Fixing the Intonation on a Crappy Ukulele

So I was in Hawai'i and I found myself in a ukulele shop, of course. I bought their cheapest, best ukulele. You can get them for $10 but they're really not meant for music. You'll have to pay several times that for one that will actually produce notes remotely close to what they should be. And when I say remotely close, that's what I mean. My ukulele (pictured below) is the cheapest playable one I could find. But of course the intonation was all sorts of wacky. Here's how I fixed it.

The 'uke' in question.

Check the Intonation

DaTuner

All you must do is open your eyes is tune your ukulele to a tuner. The easiest thing to do would be to get an app on your phone. I like DaTuner (which is free) for Android. If you have an iPhone, you should probably just chuck it into a creek (when your contract expires) and switch to Android since Apple can't do anything right now that Steve Jobs is gone. But I digress.

First I tuned the open strings. From left to right if you are looking at the front of the ukulele, it should be G, C, E, A, and my mother tells me it should sound like "my dog has fleas" if someone said it at those notes. (Apparently I come from a long line of ukulele players, which explains my uncanny desire to own one.)

Next I checked the tuning of the fretted notes. If your open strings are in tune but your strings are flat (too low), then stop reading and go find someone else to tell you what to do 'cause I can't help you. If the strings are sharp (too high) by 10-20 cents, then keep reading! (If they're way sharp, you may be fretting the notes too hard. Stop drinking coffee and have a beer or something then try again.)

Jam a Toothpick Beside the Nut


Sounds painful but it worked! All I did was extend the nut by the width of a toothpick using... a toothpick. Check the tuning again of the open notes (which will all probably be sharp now so you'll have to fix them) then fret some notes and check their tuning. It was damn close for me. If it's still way off, you should probably give up because at this point you have likely put too much effort into fixing this thing. Plus, since it's a tiny instrument you will likely never get them spot on unless you get a nice ukulele made by a brand people have actually heard of.

Make Some Grooves

I pulled each string (one at a time!) out of the nut and made an indentation in the toothpick with a flathead screwdriver so the string will have a harder time slipping out of the nut/toothpick combination. Then I slid the string back in place and repeated for each string.

You're Done! Grab a Beer!

It's okay. You've earned it.