Ukulele & Languages

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Ukulele Beginner Posts

03 2012

Truss rods on Pono ukuleles

I never knew my Pono baritone ukulele had a truss rod until a couple of weeks ago. I suddendly noticed, much to my horror, that my Pono had started to buzz badly when I played certain strings.  I knew the strings were not to blame as I had changed them shortly before the buzz first occurred.

I couldn’t understand what caused the sudden change in the sound. I hadn’t dropped my ukulele and it had received no shock, nor did I leave it in the sun or in the cold.

I showed it to my friend Guillaume and he spotted that the truss rod was slightly coming out. We could take it out even more when we pulled it gently. I quickly searched on the internet and found this explanation from Ko’olau Guitar and Ukulele  Company on how to set the truss rod. This guitar page (in French) was helpful to understand the principles of a truss rod too.

Here is my Pono with its truss rod sticking out. Thanks to Guillaume for the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not wanting to risk doing any damage to my uke, I emailed Ko’olau Guitar and Ukulele Company for advice. I got a very fast answer from John and applying all he said restored my ukulele’s natural buzz-free warm and mellow tone. Thanks John !

Here is the explanation I got, in case you ever have the same problem :

If the truss rod has tension then it will not come out. So push the truss rod back in, then turn the rod counter clockwise. If the rod nut only turns, but just feels loss, then continue turning counterclockwise until you feel the nut threading again. So after a little tight when turning, continue to turn approximately 1/4 turn. This will cause the truss rod nut to stay inside and will not come out. Also this will cause the neck to develop a slight dip (like ski slope), and this will cause the buzzing to stop. If you do not see any space around the 5th to 7th fret, then turn again, another 1/4 turn, counter clockwise.

When neck is too straight it is because weather is dry (natural dry, or heater or air conditioner). and when weather is humid (moisture), then neck will have dip (warp, ski slope), and you will then need to turn clockwise.

But remember, between clockwise and counter clockwise the truss rod nut will be loose and have no threads. When this happens, continue turning until you feel it tight again, then turn only small 1/4 turns at a time.

For more information on baritone ukuleles, check out Jeff‘s site Humble Baritonics. Jeff is collecting information on baritone ukuleles, including, tabs, chords and baritone ukulele videos.

 

18 2011

Tab for Maelström, ukulele original

I was at the same time pleased and embarrassed when I was asked for the tab for my original tune Maelström. Pleased in the sense that it felt great to hear that a piece of music I had written was appreciated and embarrassed because I had never thought of ever tabbing Maelström, having but very little knowledge of music theory.

I have written Maelström completely ‘by ear’, relying only on how pleasant it sounded to my ears. So I never gave any thought as to how it would fit in with music theory. After much procrastination on my part, I finally decided to try and discover how my piece was constructed. I focused on trying to learn how to use Powertab and after a difficult start, I found this excellent post which helped me set up the program for the ukulele.

So I am now glad to oblige with my attempt at tabbing Maelström for anyone who feels like playing it. A big thank you to those who asked for the tabs, I learnt a great deal from working on it. Many thanks to Guillaume for his help and to Al for reviewing the tab.

Download Tab for Maelström (for standard GCEA ukes, I might do the baritone tab later if anyone asks for it).

Here is my video of Maelström for all that is not mentioned in the tab (ie. strumming pattern for the strumming part)

Any suggestions on how to improve the tab are welcome.

24 2011

Fluke surgery : fretboard replacement

I have played my Fluke intensively ever since I bought it in December 2008. My Fluke has always been my all-weather ukulele as its plastic structure made it the ideal uke to take along whenever I went for a walk in my beloved hills of Burgundy.

My Fluke did however start to show some signs of wear: some of the plastic frets had become dented and playing a Dm for example sounded really bad.

Here is what my fretboard looked like before I replaced it. You can clearly see the dents:

I couldn’t keep my Fluke as it was as its altered sound really bugged me. Some chords gave a very snappy sound and I couldn’t be blamed for it (honest, I was not trying to play barre chords or an E chord).

