Lowered my action today

Well I went ahead and lowered the action on my Kala soprano today. It wasn't bad right from the factory (~1 mm at the nut, 3 mm at 12th) but I wanted to try it. I'm a woodworker so wasn't too concerned about getting in over my head. And my playing can use all the help it can get.

Debated about filing down the whole nut or just individual string slots. Went with the whole nut approach since I could easily reverse it by gluing in a shim. I basically followed this video http://reyalpeleluku.wordpress.com/...video-how-i-adjust-the-action-on-a-cheap-uke/ except instead of marking with a pen, I put masking tape at the depth I wanted to remove. Reglued the nut in place with two small dab of yellow glue.

Then to the bridge, planning to shave it down as I did the nut but found there was a 1.5 mm shim under it which I simply removed.

Now I'm at about 0.7 at the nut and 2 mm at 12th fret. No buzzing (except through operator error!) and a bit easier to play.

So it was easy to do, I'm happy with the results but I would go for the pro set up when I get beyond an entry level uke.

Jim B

That was brave!! Congratulations!

I tryed it at Christmas to make a Hilo more payable. I figured if I screw up there are replacement nuts and saddles available. I was nervous about having some of the paint on the headstock flake off so I took an exacto and scored along the base of the nut. It worked great, isn't that tough if you follow the vid and makes a uke alot more fun to play.

Interesting that it had a 1.5mm shim at the bridge already. I wonder was this part of the setup in the factory, or do they put that shim in all their bridges?

bongolele said:

Interesting that it had a 1.5mm shim at the bridge already. I wonder was this part of the setup in the factory, or do they put that shim in all their bridges?

Click to expand...

I think they may do that to allow a bridge pickup to be mounted under the saddle without having to route the bridge... or may simply bad tolerances when making the saddle turns into your advantage

I have done set-ups on many ukuleles.
Between student ukuleles and ukes for friends I have done close to 100.
In almost all cases it is just the saddle that needs to be lowered.
Very few times have I needed to lower the nut. It is very common to knock off the sharp corners of the nut.
I have seen shims in many of the Dolphins, removing it seems to put the action right where I want it.

This is an easy skill to develop, I encourage folks to practice on a cheap ukulele, replacement saddles are easy to find.

lowering at the nut can really help with intonation issues. I just file the slots with a couple of minihacksaw blades. I ground the sides of one for narrow slots. then I finish them off with one of those welding tip cleaners to round the bottom out. I probably have less than $10 in these tools. If I did this everyday I would invest in some nice fret files. but for once in awhile they work fine. just go slow and keep rechecking. if you go too low and get buzzing, just fill it in with the superglue+baking powder trick and start again. It's really not hard.

I just filed down the nut yesterday on my Ohana tenor.the action had been to hi for years.so I got brave.i was going to do the saddle but after testing all the frets the saddle was fine. Before I started I could slide a nickle under the strings on the 2nd fret.now not even a dime will fit. I just marked it with a pen,grabbed an old metal file and went to work.took awhile .but I got lucky it was perfect ! No buzz,great action.

Dumb question, but I'll ask nonetheless: does lowering the action by tried and true methods, as you suggest, have any downside, as long as someone doesn't lower it to the point of buzzing? Or is it all "upside", in terms of playability and intonation? Thanks

I'm no expert but think that the less you need to deflect the string in order to fret it the better (without causing buzzing of course).

Others may chime in (or would that be buzz in?).

Jim B

coolkayaker1 said:

Dumb question, but I'll ask nonetheless: does lowering the action by tried and true methods, as you suggest, have any downside, as long as someone doesn't lower it to the point of buzzing? Or is it all "upside", in terms of playability and intonation? Thanks

Click to expand...

You want the action to be low so it plays easily, but not so low as to get buzzes when you play it hard. I go for
.005" string clearance above the first fret with my playing style. I can play hard with no buzzes on all my ukuleles with that setup. I can tell if the string clearance above the first fret is in my range if i can easily bar all four strings on the first fret with my index finger.

Yeah there's no downside if it's not lowered to the point of a buzz.just makes it easier to hold chords as well as switching chords .much smoother .

Kewl. I'm going to try it on a couple of mine.

Everyone look for my post by this upcoming weekend entitled: "Plz help me raise a saddle." LOL