As a new player, how to tell if your ukulele is set up properly?

Hi. I Just started learning, but I more or less have a toy ukulele. So I recently ordered a kanile'a islander from ebay. However, I've been reading from other people's comments on the importance of buying your ukulele from a reputable music shop that would take the time to make sure the instrument is set up properly. I'm not even sure what a proper set up would be outside of factory settings.
Thanks! And I'm just happy to be able to be part of this group.

http://www.theukulelesite.com/ukulele-setup.html


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CoffeeKid said:

Hi. I Just started learning, but I more or less have a toy ukulele. So I recently ordered a kanile'a islander from ebay. However, I've been reading from other people's comments on the importance of buying your ukulele from a reputable music shop that would take the time to make sure the instrument is set up properly. I'm not even sure what a proper set up would be outside of factory settings.
Thanks! And I'm just happy to be able to be part of this group.

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I like the action at the nut to be no higher than 0.05mm (1/2 mm) and 2.5mm at the twelfth fret. Acceptable allowances are 0.08mm and 3.0mm. Your uke will almost certainly fall within this range. I wouldn't worry about the fretwork too much, as something coming from Islander would be produced with a very good tolerance level I'd imagine.

I set my own ukes up. It's not that hard really and can be done very cheaply. Check this tutorial out, followed by part 2.

You'll do well with the Kanilea, good choice. Chances are that action will already be good with that brand. But it never hurts to get educated. There are many threads on UU dealing with setups, string heights, and the like. Learn what you can, but try not to obsess over it all.

Play awhile to get to know what you like, don't like, or what else to try. Find a group or other players and check out their instruments. Some you will like, others you won't. All part of the fun.

I have two Islanders, one bought from my local store, the other used but had been set up professionally. I can tell no difference between the two. Islanders seem to come out of the box with a quite good set up by Kanile'a.

I am also a beginner, and bought an Islander MST-4 tenor a few months ago. When I was doing research on it, I came across this review:

http://www.gotaukulele.com/2012/08/islander-mst-4-tenor-ukulele-review.html

He describes some setup issues he had in the beginning. For mine, I also noticed that the action was a little high (~3.5 mm at the 12th fret) and the intonation was slightly off (with the A string properly tuned, playing C on the third fret was a few ticks sharp). I sanded down my bridge a little, and it seemed to fix both issues.

Enjoy your new ukulele!