First attempt at set-up.

During the summer I purchased a half dozen Kohala ukes from an Amazon Gold Box deal with the idea of providing loaner instruments for kids at my school (I teach high school) who might be interested in learning to play. My real goal is to attract the "at-risk" student, but at this point I'll start anywhere. Anyhow, after many hours reading forums and watching instructional videos I finally put the Stew-Mac tools I ordered to work. I was a little nervous but I took my time and filed the nut and then sanded the saddle to the specs I wanted. After checking with a tuner, the intonation measured at the 12th fret, is almost spot on for the GCE and about +5 sharp on the A. The uke really came to life when I switched out strings. I'm now wondering if the A is off because I didn't sand it flat enough. Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with the resulting sound and action especially considering the strings were about 25% the cost of the uke. When I have more time I should have 6 loaner ukes ready to go. A small price for getting kids interested in music and maybe more engaged in education. Today a kid dropped a tenor Makala so I might have to learn another repair technique Just feeling good about the ukes and wanted to tell someone else that would understand. My wife does her best to listen, but she doesn't share my excitement.

Happy strumming!

Good on ya Gyosh! Set up really isn't hard and once you've done a couple it's pretty quick too. I like to get cheap ukes at yard sales etc., get them playable and give them to interested kids. It really feels good.

Well done Gyosh its nice to see somebody doing something for somebody else, especially kids.Too many people in this life just thinking about themselves . good on you.
Phil.

Great, good for you. I'm still working up the courage to do my own setup. Did you check the frets? Sometime they're not fully "seated."

PhilUSAFRet said:

Great, good for you. I'm still working up the courage to do my own setup. Did you check the frets? Sometime they're not fully "seated."

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Yup, when I bought the Stew-Mac tools I bought a fret rocker as well. Actually, my father owns a machine shop and I gave him the dimensions I wanted and told him what it was for and he made one for me.