lowering the action

chuck in ny

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here is the question. i scored a very nice gold label kamaka soprano off of ebay, glued it a bit, cleaned it up and gave it a wax finish, all quite nice.
the strings sit off the 12th fret no more than 1/8". can this be left alone or should i take it to a luthier and have the bridge lowered.
help a noob here. i am going to try posting a pic for the first time.008.jpg008.jpg009.jpg
 
hey! the pics worked! the uke had been mildly abused, pick damage, age. i am very pleased with the tone and character of the koa wood, and the sound of the kamaka sopranos. when you are bidding on the 'bay all you have is intuition and luck to guide you. the instrument was $315. shipped.
 
First off congrats on the ebay steal. You always roll the dice and that one looks pretty sweet. My advice on the action is leave it alone for now and play the heck out of it. If it's a little high and the intonation is bugging you then look into lowering it. I used to try and and get the action as low as possible but as my playing has matured I find myself playing harder with more assurance and I appreciate a little more clearance to avoid buzzing etc. I have also found on soprano scale particularly, that backing off on the finger pressure cures quite a bit of going sharp on the higher frets. Getting a clear tone with minimal pressure works wonders.

Still I'm sensitive to intonation issues so if it's more than a few cents off at 12 when lightly fretted then I would probably have to address it.
 
librainian

thank you. i strongly suspected it should be left alone and played.
the instrument did not fetch a high price on ebay because of multiple small issues. it had the pick damage. it came with a dinky nylon strap. it was attached to the bottom of the ukulele by velcro,, to a square velcro patch that had this horrible green clay like gummy adhesive. i took that off with my fingernail and finally by paper towels with goo-gone. there is still a finish ghost where the gum absorbed the lacquer up which is of course no big deal. there were a couple of stickers and labels, a chord cheat sheet on the upper side and the owner's name under the bridge. again goo-gone was used. it's main use is removing stickers and their residue. then, not mentioned in the auction, the back had separated on the bottom, and i clamped it up with titebond.
there was a lot to be said for bypassing this ukulele and going another hundred on something cleaner from the get go hence it not bidding up. i was going to let it go except an intuition kept on digging at me. i love the one piece front and back, and the grain while not highly figured is beautiful in tone, bold, and quite handsome.
much thanks for the advice.
 
The cosmetic damage sounds to be just that - cosmetic. It's how it plays and sounds that matters. It's a quality make so I would expect it to sound good and as long as it does and there is no more critical damage, it looks like you have a bargain.

Play it and cherish it.
 
tootler
the cosmetic damage is part of the vintage milieu and as long as you don't continue at things with a plastic pick it can be 'character'.
it sounds ..really.. nice. i am impressed with the kamaka product. it is one of my steady players. i am in love.
 
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