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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
 Posted - 04/05/2007 : 04:34:40 AM
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I decided to try the ukulele less than a year ago. Classical or jazz music on a keyboard has always held a certain magic for me, but after years of trying, with sporadic practice (caused by long, work induced interruptions), I'd largely given up hope on ever mastering the piano. (Last night I was working through the Canzonetta from Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto" on the keyboard, and even with halting playing, it was one of those everyday, peak experiences, just to be able to feel the composer's genius in such a direct manner - too bad I can't yet do the same with Uncle Dave's "Faux Opihi Moemoe".)
I picked up the ukulele because I'd read that the "Guinness Book of World Records" describes it as the easiest instrument to learn to play. (I'd debate that, giving the tin whistle its due.) Lacking any recent examples of accomplished amateur musicians in my own family, I thought this assertion made the ukulele a reasonable means of establising if we were all truly the musical "morons" indicated by the examples set by my siblings and reinforced by my own inability to develop any facility with the piano after two decades of now and then attempts to acquire some basic skill. (I think its always been a matter of never being able to adequately focus while distracted by work and work related events, combined with the generally negative impact on musicianship of the "TV and Video Game Age". Wouldn't life be great if work distractions went away in your private time?)
I had encountered the "plastic jumping flea" web site and had gotten the impression that ukulele's were sufficiently expensive that a "$12 uke" with a lot of time invested was a good idea. Had I known then that I could pick one up for less than $20.00 at a lot of on-line sources, I never would have initiated construction. The Luthier's job, even when attempted in a fairly crude manner, requires specialized tools if you wish to save your fingers. My tool box contained equipment meant for bulk construction work and auto repair.
I still recall my trepidation when I first tried to play them, with more than a quarter of an inch of "action" creating truly strange and unpleasant sounds, before I adjusted the nuts so the strings were closer to the frets to prevent excessive stretching. Then came the need to stop buzzing, which resulted in a transparent tape cradle method when the tools I had simply weren't up to recutting the slots properly, and I didn't want to expend money in specialized tools given my original $12.00 ukulele goal. (I wound up spending a lot more for some parts, allowing for shipping in a ukulele hostile town, which was left out of that $12.00 estimate.)
Why is it that I live in a place in which there are no music stores that embrace standard ukuleles? In the midwest I would think that the legacy of Arthur Godfrey would be particularly likely to live on. Instead, this is guitar heaven. I was shocked when I decided recently to do away with the transparent tape and specialized winding for each peg and employ some advice I'd found on this site seriously by taking my ukuleles to a local music store that advertised guitars and repair, where I received a $10.00 per instrument quote to re-fill and recut each wooden nut. (They're supposed to be ready by Friday.)
My odyssey here with my prior "slack key ukulele" interest had caused me to question whether my "bird house" ukuleles wanted for playability, given their fairly narrow necks (due to limited, finished options in terms of the molding from which I elected to form them). I'd built them thinking I'd only be strumming given my limited musical talents, so the narrow neck originally seemed potentially to provide an advantage. I'd also wondered if the relatively thick, mahogany plywood was a factor in the fairly short sustain that I'd realized. I finally decided to look for a "store bought" ukulele.
Koa was, of course, an appealing option, but I've already got two ukuleles, and was feeling guilty for even considering buying one I hadn't made after going to the trouble to do so. I wanted something "cheap" but of decent quality. I found a "Baja" brand spruce top ukulele. They advertised it as a "close-out" at less than half the retail price. I contacted the on-line retailer and asked if they'd set it up (as their ad promised) with Aquila Nylgut strings. I'd used them on my homemade ukuleles, and was fairly pleased with the results. They didn't carry Aquila strings, so I placed the order knowing I had a spare set of concert length strings that I could install.
The new ukulele arrived yesterday. What a beautiful thing it is. The spruce top and mahogany back and neck are fine examples of wood finishing. There were a couple of places where I could find minor flaws, but when I checked the web site the "close-out" advertisement was gone. I seem to have gotten the last, so I decided to live with the minor flaws. I now appreciate the term "set-up", which it turns out, is no longer provided. The strings that came with the instrument were black by an unknown manufacturer. I tried to tune it, and was disappointed in the tone of the first strum. Someone else commented that I should return it because the "bird house" ukuleles I'd constructed sounded better. I'd read about the capacity for Aquila strings to make a ukulele sound good. That $7.00 investment was a big part of the total twenty-something dollars that I put into each ukulele that I constructed. Unfortunately, I had some work to do before I felt it was wise to install the new strings.
The "A string" was buzzing when I played the "D" note. That, combined with the flaws in the finish, would have generated a return had this not been the last of this model available. Instead I got my set of needle files and went to work on the lower side of the fret just below the "D" note on the "A string". The buzzing went away after I removed more than a little fret material. Fortunately, "D#" doesn't seem to be adversely affected. I then lightly filed the other frets to restore the shine. The Aquila strings went on with ease. The improvement in tone was obvious.
I am inclined to believe that my cigar box ukuleles have a "sweeter" tone than this store bought ukulele. The big, mahogany plywood boxes they possess give them decent volume as well. (They also make it a lot easier to hold onto the ukulele when playing.) This Baja spruce top ukulele does not itself want for projection, and the sustain that it possesses is, based on my limited experience, remarkable. My only complaints are the level of "set-up" (or should I call it minor repair) in which I had to engage, and the cheap strings. I have to wonder how many people enter a music shop to purchase a ukulele that is sitting in a display with cheap strings, and spend more than they would if they had been afforded the opportunity to try each instrument (at any price range) equipped with Aquila Nylgut strings with the proper tuning.
