Looks like Kala stepped up its game -- neat --

man0a said:

I can tolerate 3mm at the 12th fret, but isn't 1mm at the nut very high?

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rainbow21 said:

I went back to the original photos and noticed that the inspector does not check the boxes: They all are already checked as part of the printing of the QC checklist. It is a checklist without any indication that set up might be done on any uke that might be slightly out of spec. So it is distinctly possible that nothing is actually done (including checking intonation at all 12 frets on every string) and that this is PR and marketing and not a playability phenomenon.

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UkerDanno said:

Pretty high for me...I have mine at 2mm at the 12th, about .25mm at the first.

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badhabits said:

I was thinking this might push buyers to the big box, non-specialty stores...since the work they (the specialty shops) typically do will have already been done. Or it might just be kala ensuring that their product is at a minimum level of quality, i.e., eliminating the lemons.

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Captain America said:

People who buy from Guitar Center will always buy from Guitar Center. My guess is that Kala is trying to up their business practices to reduce less costs.

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clear said:

When you have low setup like that it is very particular to the player and strings. When you sell your ukes, the new buyer may ask for a higher setup. Therefore, I don't think it is a good thing for manufacturers to ship with such low setups because it'll severely limit the end customer's choices.

I believe if Kala's actions can trigger its competitors to also include such guarantees with their instrument, then it is a total win for us consumers.

For example, many places that perform setup for instrument purchases and does an intonation check, when I asked about what is acceptable intonation error, I never get a straight answer (please try asking this yourself next time, it is not easy to get an answer before your purchase even when intonation should only improve with a proper setup). But as a buyer, I don't really care about intonation check, I care about what error level rejects an instrument. If all uke manufacturers say something like "our instruments will not give you more than +/-7 cents error at 12th", that's go a long way.

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