Hi. Sorry this is long, I need to vent, but I'm reaching out for help...
I'm posting this out of desperation more than anything. I am a fairly experienced Uke player, I have close to ten ukes. I can do my own set-up, but I am far from a luthier. All of the luthiers in my area are guitar guys, but I have had some repairs by them that were acceptable.
Here goes:
I love little ukes, and I have had a Kala all solid acacia Pocket Uke for months now. It's perfectly intoned, I just had to lower the nut a little when I got it new. It sounds GREAT C tuned, and I play it as such.
I found out that Kala no longer makes any of the Pocket Ukes in solid wood and I saw a solid mahogany new for sale at a shop in Hawaii. (NOT H.M.S.) UAS forced me to buy it, and the day it arrived the tuner for the E string was completely loose and couldn't be tuned. I tried to tighten the tuner and the screw was completely seized up. I almost blew a blood vessel trying to tighten or even loosen it up. No luck. The strings that were tight enough had buzz, at least the C and A ones did.
I took it to the shop to be fixed, as it was the only solid mahogany for sale in the U.S. and I was willing to repair it. A week later my local luthier had it working, and I saw he had 'dressed' my frets in a few places. The buzzing was now only on the E and A strings, but it was there even when strumming open.
I looked down the fret board from the saddle up and could see that the nut angled down lower from G going to A..... I took pictures. The string grooves in the nut for C, E, and A were more like scratches than grooves. It looked way too low from that angle, so I figured that I needed a new nut. I proceeded to hand made one from solid bone. As I was lowering and adjusting the new nut, and while the strings were still WAY to high, I got buzzing on the E and A strings. I looked, and it appeared the saddle was too low as well. So I stopped on the nut for the time being, and cut and hand made a new saddle from solid bone. I left the new saddle intentionally too high to for the time being.
I returned to lowering the NEW nut, and the buzz was still there with the saddle set VERY, VERY HIGH!! I stopped again, and took a long, critical look. Guess what? (You experienced guys are probably laughing and/or shouting at this post by now, but I had to live it.....) The NECK was bent/arched, and slightly twisted down going toward the A string!!!!! I had not been looking for it before... Keep in mind, the neck on a Pocket Uke is only five or six inches long!! Obviously, this had been that way from the FACTORY, as evidenced by the shallow string grooves in the nut.
So. I carefully dressed the frets where I was getting drag and string contact. Then I carefully set it all up, lowering the nut and saddle both making it playable.
I now have NO string buzz!! Yippee!!
Guess what??
Intonation sucks!! I can tune it C or D, it doesn't matter. PERFECTLY tuned open strings sound fine. (By-the-way, I tossed the Aquila strings and put Worth clears on.) However, here is the point and purpose of this entire post; Certain frets, at or near where the bow and twist in the neck are hideously out of tune when played. I can play it back-to-back with my solid acacia and it's absolutely awful. It sounds much, much worse out of tune than a Grizzly Uke kit. I oughttta know. (I built one back in January for fun.)
Is there anything I can do to bring it in tune? I have three solid days work into this, plus the money in repair to my guitar shop. I just want it to be playable.......and it just makes me sad.
I am unfamiliar if there is anything I can do that will bring it back in tune, or if this is a lost cause. Please let me know....
Desperately yours,
Scott
I'm posting this out of desperation more than anything. I am a fairly experienced Uke player, I have close to ten ukes. I can do my own set-up, but I am far from a luthier. All of the luthiers in my area are guitar guys, but I have had some repairs by them that were acceptable.
Here goes:
I love little ukes, and I have had a Kala all solid acacia Pocket Uke for months now. It's perfectly intoned, I just had to lower the nut a little when I got it new. It sounds GREAT C tuned, and I play it as such.
I found out that Kala no longer makes any of the Pocket Ukes in solid wood and I saw a solid mahogany new for sale at a shop in Hawaii. (NOT H.M.S.) UAS forced me to buy it, and the day it arrived the tuner for the E string was completely loose and couldn't be tuned. I tried to tighten the tuner and the screw was completely seized up. I almost blew a blood vessel trying to tighten or even loosen it up. No luck. The strings that were tight enough had buzz, at least the C and A ones did.
I took it to the shop to be fixed, as it was the only solid mahogany for sale in the U.S. and I was willing to repair it. A week later my local luthier had it working, and I saw he had 'dressed' my frets in a few places. The buzzing was now only on the E and A strings, but it was there even when strumming open.
I looked down the fret board from the saddle up and could see that the nut angled down lower from G going to A..... I took pictures. The string grooves in the nut for C, E, and A were more like scratches than grooves. It looked way too low from that angle, so I figured that I needed a new nut. I proceeded to hand made one from solid bone. As I was lowering and adjusting the new nut, and while the strings were still WAY to high, I got buzzing on the E and A strings. I looked, and it appeared the saddle was too low as well. So I stopped on the nut for the time being, and cut and hand made a new saddle from solid bone. I left the new saddle intentionally too high to for the time being.
I returned to lowering the NEW nut, and the buzz was still there with the saddle set VERY, VERY HIGH!! I stopped again, and took a long, critical look. Guess what? (You experienced guys are probably laughing and/or shouting at this post by now, but I had to live it.....) The NECK was bent/arched, and slightly twisted down going toward the A string!!!!! I had not been looking for it before... Keep in mind, the neck on a Pocket Uke is only five or six inches long!! Obviously, this had been that way from the FACTORY, as evidenced by the shallow string grooves in the nut.
So. I carefully dressed the frets where I was getting drag and string contact. Then I carefully set it all up, lowering the nut and saddle both making it playable.
I now have NO string buzz!! Yippee!!
Guess what??
Intonation sucks!! I can tune it C or D, it doesn't matter. PERFECTLY tuned open strings sound fine. (By-the-way, I tossed the Aquila strings and put Worth clears on.) However, here is the point and purpose of this entire post; Certain frets, at or near where the bow and twist in the neck are hideously out of tune when played. I can play it back-to-back with my solid acacia and it's absolutely awful. It sounds much, much worse out of tune than a Grizzly Uke kit. I oughttta know. (I built one back in January for fun.)
Is there anything I can do to bring it in tune? I have three solid days work into this, plus the money in repair to my guitar shop. I just want it to be playable.......and it just makes me sad.
I am unfamiliar if there is anything I can do that will bring it back in tune, or if this is a lost cause. Please let me know....
Desperately yours,
Scott