Brand new ukulele action/ neck question

Hi!

I'm new to the forum and largely new to the world of ukeleles.

Bit of a back story and introduction about myself before I get in to it but if you can't be bothered to read all that (don't blame you) then just scroll down to 'THE CHASE'.

I've been playing guitar on and off for about 15 years so I took to it quite quickly and I'm loving every minute.

I was gifted one of those cheap £15-20 soprano ukes which seemed a bit of fun before it went back in the box. Anyway, it came out at a party one night and since then I've been looking up more songs and styles and started really improving.

So my next step was to upgrade for which I bought a tenor because of the larger dimensions (I'm 6'2" with large hands). I went for a Gear4Music own branded Koa Tenor ukelele - okay, on that note please don't hate me for my choice of purchase. I have a G4M bass guitar that I'm really happy with and my budget wouldn't allow me to splash out. Anyway, for £60 it seems wonderful so far. Looks great, sounds really good and not a lot to complain about.

Okay, time to cut down to...

THE CHASE

A few days later I start noticing the action further down the neck seems high. The ukelele is tuned to standard G4C4E4a4 and it took a lot of re-tuning before it started to hold its tune but I expected that to be normal for a new instrument with soft strings.

I put a straight edge against it (a ruler with notches in it that I use to check the necks of my guitars for adjustment). I notice that the neck essentially points at an angle ending up towards the bottom of the bridge. The distance above the top of the 12th fret looks to be about 3.5-4mm.

I'm reluctant to send the instrument back straight away because I really like it and I don't want to do that if I can sort this easily.

I've got a well stocked workshop in my garden and I'm quite handy so taking the saddle out and sanding it seems like the most logical solution however I don't want to end up causing problems with fret buzz if the problem is more severe that I might be thinking.

Normally I'd be thinking about truss rod adjustment but this doesn't seem to have one. Do any ukes have them? What happens if the necks bend through mis use or atmospheric conditions? What's the fix?

Do I attempt to fix this ukelele by sanding the saddle or send it back? (Bear in mind I can't really afford a higher end model but I'm open to suggestions for a side step).

Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated.

Many thanks
BB

A couple of suggestions that may help;
1. Ukes don't normally have a truss rod since the string tension is not a great as with steel strings.
2. Looking at your pics, you could probably sand a couple of mill off the bridge saddle but that would only gain you 1mm at the 12th.
3. Often, with budget instruments, the action at the nut is also high. Is there room for downwards adjustment?

Vintage

The angle of the neck looks OK, as far as can be seen in the photos. A little work on the saddle and nut should improve the action.

John Colter

Hi Vintage/John,

Thanks very much for the responses. I took the saddle out today and sanded 2mm off the bottom of it. This has made the action between the top of the 12th fret and the underside of the strings pretty much 3.0mm exactly. I didn't want to make it too low as I was scared of fret buzz because I play quite hard on the strings anyway. It's made a noticible difference I'm pleased to say.

This is what I needed to hear to give me the confidence to do it so once again, thanks.

For the record, I do reallyyy like this ukelele and would recommend for the price!