UkeCan1
Well-known member
mine wasn't nearly that bad at the 12th but it was sharp a couple ticks if i remember correctly. If you look at the profile of the uke you will see the action is much higher toward the saddle. At my stage of development I rarely go past the 5th fret so the couple ticks off tone I doubt could be heard, especially with how quiet the instrument is.
Hmmm ... the first time I tested, mine was way off right from the first fret. I just tested again. In C tuning it's pretty bad (I tested Minnie 1). In D tuning, Sofia is not too bad at all ... the low string is worst, the others are not too bad. I played it gently and it sounded a lot better than it had before. Minnie 1's off a bit more, but still much less than the first time I tested.
Still, I think I have been pressing much too hard with my fretting hand. When other people played Minnie 1 last Friday it sounded pretty decent. When I played, it sounded hideous. Also, my brand new plastic fretboard on my Flea is already getting grooves, even though the Dale at Magic Fluke swore he didn't think that my playing or the fluorocarbon strings could be causing the damage. (I really need to call them again soon!)
No it is NOT removable, the top is ONE PIECE and the triangular post in the center is part of that piece and that piece is GLUED to the bottom of the inside. I spent an hour trying to remove that post (with a saw on a pocket knife) from the inside and gave up when I realized that the bridge is set down in a pocket not flat across the top. so only a small part of the bridge on the sideds even comes in contact with the top.
The poor design is poor.
Brian, nobody's arguing with you about the poor design of the very solid triangular tether in the middle of the uke ... and several of us have already pointed it out. It's never going to be a nice loud resonant uke. I suspect that may be on purpose. Parents who give these to their three-year-olds might well prefer them quiet.
The thing Bnolsen was asking about was the saddle, not the bridge or the triangle thing.
The saddle is indeed removable ... I just removed the one from my Minnie 2 (she of the plinky A string). It looked like it might slide right out like in the Sponge Bob DIY setup video. It didn't ... it has a bit of a peg near each end holding it down into the bridge. So I had to slack the strings way down (more than if it was slide-able) and pry it out with a small screwdriver. But once I did that, it came out easily. It's not glued in at all. It's a rather thin piece of plastic, so whether it can be filed down enough to improve the action, or replaced with something lower, remains to be seen. But it did come out easily.
I put a set of Curt Mangan strings on mine. I bought them on sale, to try. I think I've learned two things:
1-I'm not a fan of the Curt Mangan Uke strings!
2-Even the Curt Mangan strings are a vast improvement over what comes on these Ukes!
The intonation improved with the new strings and the tuning is more stable. As I mess around with it, I'm planning to describe the tone as "Low-Fi", from here on.
That is actually really great news! The Sponge Bob videos showed the same thing ... that a string change made a pretty big difference to the intonation, where all that hard work he showed fixing the setup made almost no difference.
I got two of these and two Schoenhuts at Walmart, the one of these that I didn't take apart and cut up is going back. Both have plastic fret boards, and I noticed there are threads (somewhat heated for UU) about the schoenhuts, about the damage to the plastic fretboard, I did notice that the plastic fretboard on a schoenbut was damaged with florcarbin strings, I would not put florocarbin strings on one of these first act ukes (or any other string really). I notice that you have a shoenhut listed in your ukuleles have you been using nylon strings and if so how is the fretboard holding up ?
I thought Laura had said she had Martins on one of hers, but I just looked back ... she has Aquilas on the restrung one. So ... try the Aquilas instead of the Martins?