Ukulele beginners tips - cleaning my ukulele

This is a question that is often asked on ukulele forums, and I thought it would be helpful to give you my perspective on cleaning the Uke. The short version is - you need very little 'product'!!

I will start off my stating that a ukulele, if looked after, really shouldn't need a great deal of cleaning at all - if it does - what the heck are you doing with it??!  That said, if gigging, camping etc, you can get the instrument dirty with grime, sweat, blood (yes, blood) etc, and just day to day playing will cause a build up of grease and oil from your hands.  Mix this with natural dust and you get a claggy ukulele!

I will also add from the start that the instrument cleaning business is an extremely lucrative market but in my view 99.9% of the products on offer are complete overkill.  They can be avoided completely in my view if you keep a lint free soft cloth in your ukulele case and EVERY time you finish playing you give the whole instrument a polish all over.  Do this and I think you will rarely need any sort of cleaning fluid or polish. I don't think I ever have... Do watch the video at the end of this post to see me rant on the subject!!

Anyway, if you ARE interested in cleaning and sprucing up your ukulele because it is filthy, read on.

1. Ukulele bodies

Cleaning bodies will depend on how dirty they get.  If you have dried on grime on there, mud, beer, whatever - the best thing to do is to clean off with a slightly damp lint free cloth, then polish dry with a dry clean cloth.

If you have a gloss or painted body uke, you can give a bit of showroom shine using a small (tiny) amount of guitar polish on a soft cloth and polishing according to the instructions.  Be careful though - make sure your cloth is super super soft with no debris on it.  The sign of an over polished instrument are swirl marks in the varnish.  Bit like on an over polished car really.  Treat your uke as you would cleaning a Ferrari!  If you are using a polish - keep it well away from the fingerboard and strings. It is not designed for those.

If you have a natural finish uke in matte - be very careful with this stuff.  In my youth I learned a lesson with those applying polish which then sunk into the grain and left my instrument spotty with white dots!  Not good.

In short though, if you keep the grime off regularly with a clean down after each play, you should never really need polish.

2. Ukulele Hardware

If you have pearly, plastic or chrome tuning pegs and strap buttons, they really should only need a buff with a soft cloth. Nothing else really. If you have left them and they have started to corrode, personally I think this shows that the instrument is loved. If you can't bear the look, I think you are then looking at proprietary chrome type restoers. Just be careful to keep it off the gears or the tuning post.

3. Ukulele Fingerboard 

This is probably the area where so much bad, and downright dangerous advice is prevalent. The fingerboard, if natural and not painted is a different animal altogether.  Do not apply polish to it as you may cause it to expand and then have problems with frets rising or working loose.  If you have a uke with a seriously grimy fingerboard between frets, you can then VERY carefully and lightly rub between them with a super fine grain wire wool to remove the gunk and get back to the wood.  Tbis stuff can also be used to clean dull frets - just go easy!

If the fingerboard is looking dry and pale, or worse, is splitting, you may need to think about treating your fingerboard with a bore oil to nourish it. But I stress, this is something to go VERY easy with. Please avoid lemon oil sold in guitar shops - it is totally synthetic these days and probably has never been near a lemon, so you are just adding petrochemicals to your wooden fingerboard. A good mix? I don't think so. When it's needed (and that is rarely),  I use Fret doctor bore oil which is the choice of oil for woodwind instrument players.  Its totally natural and has been used for decades or more on wooden classical instruments.  Apply it very very very lightly (a tiny drop per fret space), rub it in to coat the wood, let dry and then polish off.  My warning comes as one of the worst things you can do with a fingerboard is over treat it.  The regularity in applying oil depends on your climate but certainly not more than twice a year is needed. If that... Do it more often, and you will damage the fretboard I assure you.

4. Ukulele strings

Being nylon or fluorocarbon, strings on the ukulele dont deteriorate as quickly as steel strings on a guitar - that said, its nice to keep them clean as they do pick up oils from your fingers.  Simply ensure you wipe your strings down after each session - a good habit to form. If you use a wound string, you may find this needs more cleaning down, but also bear in mind that the metal coil WILL deteriorate faster than the other strings. That's natural - it's metal.

And honestly, thats really about it.  Look after your instrument and you will need to apply only very occasional care to keep it looking nice.

Oh, and keep your uke in a quality case when you are not playing to keep the dust off!

Please watch the video I made on the subject

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Ukulele Beginners tips - Fingernails for ukulele

Another common issue for those starting out with ukulele is how to treat their fingernails.

As I have said, i dont really go in for playing the ukulele with a pick and prefer to strum with the fingertips - to get a sharper and louder sound, it really is essential that you have longer fingernails. If you want to get into finger picking, even longer still. So how do you go about it?

