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Losing/managing weight is simple math. It's not always easy to ACHIEVE, but it's simple math. Calories in, calories out.

So, you're on the right track. Sensible eating. You don't have to starve...

Well, you guys inspired me to spend an hour or so playing with this thing again. I made another saddle piece. This time from a proper saddle blank. Basically remade the wooden one that I made, but...

I was kind of thinking that some kind of support like that could have been the original production solution to the problem. I could try playing what notion myself. But, the sound hole on this thing...

Yes, they're cheap. And Kala knows how to make a GOOD cheap uke. My first uke was a $40 Makala tenor.

Yes, they're designed to be tossed around and to get wet without damage. None of that is the...

You might be onto something!

What it probably comes down to is that they hired engineers with no musical/luthier experience to effectively make a plastic copy of one of their existing designs....

I tend to agree. They put a lot of engineering into this thing. It's got molded fan bracing, a necked sound hole that is probably some kind of resonator enhancement to improve volume (which it DOES...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTk7AZV2OB8

Yeah, that's how I view it. A cheap and easy way to learn and gather experience.

Haven't changed the strings yet.

Looking at your collection, I'm more likely to be on the Kala end. But, now that I've experienced a truly bad sounding uke, my well-set-up $60 uke sounds worlds better... and I might be ready to...

You know, this was a really interesting thread before the two of you started at it.

Apparently, this forum lacks moderators. So, let me say what EVERYONE else is thinking: DROP IT! Send each other...

Everything is better with pictures.

Here's a top view of my "saddle", which is really more of a shim.

132434

And a side view of same. You can sort of see how low I trimmed the original...

Toothpick was way too tall, but was a good quick experiment.

Today, I shaved a thin piece of scrap pine about .75mm thick, a couple mm wide and crammed it behind the stub of the molded saddle. I...

Just to give this thread some closure:

My "Setup" thread is here.

With a little creativity, the intonation and action can definitely be improved a lot. I'm not quite done, but it looks like...

Slipping a toothpick behind what's left of the saddle definitely fixed the buzz. But, it raised the action too much, and made the intonation worse.

I'll have to play with this some more... maybe...

Ugh. Good news and bad news.

Action at 12 = 3.2mm (.125")

Action at 1 = 0.7mm (.028")

Intonation is somewhat improved, but still bad.

Open 2nd 5th 12th
G +4 +10 +12

Action is too high. Intonation is sharp.

Step 1: Lower the saddle.

Now, years of working with sport car suspension modifications has taught me that you should always only make one change at a...

It's a Soprano scale uke, and I'm going to assume that the basic specs are typical. Not going to measure the scale and all that.

Critical Measurements:

String height at the bridge from the top...

Bought a Waterman soprano. Pretty sure it was a store display model. It's got Aquila strings and they seem to be pre-stretched. (it stays pretty much in tune) And, as Waterman ukes are prone to do,...

I'm stupid.

In my defense, when I typed the above, I'd only looked at the uke for a few minutes, and I was more thinking about finishing submitting that post before dinner!

So, my concert has...

First, I'll probably try to bring the saddle down a little bit. There's precious little material there to work with, but I can probably take a half mm or so off of it.

Then if there's still too...

My Waterman arrived!

Now, I watched several reviews of these things before I ordered one, and like most ukuleles... a good player can make one sound okay. I, however am not a good player, and the...

I'm all about cheap ukes. So far, the only uke I paid more than $60 for, I hated!

But, this is a $30 uke, and it's plastic, and my expectations are in that place. If I decide I like playing...

I know UAS is a thing, I'm trying to not succumb to it. I know I likely won't play more than one or two, and don't want to clutter the house with them.

I've had an empty uke hook on my wall since...

Call me a rebel, or just plain not a good player, but I don't try to memorize strum patterns. I strum what feels right for what I'm playing based on either what I know it should sound like, or what I...