But I do want something that is playable.Ĭheck all the frets as soon as you get your ukulele, this way you’ll avoid nasty surprises further down the lineĪnd that is pretty much it. I’m not looking for complete accuracy here, soprano ukuleles, particular ones at the cheaper end of the market often have slight intonation issues further up the neck. Set your clip-on tuner into chromatic mode and watch it as you play each note. An easy to do this is to use a clip-on tuner. This can mean if you don’t check every fret now, you may not find a problem until way too late by which point you’ll either have to pay for a repair or a new ukulele.Īt the same time as checking every fret, I’m also listening to make sure they sound like the actual note they should sound like. If you’re relatively new to the ukulele then it’s unlikely you’ll be wandering too far up the fretboard at any point soon. Here I’m checking that there are no dead frets anywhere on the ukulele. I will slowly walk up the fretboard playing every single note. The final thing that I do is to check every single fret. This seems the most natural approach to me. Personally I prefer to just play the ukulele a lot and tune it up as needed. I have heard of a few tricks to speed up the stretching of the strings: the first one being tuning the ukulele up half a step overnight and the second one being putting something under the strings to stretch them. With any new ukulele I’d expect to be tuning it a lot over the first 3-4 days. Again if it’s a new ukulele, it’s going to go out of tune pretty quickly. With your ukulele in tune, it’s time to give it a strum. If your ukulele has come to you used, this may not be the case (the strings have likely already stretched out).īrand new ukuleles tend to need frequent tuning while the strings stretch out I expect to tune a new ukulele around 3 times before strumming it to make sure it’s in tune. With a brand new ukulele by the time I’ve tuned each string, the ukulele has already gone out of tune. I tend to tune my ukulele from bottom to top. If this is a new ukulele it’s very likely that the strings will need stretching and you may find that it quickly goes back out of tune. Once you’ve give the ukulele a good solid visual inspection, the next step is to get it in tune. Are they screwed in well? Make sure they’re all aligned (none of them seem wonky) and nothing seems loose. Cracks can be difficult to see on a fretboard unless you’re looking for them specifically.įinally, take a good look at the tuning pegs. It’s also worth taking a hard look at the fretboard at this point. I’ll also look at where the fretboard meets the neck and where the neck meets the body of the ukulele. At this point I’m looking at the nut and the bridge to make sure there are no gaps and everything is well connected. Once you’ve taken a good look to make sure there are no cracks, it’s time to start looking in a little more detail. Examine the body all over and make sure you’re either in a well lit room or there’s a lot of natural light available. Starting with the obvious, make sure there are no cracks in the uke. I’m looking for any issues with the build. The first thing I do is take a really good look at the ukulele. Let’s go through those steps in a little more detail. You don’t need to be a ukulele virtuoso to give the instrument a quick once over. This gave me the perfect opportunity to detail some of the checks I do when I get a new ukulele.Įverything listed below is pretty basic. Recently I found myself with a new ukulele.
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