Well, firstly, we are only talking about growing nails on the strumming hand. For accurate fretting, you want to keep the fingernails on that hand trimmed short.

For the strumming hand, well, the first step is easy - dont cut or bite them!

For many though, that wont be enough as the nails need to be strong too.  First time nail growers may find their nails soft, or that they will easily break when strumming.

The following tips may help you in that regard though.  Male readers may wince at some of the tips as they make me sound like a beautician - the thing is though, if you want to play fingerstyle with nails, you need to grow them AND look after them

• Once grown, keeping them in good shape is essential - keep them sanded to the length you like - do this religiously and carefully
• Using nail conditioning creams and increasing your intake of Omega 3 (fatty fish oils) will improve the strength of your nails - plus its good for you in many other ways!
• Dont grow them too long - this will depend on the shape of your fingers, but you only want them so long as to just protrude beyond the flesh of your fingertip - so it is the nail that hits the string first, not skin.  Keeping them the right length will reduce your chances of breaking them in other day to day things.
• Buff the flat face of the nail regularly with a buffing pad, and keep the cuticle pushed back.

If you try the above (and persevere) but are still having breakages or soft nails, you may need to consider an artificial solution

• Coat the nails with a clear nail varnish before playing.  Some brands offer a super strength formula that is super tough
• Consider having a false nail tip or two added to the fingers you want to use - sorry guys - trip to the Nail bar!
• The ugly, but very workable solution employed by many guitarists is this - cut some single ply pieces of tissue paper to the sort of shape you want.  Cover the nail in a coat of clear varnish, and lay the tissue on to it and leave to dry.  Build up layers of these sheets, letting each one dry hard each time.  This will build up an ugly but strong artificial nail.  All you need to do then is trim the tip to a nail shape.

Hopefully those tips will help you.  To start off it takes patience and work, but its worth it for that wonderful sound.

Good luck

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Ukulele beginners tips - Intonation - what is it?

If you are beginning with ukulele and have no string instrument background, you may be confused by this oft used phrase - what is it though, and why should you be worried if it is bad?

Intonation refers to the ability for a ukulele to be in tune not just when the strings are plucked "open" but also when fretted anywhere else on the neck.  Bad intonation will basically mean that your uke wont play in tune even if your strings are tuned perfectly when open.

Its down to mathematics.  The position of the frets on the neck are placed accurately in relation to the scale length of the instrument (distance between nut and saddle).  When set correctly (and assuming the instrument is set up well) holding a string at any fret and plucking will give you precisely the note that is supposed to be played at that fret (see my fret roadmaps on chord page to check them HERE )

If you find that your uke, despite being tuned correctly is sounding bad at certain frets, it could be a number of factors, from easy to difficult.  In line with my earlier post regarding buzzes, have a run through this checklist in order to see if you can isolate the problem

1. Bad strings?  A badly made string can cause tuning problems along its length - try swapping the string to see if that cures it

2. Action at the saddle - this refers to the height of the saddle.  If a saddle is too low, it can cause buzzing but equally, if too high, can cause problems with intonation.  Again, this comes down to mathematics (switch your brain on and think of pythagoras!).  For the maths to work, and the frets to accurately give you the right notes, it assumes that the strings run as close as possible as to be parallel with the line of the fingerboard.  If you imagine a seriously high saddle, the strings will run at an increasing height away from the fingerboard approaching the bridge - like the hypotenuse of a long thin triangle - if this is the case, your open tuned string will sound fine, but you are stretching and pushing the string down when fretting and this will give you an off note.  The answer is simple - sand the saddle base down and re-install, taking care not to sand too much or you will get buzzing -the answer is to do it a little, replace it, repeat.

3. Action at the nut - this is tricker to deal with, and may be something you give to a luthier.  Again if the nut slots are too high, you get same effect in reverse.  To lower nut slots be very very careful and I would recommend using nut files especially for the purpose.

4. High frets? - in some cases high frets can cause problems as the string will have to dip down as you press it and stretch - characteristics of this are a note that sounds fine held softly but sharpens when you squeeze - dramatic cure is to have the frets dressed down, but much easier fix is to play the uke a little lighter with your fretting hand!

5. Something more serious - sadly, if the above dont fix the issue, you are looking at a badly made uke or a neck out of alignment.  Either get a refund, or it its a valuable oldie - look for a fix.

At the end of the day, if you are buying new, the best way to avoid this is to physically play before you buy - take a digital tuner with you and test the thing.  If thats not possible though, I hope the tips above show that a lot of issues are easily fixed.