I followed Al‘s suggestion and contacted Flea Market Music to find out if I could get a replacement fretboard. I got a very swift answer from Beth who has been extremely helpful and who sent me a new plastic fretboard in no time. In case you ever have the same problem with your Fluke or Flea, it’s worth knowing that you could go for a rosewood fretboard upgrade to avoid having similar problems in the future. I chose to keep my Fluke plastic for my outdoor wanderings.

And now comes the tricky part of the story: unmounting the plastic fretboard and putting on the new one. I am sure some purists will object to our layman’s work but I was determined to get a better knowledge of my own instrument by fixing it myself despite the risk it involved.

With the precious help of my friend Guillaume, we put some masking tape around the old fretboard so as to protect the uke and to mark the exact place where the fretboard was.

Removing the glue with a paint scraper from the top of the neck down was rather easy until we reached the part of the fretboard that was glued on the body. The glue was really strong in this area and we had to heat up the fretboard with an iron covered with a cloth for some minutes before it gave out with the help of a sharp thin knife.

We couldn’t prevent some of the hibiscus finish to come off together with the glue but as this is a hidden part of the uke it was not such a big issue.

Once the fretboard was removed and the surface of the neck cleaned from glue remains, we just mixed some epoxy glue and applied a layer to the surface of the new fretboard and a layer on the neck.

We’ve been really careful about the placement of the new fretboard, using our markings to place it exactly where the old fretboard was. Once it was in place, we placed some pieces of hard cardboard under the neck and on top of the new fretboard and clamped the whole lot for 2 hours.

As we had just received some new sets of strings from Savarez, one of the sponsors of the FIUL festival which we will be attending (17th-18th-19th of June), I decided to try them on.

To check out the new sound, I recorded one of my originals, Maelström, which involves both picking and strumming.

Many thanks to Guillaume who helped me make my Fluke playable again and to Al and Herman for their advice.

And now for the result of the surgery:

Disclaimer: Try this at home at your own risk as we cannot be held responsible for your messing up your Fluke or Fleas.

 


12 2011

Fingerstyle ukulele videos by Herman and Wilfried

Today’s post will be dedicated to classical fingerstyle uke with excellent new videos uploaded by Herman Vandecauter and Wilfried Welti.

Herman plays a lovely renaissance dance, a Galliard by an anonymous composer.

Let’s now travel to the moon with Wilfried Welti performing Sea of Nectar, a piece by Swedish classical guitarist Per Olov Kindgren.
Wilfried plays this piece on his Glyph soprano ukulele.

Per Olov Kindgren has kindly agreed to let Wilfried share his transcription of the tabs, which you can download here.

10 2011

3 Ukulele Tutorials : Chunk, Barre chords and Picking

If you’re looking into ways of spicing up your ukulele playing, here are 3 tutorials that will teach you how to chunk to give your ukulele a percussive sound, play a cool barre chord progression or if you are using a low G uke, a nice fingerpicking technique.

1. The Chunk by Stuart aka Stukulele

Here is a very nice tutorial which teaches you how to chunk properly. The great thing about this tutorial is that it does not only teach you how to chunk but also focuses on how to get the technique right so as to avoid creating tension in your arm,  an aspect which is often overlooked.

2. A Barre chords progression explained by Matt aka MeandUke

A simple tutorial going through a barre chord progression which sounds quite cool.

3. Fingerpicking technique for Low G uke taught by Keonepax

A nice and simple fingerpicking technique for the Low G uke with an example song.

Update: I’ve tested this fingerpicking technique with my best friend this weekend and I’d like to share some extra information which might be useful:

- The fact that the rhythm starts with &-1 means that the chord changes need to be done when you’re picking the 3rd string of the ukulele (the C string).  This is quite tricky to get right at first as you’re always tempted to change chords when your thumb hits the 4th string of the uke (the G string). It just takes a bit of practise.

- Although the tutorial specifies that it works best for low G ukes, I tried it on my high G concert uke and it sounds great too.

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