Official Luthiers Forum!

SO the intonation on my first uke is horrible the strings are WAY too high from nut to saddle. Whats the best way to fix this? I figure if I take off the nut and sand the bottom slightly that should bring the nut side down(thats the really high side) but what about the saddle? do I sand the saddle (not very larg)e or deepen the slot slightly? Should I just do the nut side and see if the saddle side comes down enough from that?

Thanks all

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Zac

Anchorage Alaska

Finshed my 1st! See #1 here

How high is your saddle above your bridge Zac? If you have room to knock an 1/8" off the bottom of the saddle, it will lower your action at the 12th fret by about 3/32" because of the short scale. As far as the nut goes; fret a string at the third fret. There should be a whisker of air between the string and the first fret. If it's close, just file the slots a little deeper to bring the strings down and then file the top of the nut down if the slots are excessively deep. If it's a 1/16" or more, then sanding the excess off the bottom of the nut is what I would do before final filing. Wait for another opinion, but this is what I would do assuming you bridge is not too thick or your neck angle too far out. In those cases, you'd be looking at thinning the bridge or resetting the neck.