Ukulele has a slanted nut - should I avoid it?

Hey everyone,
New to the world of ukuleles (and stringed instruments!) since last month. I got a cheapish Oscar Schmidt ukulele and fell absolutely in love, to the point where I'm going to get a nicer long term ukulele right now, and the OS will make a nice present.
I'm taken with the Eastman EU3T solid mahogany tenor and it's been tough to get in Canada. I found one newly in stock at a large music store and asked for pictures of it before I order. It looks absolutely stunning but there is a problem with the nut. It is slanted and this is even more obvious because of the etched line in the neck where the nut 'should' be.
The store's repair shop assure me that it doesn't affect playability/isn't interfering with any of the functionality of the instrument and that it would be a cosmetic issue.
Should I believe them?? I want to but I'm worried! How can it not affect the open G cord intonation?
Thank you for your input
-Sporky

I cannot comment on the effect on the sound. But one consideration is whether you think you will ever try to resell this, perhaps to acquire a different one after time passes or if you end up not "bonding" with it. The slanted nut would make that much more difficult.

Hmm , a slanted saddle is fairly normal and can be a feature if the builder did it intentionally to improve intonation. This is called a compensated saddle. A compensated nut isn't completely unheard of but is very rare even on high end ukes. I can't imagine this is a design feature on a production uke.

What they said is technically true, but I'd trust your gut on this one and look elsewhere - unless you could play it first and decide for yourself

Maybe I'm missing the obvious here, but is the nut issue supposed to be visible in the photos you've attached? If you have other photos, can you share them too?

What's the return policy with this vendor?

feels like too big a gamble for me.

The question is whether this particular nut placement is a fault that should have been caught by Eastman's quality control, or the instrument is a second, or this is a normal circumstance for Eastman ukuleles?

A techie/salesman calling a nonstandard placement-and-glueing of a nut as being a "cosmetic issue" reminds me of a used car salesman who said to me "don't worry about that, the car will still drive okay." A fault makes the instrument a second. Now, seconds are sold all the time, but the price needs to reflect the status.

This instrument has an obvious fault and has not been personally examined by the buyer (if there is one fault, then is there another one or two?) or by anyone the buyer trusts. That's not the situation for a good deal.

ukulele has a slanted nut - should I avoid it?

Jim Hanks said:

Hmm , a slanted saddle is fairly normal and can be a feature if the builder did it intentionally to improve intonation. This is called a compensated saddle. A compensated nut isn't completely unheard of but is very rare even on high end ukes. I can't imagine this is a design feature on a production uke.

What they said is technically true, but I'd trust your gut on this one and look elsewhere - unless you could play it first and decide for yourself

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If you are really mechanically inclined you can improvise and I think it feels right to you and doing a bit at a time to avoid buzzing from a too lower action.

It's about intonation. If the nut is meant to be straight yet is slanted, that'll throw off the intonation bigtime. A compensated saddle usually means where the string rests is filed back so its intonation matches the other strings intonation. I see it in guitars and a few high end ukes but never have seen a slanted nut.

I think Steve is right, the salesman just pulled the box off a shelf and never bothered to check it out. Always a good idea to buy from a store that does a setup before sending out. Mim's, Uke Republic, HMS all check out every uke, no matter the price of the uke, before sending out. I'm pretty sure they all send to Canada.

You may to check out Kalas, Ohanas, Mainland, Pono just to name a few. No matter what you buy, always ask if they, the store, does a setup before sending out. If they say, the factory does a setup, go to a different store because the factories just do a cursory check over if that.

Sporky said:

Hey everyone,
New to the world of ukuleles (and stringed instruments!) since last month. I got a cheapish Oscar Schmidt ukulele and fell absolutely in love, to the point where I'm going to get a nicer long term ukulele right now, and the OS will make a nice present.
I'm taken with the Eastman EU3T solid mahogany tenor and it's been tough to get in Canada. I found one newly in stock at a large music store and asked for pictures of it before I order. It looks absolutely stunning but there is a problem with the nut. It is slanted and this is even more obvious because of the etched line in the neck where the nut 'should' be.
The store's repair shop assure me that it doesn't affect playability/isn't interfering with any of the functionality of the instrument and that it would be a cosmetic issue.
Should I believe them?? I want to but I'm worried! How can it not affect the open G cord intonation?
Thank you for your input
-Sporky
View attachment 131232View attachment 131233View attachment 131234View attachment 131235

Click to expand...

your pictures don’t help.
if you have not tried it in person and do not know if you will like it then check the return policy.
As mentioned here by others, it is about the intonation(does the uke generate the right frequencies) and if you are happy..

I'm not sure if it's already obvious to the OP and/or everyone else in the thread, but since no one else has said it: if we're talking about the nut being slightly tilted so it's sitting off square (one side is correctly up against the fretboard and the other side is sitting a little further back), that's about a 10 second fix 99% of the time - loosen the strings, push it into place, add a tiny dab of glue (elmer's white glue or any yellow woodworking glue you have), and re-tune. If it's already glued, yet crooked, you can pop it off, scrape the glue out with a utility knife or file, and put it back on correctly.

Surely there are people who won't be comfortable doing this, and that's totally okay. And of course you shouldn't really HAVE to do this on a new instrument. But I hope it's clear that a crooked nut isn't inherently a complex or difficult problem to solve. The other 1% of the time is when the end of the fretboard itself is not square. That's more complicated, and not something you probably want to get in to. But it's also very rare in production instruments once you get above the dirt cheap Amazon starter kit ukes. If you can't determine the situation by photos, knowing the return policy will give you some guidance on how much of a gamble you want to make in order to possibly get the uke you want. For me, If I had been hunting for this model and couldn't get it elsewhere, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it unless the shop had a terrible return policy.