Buying cheaper ukes in particular tends to raise the chance of intonation issues, but usually its just a string or saddle issue that will fix it.  Beware - even top end instruments with bad set up can slip through the net!

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Ukulele beginners tips - Buzzes and rattles

My Ukulele Is Buzzing... One of the most common questions I get at Got A Ukulele is 'how to fix ukulele buzzing'?  In the best case it will be something simple like technique, but in the worst case can signal something serious like a flawed uke.

Yet, discussion forums are awash with theories and advice (some useful, some not so), so I thought it useful to give my own thoughts. I have structured these from the simple to the serious, so if you have a buzz you can go down the list and hopefully solve your problem at an early stage before things get difficult. It's most often something simple so dont rush down the list without ruling out the easy stuff!!

1. Is it your technique? Getting a clean sound from a ukulele depends on good technique with your fretting fingers. Ensure you are pressing the strings perpendicularly to the neck and squarely between the frets. Ensure your fingers are not touching other strings. This will be difficult at first but practice! Sometimes buzzes can also occur due to over strumming or the position of the strum. Calm it down a little, strum at the end of the fingerboard.

2. Is it actually the strings? Buzzes don't need to come from the strings so check the rest of the ukulele. Are the tuner fittings tight? Are there any other fittings that are coming loose? The collars on the front of tuners are a common culprit. Another often overlooked culprit is string coils at the headstock, or the bits left over where you tie them on the bridge - trim them! I've even seen people think they have a buzz when it was the battery compartment rattling (or the clip on tuner clip!). Basically all sorts of things can buzz from the vibration that playing the ukulele causes. Check everything - wiring, trim, strap buttons, tuner bushings, collars, screws, you name it.

3. Is it a case of bad strings? Due to the nature of ukulele strings, it is possible to get a bad string in a pack. Can you isolate the string that is buzzing? May be worth swapping it, or another odd tip that often works, take it off and string it the other way around. This can solve problems where manufacturing has left a thin or thick spot on the string. But Barry - I dont want to waste a set of strings!! Seriously? If it isn't the strings - it means the strings you took off may still have life in them. Put them in the sleeves of the new pack and keep them in your uke case as spares! You WILL be changing strings at some point anyway!

4. Action at the saddle - we are now getting into more difficult territory, but easily fixed. If the saddle at the bridge is too low the strings are likely to vibrate against frets when strummed. Take off or loosen strings and pull out saddle carefully with long nosed pliers. To raise it you have two options. Either put a thin shim (or two) of wood veneer in the base of the saddle slot, replace saddle and strum. The alternative is a new saddle cut and shaped very slightly higher than old one. Your aim here is to raise it just enough to stop buzzing and we are talking thousandths of a millimetre. Raise it too much and you will cause intonation issues.

5. Action at the nut. Now we are in difficult territory. If the slots in the nut that the strings are on are too deep you are likely to get buzzes particularly on the lower frets. The fix is more difficult and you may now want to seriously consider going to a luthier. To try yourself you either need to fit a new nut (carefully tap out old nut and replace, filing down slots to suit action without buzzing) or try something cleverer!

I have successfully raised nut slots individually by taking a spare saddle and sanding it making sure to collect the dust. Apply a drop of super glue to the dust and quickly mix with a cocktail stick then fill In the offending nut slot (carefully). Breathe on it to start curing and leave overnight. What you have done is create a hard invisible fill to the nut slot you can re file down to the right height.

6. Others - if the above don't work then I am afraid you may have serious problems. You may have an offending fret that is too high and needs to be filed down. I would recommend a guitar tech doing this. Persistent buzzes may also signify a badly made uke, a neck out of alignment, a popped brace,  or a bowed neck. If this is the case, and the instrument is new, I would return it. If it's an old or used instrument the decision whether to get it professionally fixed will depend entirely on the value of the instrument. I'd consider getting a vintage Martin fixed, but not a Makala dolphin!


I hope this is of use and helps remove any panic you may have. Buzzes are common and in the vast majority of cases are simple to solve. Just work down the list and good luck!

And if that isn't helpful enough - a video for you!

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Ukulele beginners tips - Nuts and Saddles

We've looked at strings, woods, tuners, so about time I moved on to some guidance on the other important parts of a ukulele.

The uke works by holding the strings in tension over a sound chamber to resonate the sound - as a child you may have done the same thing with rubber bands and a tissue box.  In order to make this play accurately, some maths comes in to play.  For the frets to accurately change the notes of the strings when held, it is important that the string length is uniform and set in relation to these frets.    The parts of the uke that hold the strings at the correct length are the nut (at the top end of the uke by the tuners) and the saddle held in the piece of wood glued on to the body of the uke below the sound hole.  The distance between these two is the scale length.

