Makala MK-T uke is out of tune?

Hi guys.

I have just ordered my first Ukulele, which is a Makala Tenor uke.
I have other guitars also. But, I'm new in playing Uke.

I have a problem with it. I tuned it to standard GCEA. But when i play some chords the uke sounds out of tune and sustainless or something like that.

For example. When i play C chord, F chord is it ok.(They are about 1-2 notes fretted, the other strings are open) But when i play G it sounds out of tune and Em is awful.(More notes fretted) And i also hear some

The inotation is not the best, but not worst than on my acoustic guitar which never sounds out of tune. So i dont know what the problem is.

I recorded my uke with mp4 played, not the best quality but please let me know what do you think what can be the problem.

Here is the link:

http://www58.zippyshare.com/v/54059371/file.html





Thanks.

This isn't at all unusual on inexpensive ukes and is the reason we strongly recommend buying your first uke from a dedicated uke dealer who will set it up properly. Ironically, the more inexpensive a ukulele is the more important buying from a reputable dealer becomes.

What is happening is that the slots in the nut are not deep enough. When you fret a string at the first few frets the high nut makes the string stretch and pull sharp. It's very, very common. It's also very common for the G chord to be the most noticeable problem because often it is the thick C string that is the worst culprit (it is thicker and often doesn't sit as deeply in the molded-in slots in the nut). When you're playing an F or C chord the C string is not fretted, but for G and Em it is.

If you are handy you can fix this issue yourself (there are videos on YouTube of how to do it) but unless you have some idea what you are doing it's better to take it to someone who knows what they are doing.

John

At first fret, the space between fret and string is about .025 inch.

At the 12 fret the distance is about .118 inch

The Intonation on every string is about + 20-30 cent sharp , when i check it at 12. fret.

So the problem is the nut or the saddle?

And how can i intonate the strings?(At saddle or nut)

The first thing is to fix the issue where it's pulling sharp when fretted at the first few frets, that's done by carefully deepening the string slots in the nut. The goal is to get it where it doesn't pull sharp at all when fretted at the first fret. You can't always get there without buzzing, though, on some of the cheapest ukes. Anyway, fixing the nut will fix the worst of the problem for open chords. Intonation up the neck at the 12th fret is a much thornier issue - usually you have to try a variety of strings until you find ones you can live with. BTW, if you still have the stock strings on the uke they are pretty bad. Almost anything you replace them with will be better.

Adjusting the saddle height is the last step you want to take. Saddle height has relatively little affect on intonation (compared to the nut) and if you lower it you may not be able to get the nut set right without buzzing.

John