As indicated, some high end stringed instruments are set up with "tilted" nuts on purpose to help intonation but that's certainly not the case here.

I find it hard to believe that any manufacturer would release an instrument with such an obvious fault. It is much more likely that the image has been distorted by the camera. If that is a true representation of the way this ukulele was built, I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial barge pole.

John Colter

rainbow21 said:

I cannot comment on the effect on the sound. But one consideration is whether you think you will ever try to resell this, perhaps to acquire a different one after time passes or if you end up not "bonding" with it. The slanted nut would make that much more difficult.

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Yes, resale is an important consideration. I might not mind buying a uke with some scratches, but would I be able to sell it?

There are several on Reverb.

https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=Eastman EU3T

A competent luthier could correct the nut, but the bridge would probably have to stay the way it is because of the finish.

SteveZ said:

The question is whether this particular nut placement is a fault that should have been caught by Eastman's quality control, or the instrument is a second, or this is a normal circumstance for Eastman ukuleles?

A techie/salesman calling a nonstandard placement-and-glueing of a nut as being a "cosmetic issue" reminds me of a used car salesman who said to me "don't worry about that, the car will still drive okay." A fault makes the instrument a second. Now, seconds are sold all the time, but the price needs to reflect the status.

This instrument has an obvious fault and has not been personally examined by the buyer (if there is one fault, then is there another one or two?) or by anyone the buyer trusts. That's not the situation for a good deal.

Click to expand...

It's a shame that we have learned to disbelieve anything a salesman says - and for good reason.

Sporky said:

Hey everyone,
New to the world of ukuleles (and stringed instruments!) since last month. I got a cheapish Oscar Schmidt ukulele and fell absolutely in love, to the point where I'm going to get a nicer long term ukulele right now, and the OS will make a nice present.
I'm taken with the Eastman EU3T solid mahogany tenor and it's been tough to get in Canada. I found one newly in stock at a large music store and asked for pictures of it before I order. It looks absolutely stunning but there is a problem with the nut. It is slanted and this is even more obvious because of the etched line in the neck where the nut 'should' be.
The store's repair shop assure me that it doesn't affect playability/isn't interfering with any of the functionality of the instrument and that it would be a cosmetic issue.
Should I believe them?? I want to but I'm worried! How can it not affect the open G cord intonation?
Thank you for your input
-Sporky
View attachment 131232View attachment 131233View attachment 131234View attachment 131235

Click to expand...

I don't know if it's a Canadian version of our Guitar Centers, but it's a large place that just wants to sell stuff. Yeah a luthier should be able to fix it, but I'd want a clean one to start. If you want to risk it, definitely see what their return policy is.
There's another thread on buying with your eyes instead of your ears, and there really is something to it.
Good luck

I flipped the first two pictures around, and it looks like the nut is tilted, but the bridge isn't. Unless the fingerboard is also at an angle, straightening the placement of the nut should be a snap.

https://forum.ukuleleunderground.co...f so take off all,off all surfaces and reglue
http://crawlsbackward.blogspot.com/2011/11/removing-old-nut-and-saddle-silvertone.html
http://ukeonomics.blogspot.com/2012/09/vintage-harmony-ukulele-repair-project.html

Ask for a discount, see what they say. It's a nice looking instrument, but the angle and the stupid line is not. If they don't give you a discount, they may be untrustworthy. As said above, it's easy to re-glue a nut, so maybe ask them to re-glue it straight, attest that it plays in tune, send a new picture and offer you a return policy.

I wonder now if that nut is actually crooked, or if it's just a crappy picture with the drawers in the background creating an optical illusion.

I think I'd start by asking for much clearer photos of the nut area of the neck.

Thanks a lot for all the feedback! Much more than I expected, I appreciate it.
The store does have a solid returns policy - it ships from far away in Canada but I can return it locally within 30 days. It also includes a set up within a year if I don't like the way it's playing. But that doesn't include replacing the nut. I wonder what the worst case scenario could be at this point.
I've looked everywhere at so many models! This is one of a few that seemed to fit my tastes and needs. The upper end Flight ones are unavailable in North America right now, Eastman distributors are apparently sold out since a few months ago. The Kala models are a bit too narrow for my liking. Etc. Etc.
When ordering from the US the shipping is quite steep - that one EU3T on Reverb has 200$ shipping!
I am reassured by this talk of nuts not being solidly glued in place, which makes sense. I will try to get better pictures of the nut today and perhaps pull the trigger. They offered 25$ off last time, perhaps I can move them to 50?
Will update

I'll chime in real quick. I've seen a few of these crooked nuts around. I've even seen one on a KoAloha I received. I didn't have time to test intonation thoroughly because I sent it back simply for the reason that it wasn't the model I had originally ordered, so nothing to do with the actual nut itself. It did seem to play perfectly when I tested it really quickly but, again, didn't check intonation properly. I'm so OCD that I could never live with a slanted nut myself even if it had zero effect on the sound or intonation. Personally, I would contact the shop, ask their opinion on it and ask if they can straighten it during setup. If they claim it's nothing, I would ask for a discount. To be fair, a nut can seem slanted simply because the thickness of it isn't completely uniform. But if it's not flush against the end of the fretboard then intonation issues are much more probable.