FIrst, I've lurked around this forum on and off for a while, but finally made an account to show what I've done and hopefully get some opinions.
A while ago I had a tenor ohana solid top stolen, I guess it wouldve been the TK-20CE. That was a while ago and I finally found a replacement. I wasnt planning on buying anything but Yamaha Guitaleles for gifts (didnt know those existed either, pretty fun) and I saw the Cordoba 20TMCE.
By chance a few days prior I had been messing with my other ukes, playing with the saddles and nuts on my Kala KATT (which I cant find info about. Its not the "exotic mahogany" but it is still stained a pretty bright red.) and Lanikai pineapple. This site was a huge help with the compensation.
The Cordoba came with pretty good intonation, G was already pretty perfect, but the C and E were sharp at the 12th, and the A was flat at the 12th. I had been playing with toothpicks by the saddle on my other ukes to change intonation and also had some bone blanks from a local shop, so I handmade a compensated bone saddle (pain with just a file, sand paper, and steel wool), and a little shim(?) for the A string since I couldnt compensate enough. It is glued down with a tiny dot of CA glue, but Im pretty sure it wicked between the two saddles (Good for now, bad for taking it off probably). I havent had a chance to test the pick up since the fix, but intonation is much better. The only thing off is the C is a tiny bit sharp at the 12th fret.
That is a lot of text, but here are some pics.
edit: the higher action on the A string is helping with intonation too. The action is less than 1 credit card at the first fret and a tiny bit less than three credit cards at the 12th fret. No buzzing anywhere that I can find.
A while ago I had a tenor ohana solid top stolen, I guess it wouldve been the TK-20CE. That was a while ago and I finally found a replacement. I wasnt planning on buying anything but Yamaha Guitaleles for gifts (didnt know those existed either, pretty fun) and I saw the Cordoba 20TMCE.
By chance a few days prior I had been messing with my other ukes, playing with the saddles and nuts on my Kala KATT (which I cant find info about. Its not the "exotic mahogany" but it is still stained a pretty bright red.) and Lanikai pineapple. This site was a huge help with the compensation.
The Cordoba came with pretty good intonation, G was already pretty perfect, but the C and E were sharp at the 12th, and the A was flat at the 12th. I had been playing with toothpicks by the saddle on my other ukes to change intonation and also had some bone blanks from a local shop, so I handmade a compensated bone saddle (pain with just a file, sand paper, and steel wool), and a little shim(?) for the A string since I couldnt compensate enough. It is glued down with a tiny dot of CA glue, but Im pretty sure it wicked between the two saddles (Good for now, bad for taking it off probably). I havent had a chance to test the pick up since the fix, but intonation is much better. The only thing off is the C is a tiny bit sharp at the 12th fret.
That is a lot of text, but here are some pics.
edit: the higher action on the A string is helping with intonation too. The action is less than 1 credit card at the first fret and a tiny bit less than three credit cards at the 12th fret. No buzzing anywhere that I can find.
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