.

This first pic shows even after I took it down some, its still to high and I'm gonna need a new cup of coffee and the sandpaper.



The good thing about UAS is it will demonstrate the best uke setup for you. I have cheapie uke UAS and this allows me to experiment before I make higher end decisions.
This Fluke is easy to play. Its easy because the action is low and it appears the fret board is meticulously designed and manufactured. If I can take a pic of my pono, it also has action that has fast response.

Is there an sheet showing different uses for action heights.

Such as

High Action:
Good for: SLide uke, finger strength and agility practice. fingering may be easier.
Bad because: fingers are not as fast and will cause lots of mistake. intonation problems; all types of strumming

Medium Action:
Good for: swing and reggae type of music, reduced chance for buzzing, finger style
bad for: slower response than low action, fast strumming can catch finger

low action:
good for strumming and fingering speed, good for bending notes and finger sliding
bad: for sliding using a slide. Potential for buzzing - requires good fretboard and strumming (less finger picking? which causes upward movement of strings?)

Is there such a list?

SuzukHammer said:

Is there an sheet showing different uses for action heights.

Is there such a list?

Click to expand...

It looks like there is now.

How do you find your action now?