replacement saddle for KoAloha

dirtiestkidever

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I recently got a KoAloha Concert. Great instrument but it was surprisingly 'unsetup' when I got it. Very high action (~6 mm at 12th fret). And when I took the saddle off and looked at the bottom it looked (to my very untrained eye) that sand paper had never touched it. Not that big a deal. But I did figure that these instruments would get a quick setup before leaving the factory.

I tried my hand at adjusting the action by carefully sanding down the saddle. I got it to ~3.5 mm and everything seems fine. Intonation seems fine. Possibly even better. It was hard to judge the intonation when fretting from 6 mm away as I could have been bending the string up or down slightly.

I would like to take the action a little lower and from the looks of it that shouldn't be a problem. But before I do so I want to make sure I know where to get a replacement saddle in case I fly too close to the sun so to speak. Where can I order one? And what dimensions / other considerations do I need?

Thanks.
 
Are you measuring from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string? Even toy ukes are not that high?
 
Are you measuring from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string? Even toy ukes are not that high?

Yep. Well, maybe top of fret to middle of string. Could have been closer to 5mm. But it was pretty darn high. Like I said though its not a big deal as it is something the buyer can adjust. The instrument itself is flawless and sounds beautiful.

I emailed KoAloha over the weekend. I am sure they will get back to me but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask here. Maybe someone had done this before.

Cheers.
 
Hey, I didn't mean to sound like a jerk. Seriously, just call them up; in my experience it's a much better way to communicate with them. I'm sure they'll have no problem sending one out to you- they're the best.
 
In my experience KoAloha ukes ship with very high saddles. The nuts are perfect (and that's the critical part of a setup as it has effect on first position intonation). The saddles are higher than I have seen on any other ukes but this leaves plenty of room for setup to individual preferences.

John
 
My Koaloha came set up very low, less than 3mm at the 12th fret. No buzzing at all. The formula for adjusting string height, is to add/subtract twice at the saddle, the amount you want to raise/lower the string height the 12th fret. In your case, going from 3.5mm down to 3mm, would require lowering the saddle 1mm. If the bottom of the saddle is dead flat, I'd take the final amount off the top. Koaloha saddles I've seen aren't compensated, so it's not a bit deal. Getting the saddle right down to its limit by sanding the bottom, runs the risk of a saddle bottom that doesn't seat tight, and that means you'll have to sand it flat again. That's when you'll need a new saddle. Koaloha uses Tusq saddles, and you can buy blanks anywhere. Of course you'll have to sand it for thickness, and that's when you'll want to get a blank that is just a wee bit thicker than the saddle slot. Sanding a 1/4" saddle blank down to 1/8" isn't any fun.... If Koaloha is willing to send you a blank, that would be great.

HMS set up my Koaloha, and it was the first time I didn't have to do anything to a ukulele or guitar, and I've had a lot of both. The set up the pride themselves on is all people say it is.
 
Hey, I didn't mean to sound like a jerk. Seriously, just call them up; in my experience it's a much better way to communicate with them. I'm sure they'll have no problem sending one out to you- they're the best.

No worries. This is probably good advice. I also like the people at KoAloha (one of the reasons I own two). They are always super helpful.
 
In my experience KoAloha ukes ship with very high saddles. The nuts are perfect (and that's the critical part of a setup as it has effect on first position intonation). The saddles are higher than I have seen on any other ukes but this leaves plenty of room for setup to individual preferences.

John

Yep. For the record, the action at the nut seems perfect. The low frets show no intonation problems. And fortunately lowering the action at the saddle is like changing a tube on a bike. They are pretty much the only maintenance I am would do for myself.
 
My Koaloha came set up very low, less than 3mm at the 12th fret. No buzzing at all. The formula for adjusting string height, is to add/subtract twice at the saddle, the amount you want to raise/lower the string height the 12th fret. In your case, going from 3.5mm down to 3mm, would require lowering the saddle 1mm. If the bottom of the saddle is dead flat, I'd take the final amount off the top. Koaloha saddles I've seen aren't compensated, so it's not a bit deal. Getting the saddle right down to its limit by sanding the bottom, runs the risk of a saddle bottom that doesn't seat tight, and that means you'll have to sand it flat again. That's when you'll need a new saddle. Koaloha uses Tusq saddles, and you can buy blanks anywhere. Of course you'll have to sand it for thickness, and that's when you'll want to get a blank that is just a wee bit thicker than the saddle slot. Sanding a 1/4" saddle blank down to 1/8" isn't any fun.... If Koaloha is willing to send you a blank, that would be great.

HMS set up my Koaloha, and it was the first time I didn't have to do anything to a ukulele or guitar, and I've had a lot of both. The set up the pride themselves on is all people say it is.

Yikes. Sanding for thickness doesn't sound fun. I didn't realize that would be necessary but I guess that makes sense if you want a snug fit. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Yikes. Sanding for thickness doesn't sound fun. I didn't realize that would be necessary but I guess that makes sense if you want a snug fit. Thanks for the heads up.

Actually, you don't want too snug a fit. You shouldn't have to apply a lot of pressure to seat the saddle fully, nor use a tool to pry it out. You definitely want it snug enough that it doesn't lean or move back and forth, but you want the pressure to be evenly distributed which means you want the real contact point to be the flat bottom of the saddle against the flat bottom of the slot. With changes in humidity the wood can expand or contract enough to move contact points against the sides of the saddle if it is too snug. In short, better slightly loose than binding.

John
 
FWIW, my Washburn guitar came both with a spare saddle and some thin plastic shims to fit under the saddle if it needed to be raised. The shim material appears to be the usual "yoghurt pot" type plastic ... and about the same thickness. My point is, should you be unlucky enough to sand too much off the bottom of the saddle, re-shimming it up to height can be done without too much trouble, at least in the short term. From my experience on various instruments, provided you don't use a too coarse sandpaper and don't try and rush it, oversanding a saddle is a lot harder to do than over-deepening the slots in the nut (and those can be shimmed and re-filed as well ;)

Hope this helps

Kypfer
 
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