Welp, like the title says. I'm hoping for a little insight from some of you gentlemen regarding a used ukulele I picked up last week.
Here it is in a nutshell. I found what I thought to be an awesome deal on an 8 string Uke. Brought it home and the action seem a little hard/high for me. Got some help here and was directed to "Island Guitars" here in Honolulu to see if they could help possibly set up and lower the action a little.
I went in and saw Peter, who by the way was a very professional and nice guy (so this post is not meant to bash or bad name them). But he literally looked at the uke for 5-10 seconds and gave it back to me and told me he can't help me with it. Peter said that the neck was bowed and it would need to be reset and it would need a re-fret.
Now I am no professional player and am just trying to get back into playing after years of having not owned a uke. So I was just looking for any kind of help at all. I asked him if there was anything else he could to, to which he replied "sorry". Peter then told me that it would not be worth the money to fix and that I may as well buy a new ukulele. So I asked him for a set of new strings. He told me he has 1 set left. I asked him which brand they were and he told me "Oh the regular black one's". This is the point were the disappointment REALLY set in. I saw the were "Hilo" brand and figured they would be okay to try out as I've heard decent things about this brand.
That just didn't sit well with me as I just spent $300 on this Uke. I got home and sanded off about 1 mm from the saddle and restrung the Uke. There was an immediate difference in the action. The strings I'm sure are softer but the action was definitely lowered at the 12th fret.
So Here's were I could use a little help (sorry this is so long winded).
1st - the saddle sits real loose in the bridge so I'm wondering if I should get a new one.
2nd - There's about 2mm of the saddle sticking up above the bridge and I read somewhere that ideally you'd want atleast 3mm. Is this a problem?
3rd - right now the action seems correct at the nut, when I bar the 3rd fret, I can slide a business card between the first fret and strings and there is a decent amount of friction. At the 12th fret, as best I can measure, the strings are about 4 mm off of the fret or 2.5 16th (not quite 3/16. Is this a good/normal range?
4th - From what I see I can probably sand down the to of the bridge on both sides of the saddle a little thus allowing me to bring the saddle down a little more, but I'm not sure if that is safe or will adversely affect the sound. If I do that the saddle will be a total of roughly 5mm high with roughly 3mm sitting in the bridge and 2mm sticking out. Right now its about 6mm with 4mm in the bridge and 2mm sticking out above it.
Here are some pictures that may give you a better idea, any help or opinions would be awesome, thanks in advance!!!!!
Here it is in a nutshell. I found what I thought to be an awesome deal on an 8 string Uke. Brought it home and the action seem a little hard/high for me. Got some help here and was directed to "Island Guitars" here in Honolulu to see if they could help possibly set up and lower the action a little.
I went in and saw Peter, who by the way was a very professional and nice guy (so this post is not meant to bash or bad name them). But he literally looked at the uke for 5-10 seconds and gave it back to me and told me he can't help me with it. Peter said that the neck was bowed and it would need to be reset and it would need a re-fret.
Now I am no professional player and am just trying to get back into playing after years of having not owned a uke. So I was just looking for any kind of help at all. I asked him if there was anything else he could to, to which he replied "sorry". Peter then told me that it would not be worth the money to fix and that I may as well buy a new ukulele. So I asked him for a set of new strings. He told me he has 1 set left. I asked him which brand they were and he told me "Oh the regular black one's". This is the point were the disappointment REALLY set in. I saw the were "Hilo" brand and figured they would be okay to try out as I've heard decent things about this brand.
That just didn't sit well with me as I just spent $300 on this Uke. I got home and sanded off about 1 mm from the saddle and restrung the Uke. There was an immediate difference in the action. The strings I'm sure are softer but the action was definitely lowered at the 12th fret.
So Here's were I could use a little help (sorry this is so long winded).
1st - the saddle sits real loose in the bridge so I'm wondering if I should get a new one.
2nd - There's about 2mm of the saddle sticking up above the bridge and I read somewhere that ideally you'd want atleast 3mm. Is this a problem?
3rd - right now the action seems correct at the nut, when I bar the 3rd fret, I can slide a business card between the first fret and strings and there is a decent amount of friction. At the 12th fret, as best I can measure, the strings are about 4 mm off of the fret or 2.5 16th (not quite 3/16. Is this a good/normal range?
4th - From what I see I can probably sand down the to of the bridge on both sides of the saddle a little thus allowing me to bring the saddle down a little more, but I'm not sure if that is safe or will adversely affect the sound. If I do that the saddle will be a total of roughly 5mm high with roughly 3mm sitting in the bridge and 2mm sticking out. Right now its about 6mm with 4mm in the bridge and 2mm sticking out above it.
Here are some pictures that may give you a better idea, any help or opinions would be awesome, thanks in advance!!!!!
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