"Setting Up" a new entry level Uke'

Hi, as some of you may have noticed from my newbie post, I'm new to Ukes and haven't yet bought one. My question, however, relates to out of the box setup.

A tiny bit of background might help save time when replying to me. I used to work in the instrument industry many years ago, at a chain of stores in the UK called Carlsboro Sound Centre, as "The Guitar Guy". Part of my job was the setup/repair of instruments, so I'm familiar with dressing frets, filing down or shimming up bridge saddles and replacing/adjusting the nut.

Now, I realise that most of the above may not apply to setting up a Uke', but what would you recommend looking at and attending to on, for example, a new £ 75 - £ 160 ($ 120 - $ 260) Tenor Uke' ?

The main issue I've noticed when watching Youtube video of Uke's being played is the sheer number of them with atrocious intonation. As a guitarist this is something that makes my teeth itch! I know it's unlikely to be a problem when strumming away at first position chords, but after 35 years of playing guitar, I'd like to bring some of that to the Uke' and be able to play right up to the end of the fretboard without it setting my teeth on edge because it's out of tune.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post, I'm like that

Mahalo nui loa for the anticipated advice.

Buy a Ukulele from a music store that includes the "set up" such as from TheUkuleleSite.com

Massed produced Uke's will have high action and bad intonation. All can be corrected on a quality uke by the methods you've mentioned.

Why are you asking us?
You already have everything in your Big bag O tricks.
Every single thing you do to your six string you can do to your Ukes.
And with your routine and experience at this you should end up with a great player in no time..

Sorry, I suppose what I should have said was "can I apply what I know about 6 strings to a Uke' without killing its tone and playability"

On a 6 string, it's desirable to have a slight dip in the neck at the 12th fret to help eliminate fret buzz. Should I be looking for this in a Uke' or do I need to look for a perfectly flat neck ?

How low is it advisable to go with the action ? Should I just try to get it as low as possible without fret buzz or will a very low action ruin the tone ?

Is bad intonation on a Uke' due to the bridge being placed incorrectly or is it just an inherent issue with such a short scale, and it it possible to buy compensating bridge saddles or is there another way of correcting poor intonation ?

Sorry to get all technical, but these are all things I'd pay attention to if I were buying a 6 string and I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much from a Uke'

I am by no means a luthier. But I have done my own setups. And I have found that most of the stuff I have done to my six string applies to my four string.
Fret placement is rarely spot on on the cheaper ukes. But you should be able to get most budget ukes to within a few cents off perfect with just a little work. On a cheaper uke switch to Aquila nylguts and adjust the string height to your liking. Personally I have almost as low a string height on my ukes as on my electric guitar.
On budget ukes the bridge placement may be slightly off. But on a higher end uke it should be spot on.
In fact Lanikai has come up with a new bridge design with individually adjustable bridges for each string, much like the six strings you are used to.
The slight dip in the neck on guitars is nothing I have seen on any uke so far.
As far as tone goes. I have not noticed any perceivable loss of tone on any of my ukes.. And my strings are low.just above the point of buzzing..
You can treat the uke as a tiny guitar in most regards when it comes to the set up process..

But within the price range you mentioned it should be quite well setup out of the box.
Since you obviously know what you're doing with tools yu could always make yourself a compensated bridge..
That's a thought that's crossed my mind.

I don't know if you've heard of Derby Ukulele Club, but if you were to come along, there'd be lots of other, well set up ukes to look at.

I'll certainly give it some thought, Derby is only 30 minutes away if I ignore a few laws

Thanks

Pretty much everything you know from setting up guitars applies to the uke with a couple of minor exceptions. Very few ukes, even expensive ones, have an adjustable truss rod. Therefore you are pretty much at the mercy of the factory as far as neck relief goes. Typically a perfectly flat profile on the frets works fine. You may get a small amount of relief as a byproduct of the neck bowing back when you take all the strings off to level the frets. You can't count on it though.

The other exception is that only the most expensive handcrafted ukuleles will have perfect intonation up the neck. Compensated bridge saddles are very rare and even if you carve the top of the bridge saddle yourself the saddle is so thin you can't make a huge difference. Sometimes ukes simply intonate better up the neck tuned to something other than the "standard" GCEA. It all depends on strings.