New Ukulele - Doesn't tune correctly?

Hi All

I'm new to this forum, new to Ukulele's and in fact new to any stringed instrument!

Anyhow, I got bought a Puretone Soprano Ukulele about 6 weeks ago for my birthday. I've been twiddling a little every day, but I've never been able to get the tuning perfectly. It seems that when I get it tuned such that all the open strings are correct, the fretted notes are slightly too high, by about half a semitone. Perhaps a video will help: -



Essentially, it's tuned in D (trying Formby style which works better in D). So plugging the 1st string open is B, but on the first fret is C-and-a-half (i.e. half a semitone above C). It's the same with all the other strings. So concequently when I play the D major (as per C major but tuned in D) the top note is "off" and sounds horrible. I can make it sound less horrible (not good, I hasten to add!) by detuning the 1st string slightly, but it's basically just averaging out the inaccuracies.

So my question is, what's causing this? Is this something that cheap strings would cause? Is it something I'm doing fundamentally wrong as a beginner? Or is it simply that it's an entry level Ukulele, the frets have been thrown together without much accuracy and I've no chance of getting it tuned well?

Many thanks for any help.

gingerprince said:

Hi All

I'm new to this forum, new to Ukulele's and in fact new to any stringed instrument!

Anyhow, I got bought a Puretone Soprano Ukulele about 6 weeks ago for my birthday. I've been twiddling a little every day, but I've never been able to get the tuning perfectly. It seems that when I get it tuned such that all the open strings are correct, the fretted notes are slightly too high, by about half a semitone. Perhaps a video will help: -



Essentially, it's tuned in D (trying Formby style which works better in D). So plugging the 1st string open is B, but on the first fret is C-and-a-half (i.e. half a semitone above C). It's the same with all the other strings. So concequently when I play the D major (as per C major but tuned in D) the top note is "off" and sounds horrible. I can make it sound less horrible (not good, I hasten to add!) by detuning the 1st string slightly, but it's basically just averaging out the inaccuracies.

So my question is, what's causing this? Is this something that cheap strings would cause? Is it something I'm doing fundamentally wrong as a beginner? Or is it simply that it's an entry level Ukulele, the frets have been thrown together without much accuracy and I've no chance of getting it tuned well?

Many thanks for any help.

Click to expand...

Without actually holding the instrument and examining it closely, it's all guess work. It could be all three things you mentioned. I'd fine a competent luthier and have them check it over. Good luck.

gingerprince said:

Is this something that cheap strings would cause? Is it something I'm doing fundamentally wrong as a beginner? Or is it simply that it's an entry level Ukulele, the frets have been thrown together without much accuracy and I've no chance of getting it tuned well?

Click to expand...

I have never heard of Puretone ukes.

As for your issue, cheap ukes tend to come with even cheaper strings on them. Replacing them with better strings might help with the intonation, or at least give it a better overall sound.

It's probably not anything you're doing wrong.

I had a friend who was fond of saying "You cain't polish a turd, you just get your hands dirty trying."

One thing you can check quickly is to measure the distance from the nut to fret#12 (A) , and from fret#12 to the saddle (B).
B is expected to be 1 to 2 mm more than A. If B <= A then the intonation issue remains regardless of the strings you put on.
My first uke (concert) has B slightly less than A and had the exact same issue.
The proper fix for this is to "unglue" the bridge and reposition it to the "correct" place. This method is beyond my ability, taking it to a luthier does not make sense as the charge could be more than the price I paid for the uke.
I fixed it my making a pretty special (and weird looking) saddle, but this works great for me.

Here was I wrote in one of the thread about the issue I had, hope this helps.

"I measure the distance from the nut to tip of fret#12: exactly 19cm, the distance from tip of fret#12 to the tip of the saddle where the C string touch, it's about 1.5mm shorter than 19cm. anything string gauge will sound sharp at fret#12 no matter how low the action is. The A string has no issue as the saddle slot is at the proper distance.
I should have thought about measuring this critical distance at first, but my ears say I got to move the contact point farther toward the tail which I did with my "weird" saddle (which works).
i have one choice left (suggested by a member earlier in this trail): use a thicker saddle and sand the bottom part thinner so it fit the saddle slot. Then compensate the saddle per string. I will not touch the bridge as so many suggested to leave it alone. "

Sharp at the frets nearest the nut pretty much indicates that the nut is too high. That's pretty much a given on any low end cheap ukulele. Check at the 12th fret as well to see how far off the octaves are. Strings have more impact the higher up you play. Based on your skill level you probably just need to clean up the nut to get the first 4 frets or so close which will get you through the first months of playing.

I bought a dolphin from one of the big online companies that's supposed to do setup thinking that would be a safe purchase. Months later when I realized how really bad the instrument was I've been slowing working it over. I moved the bridge 6mm towards the nut so it now it matches my other (very fine) soprano for scale. There's more work to be done on it however, and now I have far better ukes to play. I'd like to fix it up to the point that at least I could in good conscience *give* it away or loan it out, but at the moment its fancy kindling. I have a mahalo that plays slightly better than the dolphin in its current state. My 3yro son has done a number on that one (what else is a mahalo good for?).

I think the lesson is...try to bring someone along who has a clue to help you buy your first ukulele. It's far easier to pick up a good one right away than go mess around and have some luthier try to fix a bad one after the fact. Although there's lots of 30-50USD ukueles out there its more likely you'll have to spend closer to 100usd to get something enjoyable to play.

Thanks for the suggestions. So I did some reading and measuring, and have come to the conclusion that it's height of strings that's causing the issue. On the 1st fret it's over 30 cents sharp. Further down it's more like 20 cents.

Reading around suggests a good setup is "a credit card width" between the 1st fret and the string. There's 2-3mm on mine, and I can easily see how pressing here is stretching the string which would make it go sharp.

Also measured not to 12th, and 12th to bridge - the latter is about 2.5mm longer, so I think that's OK. Bridge might benefit from sanding down a little though to bring the action down?

I have a friend at work who collects guitars, so I'm hoping he might have some files I can borrow. It's a cheap uke (£20 so I guess about $30-$35) that I got bought, it's not worth me throwing money on luthiers and tools. Hopefully I can borrow some and get it somewhere near, so I can practice and justify a higher quality instrument.

Also measured not to 12th, and 12th to bridge - the latter is about 2.5mm longer

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Oh, this is great. The extra 2.5 mm should give good intonation at higher frets once the action is adjusted properly.