Dead notes on the ukelele

[camper]

All 3 of my ukeleles have one or more dead notes on the fretboard. One uke was given to me, the second one was a pawnshop one for 1000 yen ( $12 USA ) and my 3rd one was bought new at a small indoor thrift shop in Bangkok last month. He did repair one dead note but I realized the A string on the C note is also flat/dead. This one cost 2000 baht. About $68 USD.
All three really are good for practicing but I’ll like to get one with NO dead notes. The music stores here in Japan really do not carry low end budget ones.
Should I chance it and buy off of Amazon JP? I actually heard the shop owner play a plastic made Uke for about $12 USD. Sounded pretty good to me.
What are your thoughts ?

Thanks

[emiliano]

Hey Camper! I actually started with a plastic ukulele for several years, and they’re awesome. I recently got a proper Enya wood ukulele, and it’s fantastic too.

From my experience, plastic ukuleles often have a narrower bridge, making the string spacing tighter, but the sound quality is still great. They’re perfect for practicing anywhere, whether you’re on a trip or at the beach. Since I work in a travel agency, having a plastic uke has been super handy for me!

[camper]

@emiliano
Thanks. I don’t mind going plastic since I do some international traveling and cycle/camping mostly in Japan. Did try my luck last month in Thailand for a month. Do you have any recommendations for a cut-a-way plastic with a pickup on it.
Thank you for your reply also.

[gi_gi_]

@camper Amazon has some decent ukes that are under $100 usd and solid mahogany.
I have a nice travel uke that sounds great. It’s the Flight TUC-32 SAKURA Concert Travel Ukulele. There are different designs that may suit you better than others.

[jody_hendrickson]

Hi Andrew and RC101 gang-

I am currently learning Helen’s Theme from Candyman for the monthly challenge. The third measure of Theme 2 calls for picking the low G at the 10th fret. I am playing an A Nue Nue tenor which otherwise sounds great, but this one note is as dead as a doornail. I’ve checked the height of the frets and the tenth is fine, not high. The uke arrived from the vendor with a High G set, pretty thin strings, and the low G string sits on top of the slot rather than in it. Could this be causing the dead note? Or any other ideas? Do I need to find a luthier to fix this, or is it something I need to live we when using this uke with a low G?

Thank you!
Jody

[recdog]

In one case I found that there could be “dead notes” high up on the G string on a quality uke if the saddle action was too low. Getting a new saddle helped a lot. Also the Low G string should definitely be seated down in the nut slot.
Ron

[jody_hendrickson]

Hi Ron,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I will have both of these checked out.
Best,
Jody

[recdog]

I forgot to mention that the low G issue Jody not sitting down in the nut slot might be as simple as just getting a wound low G rather than pure nylon or fluorocarbon. I always prefer a wound low G and they are narrower.

• This reply was modified 1 day, 21 hours ago by recdog.

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