Something wrong with my low-G tuning

My background: About 20 years ago I played classical guitar for about two years, and I sing recreationally by ear. I bought my own first ukulele (a Kala Concert) about 10 days ago after plunking around on a borrowed instrument for a short while.

As soon as I heard about it, I knew right off that I was interested in the low-G tuning, for it's deeper sound (okay, more like the classical guitar). So a couple of days ago, after I had my Kala for a week, I took it back to the music store where I bought it and asked the technician there to re-string the high-g to a low-G.

The open string sounds fine when tuned, but when I play any fretted chord like an F, it sounds... off. I thought that maybe after a week of playing, I just wasn't used to the low-G sound and that I'd get used to it. But I haven't. Tonight I played a few single plucked notes on the G string with my chromatic tuner (blue Snark) attached and darned it I wasn't right.

What should be an A (2nd fret, right?) is off-tune; on the tuner, the A is displaying 3-5 yellow bars beyond (to the right of) the vertical blue in-tune bar. Likewise any major notes further up like B and C.

This is not true on the other strings -- when plucked as single notes, they're all in tune.

Is it just me? Or do I need to take my ukulele back to the music store and get them to look at this new string?

New thought: or is the tuner out-of-whack? I just noticed three "Pitch Cal" buttons on the back.

D. Hrynkiw

Not to ask the obvious, but did the technician actually replace the high-G string with a low-G string? Or did he just loosen the high-G string by a lot?

Yes. High G and Low G strings need different compensation at the saddle. The ukulele would more likely be setup for high G. The saddle needs to be recompensated for low G. Low G strings need the saddle contact point to be longer than for high G. Check them all while your are at it as there is no guarantee that any of them are spot on. This will most likely call for a new saddle and someone who know's what they are doing to do the work.

Anthony

Most likely the low string is sitting on top of the nut slot instead of in it. That will cause the string to pull sharp whenever it's fretted.

The nut slot probably needs to widened.

As mentioned above, saddle compensation is another issue. However, this itself can be somewhat compensated for by string choices. In a thread related to the new Godin Multiuke, MGM Mike suggested using .32 wound string for the low g. The science isn't completely clear to me, but apparently scale length is not the only variable that can be adjusted. String tension and diameter can also be used.

Before messing around ith the saddle I would as well recommend having a closer look at the nut slot - if you are not completely left-handed you can slightly widen the slot on your own at no cost.

And even before that: what strings do you have (now)? Might even be that another lowG string with less diameter avoids the problem completely...

Thank-you all for your thoughtful replies! You've given me hope that soon my ukulele will be back in tune.

PanderingMonk: Yes, it's a whole new string. Definitely thicker than the string that was there before. Nylon, possibly a classical guitar string.

Louis08125: I don't know what brand of strings are on the Kala now; they were probably installed at the factory.

AnthonyG, AllanR, Louis0815: Thank-you very much for your technical evaluations and suggestions. I'll do some googling to familiarize myself with what you're suggesting and either attempt the modifications myself or find myself another technician.

Thank-you again for taking the time to reply and sharing your experience.

D. Hrynkiw

Actually another trick for low-G tuning comes to my mind now...

Simply remount the strings you have (high-G set) in a different order:
Instead of GCEA mount them CEGA and tune to low-G.
Done within a few minutes at no cost at all - and you won't have any trouble with string diameters on the Kala concert (KA-C?)