One of the driving factors in my purchase, the desire to try finger-style playing with a commercially manufactured ukulele with strings that I thought might be set further apart doesn't seem to be as big a factor as I'd expected. I'll have to blame my clumsy fingers rather than inexperienced design for unintentional contact when fretting. I have learned that it would be wise to alter my design in the future to include a removable nut made from something other than wood. (I'd either have to purchase the proper tools or take them to a music shop and have them do the final nut cutting and adjustment, with the latter seeming to be the better option.)
Too bad the Baja spruce top doesn't seem to be available anymore. At around $50.00 (on close-out), it seems to have been a good deal that doesn't want for musical quality or eye appeal (so long as you can handle the possibility of either undertaking or paying for the solution to set-up issues, or have the option of returning the instrument for replacement.)
Why post this? THE "MORAL": 1. Make sure you're comparing instruments and not strings when you buy a ukulele. 2. Don't undervalue on-line dealers who actually provide set-up when they advertise it if your time is valuable, and you want to make sure you don't have to go through a lengthy mail-order exchange process. 3. If you buy a "cheap" ukulele, consider finding a source of Aquila strings, and trying a set. (There's a retailer, with whom I've had no prior experience, on E-bay who charges less than a dollar for shipping of Aquila strings - with shipping being a factor that can turn a $7.00 set of strings into a $15.00 purchase from some sources).
Hope this is helpful to somebody (and no, I don't own stock in Aquila).
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Thank you. |
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hikabe
Lokahi
USA
358 Posts |
Posted - 04/05/2007 : 10:32:30 AM
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Man... you sure talk a lot!!!
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Stay Tuned... |
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Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
Posted - 04/05/2007 : 12:36:13 PM
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| Well...this is the "Uke TALK" forum. Some of us are listening... |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2007 : 1:59:04 PM
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NUTS!!!
That's what this follow-up posting is all about, ukulele nuts. I picked up my two birdhouse ukuleles today. The music store had contacted me to notify me that they couldn't realize an improvement using methods that tend to work with mandolins. When I arrived, the nice fellow running the store today told me that there was a minimum string height that he believed had to be maintained to provide for proper nut function. He'd not been able to stop the nuts from buzzing by cutting down to that height repeatedly. He didn't charge me, returned my instruments,each still in one piece, and sent me home.
He had built up some glue-like material in the slots, which did help me in my work after I got home. I'd already followed the Ukulele (Builder's) Guild of Hawaii's advice and acquired not one but two sets of welding pipe tip cleaners (actually, these are my second and third sets) because I'd learned from the first set that the small ones tend to break. (Its not happening with the new ones, so perhaps there's a quality issue even with regard to welding pipe tip cleaners.) I set myself the task of putting all the strings back into working order in the same plane at the nut, because the store's efforts had created some strings that were much higher than others due to the glue build-up underneath them.
My goal was to eliminatethe buzzing using the technique recommended by the helpful people at U.G.H. It's surprising how long it took to get the nuts adjusted to the proper height. I spent two hours on two ukuleles with oak nuts filled with what looks like superglue. (I also played through a couple tunes several times, while trying to make sure I'd gotten rid of any faint buzzing.) I used ONLY welding pipe tip cleaners. (Razor blades were suggested even by the music store to finish the small string nut slots - shudder - no DOUBLE SHUDDER. You can cut yourself too easily with those things. Stay away from them - they aren't necessary in my experience for nut slot cutting.)
Ultimately, by taking care to use small diameter pipe tip cleaner files, taking my time, and making sure I cut flat slots, the buzzing is now gone, and the clear tape cradles under four strings on two ukuleles are gone, hopefully for good. I suspect the music store was thinking of the way most ukulele tops angle downward to insure that strings are well-seated. Mine are simply straight extensions of the "fingerboard", which probably put him off a bit when it came to cutting the nut slots deeper. Doing so would not have maintained the typical downward angle of the topmost segment of a ukulele or mandolin, where the tuning pegs are placed. The music store told me that the tape was probably holding the strings even when they rose up off the based of the nut slot, thus stabilizing them.
There were still some "dissonant" tendencies on some of the strings as I worked. They turned out to be due to slots that angled downward at the front and the back. The slots had to be leveled, so the string could be seated properly along the width of the nut slot. (That "dissonance" turned out to be low level buzzing.)
Chalk this resolution up to good advice from U.G.H.
When I see the nut slot of this new ukulele, which is plastic with what appear to be a few minor indentations for the strings, I shake my head at the relative simplicity of the design, and the complexity my own ignorance introduced into creating the nuts (when dealing with no close-up of how the nut was fashioned at the "plastic jumping flea site"). Even if I used wood again next time, I didn't need to elevate the nut so high above the finger board, forcing me to remove a lot of material to get down to a reasonable height.
These ukuleles sound kind of old fashioned to me. They have a nicer tone now that I've gotten rid not only of the buzzing but of the slight dissonance of some strings (which was really just low level buzzing - which required leveling the slots.)
Didn't want to leave you with no idea how it had worked out, in case you ever encounter similar problems. |
Thank you. |
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