Buzzing and Fretting Problems on Kamaka Tenor

kamaka_4_life

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2008
Messages
214
Reaction score
0
Location
Kalihi! Haha!
Hey UU,

I've been having a hard time switching between my new long-neck concert and my tenor Kamaka's, as both are so beautiful and offer a unique sound. However, from playing the two, I noticed that my Tenor buzzes a lot more when strumming and picking, and that fretting sometimes seems to muffle the sound... Idk how to explain it really, as it's easier to hear when actually playing the uke, but I think it may be from the action being so low. I took it to Kamaka last year to get the action lowered, and really liked it, but now I notice a lot more buzzing. I guess that's the problem you get when you lower the action too much. When doing muted octave strumming, I notice the sound is not clear at all, when I play it on my Tenor, but is nice and clean when I play it on my long-neck concert. Idk what I should do, should I take it back to Kamaka and have them raise the action a little bit? Idk the exact height of the strings when measured from the fretboard, but I can check. Any thoughts, ideas, or help would be greatly appreciated, thanks you!!!!!
 
Any thoughts, ideas, or help would be greatly appreciated, thanks you!!!!!

Send it to me and I will check it out for you. It will probably take me a few years to correctly diagnose the problem.






If Kamaka is fairly accessable I would just take it to them to check out. Good luck.
 
I'd take it back to kamaka and see what they say..no uke should buzz, not even a kamaka..
you could shim it like trinmon says..and see too....if you got the stock strings, change them
 
You can try inserting paper strips under the saddle to raise it up a bit to see if it stops buzzing. Its not a solution as the paper will negatively change the sound, but you will be able to see if it stops buzzing. The other possibility is that the frets are no longer level. This happens a lot over the winter or other times of large changes in humidity. To check the frets you need something small that's perfectly level. Place it over a fret and see if it see-saws against the next closest frets.
If its low humidity that's the problem, you may just be able to re-hydrate it. My Kamaka gets buzzy if I let the room humidity get to low.
 
Top Bottom