First ukulele ever, I feel a weird noise when strumming.

vaulty

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When strumming my ukulele I can hear a weird noise on it. I can't quite tell what it is, but I feel like it's coming from inside the ukulele.

It's a cheap 60ish USD ukulele, which may be related, but I was hoping you guys could help a first timer.
 
Could be a whole lot of things. Posting a video would be very helpful for troubleshooting.
 
first thing I would check is any screws... tuner screws, strap button screws. See if any are loose. If they are snug them up and see if that gets the buzz out.
 
I don't know if you can appreciate it with my cellphone microphone but I uploaded it to Soundcloud here.
 
One thing I noticed from your sound file is that the second string you pluck (C) is muted like when it hits a fret. Is this the weird sound you mean? Or was that just your hand touching that string accidentally?

Anyway, you need to specify what type of sound you mean (buzz, clink, rattle), and locate where it is coming from (from the fretboard, from the bridge, out of the soundhole). Could be one fret sticking out and making that C string buzz, as I suggested above, but if it comes from inside the body, it could be something worse like a loose brace. Did you shake the uke to see if there is a piece of wood loose inside the body?
 
Agreed. It sounds like the C string is buzzing on something... a high fret or the slot in the nut was cut too low and the string is buzzing on the frets.... unless your finger was touching that string accidentally in the recording
 
Definitely sounds like C string buzz like mentioned above.
 
Is your ukulele and acoustic-electric? It would help if we knew the full specs of the instrument, maybe send pics or a video of it. I just recently had a similar problem with my acoustic electric ukulele, and the issue was different parts of the mechanics and wiring inside the body weren't as secure as they could be, and caused buzzing. If there are any other additional parts to the ukulele like mentioned by others, make sure they are tightened. Hope we can all help you out!
 
Is your ukulele and acoustic-electric? It would help if we knew the full specs of the instrument, maybe send pics or a video of it.

Here is an album with pics of the ukulele. It's an acoustic one,

I wasn't touching the C strings, that's the weird noise I was hearing. Is there a way to solve that? I was planning on changing the strings, but I'm not sure if that will help.
 
Yes, that link is good! Now, from the photos, I might ask, on your 3rd string (the C), on the tuning post, just under the windings of the string, is that "nut" tight enough? And is the little screw for that tuner tight enough (on the back of the headstock)? (I now see that Swamp Yankee and J Music mentioned this already, sorry!)
 
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I'm arriving home in like 15 minutes, I'll let you know.

I just bought some Aquila strings but I realised that I probably have to find out whats wrong with the ukulele before swapping strings :/
 
Great! Might not hurt to check and make sure all of the other nuts (at the base of the tuning posts) are sufficiently tight, too!
 
I just checked, all of them are quite tight, although the first and fourth string arent as tight as the third, for example, because all of the nuts have the same size.
 
Okay, now other members may have different ideas, but at this point I think I'd just go ahead and change your strings, Vaulty. If that doesn't solve it, then it sounds to me like there might be some kind of issue with the nut slot of your C string (maybe being cut too "horizontal" and not having enough of an angle downward toward the headstock?) The only other observation I might make is that it looks like your fretboard, as it ends near the soundhole, isn't quite flush to the body of the uke; this is probably not a big deal, but I suppose it may be worth checking to see if it's creating a vibration there...
 
Apart from sounding out of tune, It sounds like the buzz only happens when you strum or pluck hard. That makes me think it is a problem with uneven frets. Try placing a ruler on the fret board and see if it wobbles at any point. If so, you have uneven frets and will most likely need to get it looked at by a luthier (to anyone that's going to contradict me on the luthier point, I know you can do it yourself, but this person is a beginner, and I wouldn't recommend it at this point).
 
Do you know the gauge or brand of your original strings? What type of strings did you replace them with? While you replaced the strings did you check over fretboard, nut and bridge/saddle?

I should of thought of this before you replaced the strings.
 
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