As with all stringed instruments, the quality of these parts and how they are shaped is critical to a well playing instrument.  To high at the saddle and you will have too high an action, too low and you will get buzzing as the strings touch the frets.

Likewise at the nut - if the slots are cut too low, you will get buzzing at the low frets, too high and you raise action, and worse can cause a sharpening of notes when pressed at the 1st and 2nd frets.

In both cases, if the string is not as parallel to the finger board as is possible without buzzing you can get into intonation problems (ie frets not giving you the exact note they should)

Adjusting action for tuneability and to remove buzzes is something I will cover in a subsequent post, but on a nicely set up instrument if you hold a string at both the 1st and (say) 12th fret, you should be able to just slip a thin business card between the string and fret at or around the 6th.

So what are these items made of?  Well in cheaper instruments, almost certainly plastic, or a composite material which is basically plastic, but is trying to big itself up by calling it something else (stand up please NuBone and Tusq).  In more expensive instruments, these parts may well be made of bone, or a hardwood like Ebony.

Some suggest that moving up in quality will impove sound, but I think this is subjective.  On a steel strung acoustic guitar a change from plastic to bone saddle will make a noticeable difference - Im just not sure that you will notice that difference (for the hassle) on a consumer level ukulele.  I am happy to be persuaded otherwise though!

As a final thought - if you are fiddling with your saddle and remove it to take it down in height - remember - this is the key point of the instrument that transfers sound into the body of the uke.  It is essential the base of the saddle is sanded totally flat and when re-seated makes a perfect fit into the bridge mount.  This is even more important if you have a piezo pick up fitted under the saddle, as you may find a badly seated saddle results in volume differences across strings (not good)

Word to the wise - if you are not sure what you are doing but want a change to your ukulele - take it to a reputable guitar tech!

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Handy vid, if you dont own a tuner...

Handy I suppose - but really, go buy a tuner, or a tuning fork, or something!!

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Ukulele beginners tips - Intonation

Ukulele into what now?

You may here this term used a lot for all sorts of stringed instruments.  The important thing to note is you want good intontation, or perfect intonation.  Bad or poor intonation is a bad bad thing, and in extreme cases may mean the uke you have is always going to be unplayable unless you take drastic re-building action.

Anyway, intonation refers to the accuracy of the frets in providing the right notes when fretted.  The frets are laid out mathematically to allow for this, but the accuracy depends on their spacing and the distance between the bridge and the nut.  Your strings on your standard uke are tuned GCEA when open, but when you fret at certain point, each fretted note should be an accurate note in itself(or its perfect sharp version).  If your intonation is off, the thing will sound out of tune, even when tuned (if you follow me)

The way to quickly check intonation on a uke is to tune it, and then fret the string at the 12th fret and play it.  The note you hear should be exactly one octave higher than the open string.  If it is sharp or flat from the open note, the intonation is off.

What can I do about it?

Well, if the difference is slight, it may be down to the action being too high - I have had ukes where intonation was bad, and I dropped the bridge saddle a millimetre and it sorted it.    it may also be a case of action being too high at the nut - be very careful here lower the nut slots too much and it is very hard to go back - you want there to be about a credit cards thickness between the string and the top of the first fret....    It could also be a bad string - try changing it.  But if those things dont change it, it could be more serious (ie the bridge is not set in the right place or the frets are poorly spaced) and I would avoid the instrument!  Some cheap ukes are just built plain wrong!

Some poorly made instruments have frets that are too high, and fretting firmly can stretch the strings into the gaps giving off notes - this is not a case of bad intonation, but its still a bad set up and I would reject it.

Anyway - no matter what you are spending - if the intonation is off and it is down to the way the thing is built, it will never play right - avoid it!

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Ukulele Beginners tips - Tuning your uke

Real basic guide for you - how to tune the ukulele!

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Ukulele beginners tips - All things pegs

Pretty important things pegs, tuning pegs that is, they hold what is probably the most important end of the string.

If you are starting out with ukes you may get confused on the two most common types of tuners and which is best. Just thought I'd post my thoughts

The two types of tuner you are likely to see are friction tuners, and geared tuners. Friction tuners, as their name suggests are tightened, and the friction of their contact into the housing keeps them still. Geared tuners are like those on a guitar, and the peg is a gear which turns another gear connected to the tuning post.

Frictions certainly look the part and have an old fashioned look that I think suits the uke. They do take getting used to though as the lack of gearing means the turns move the posts directly and in large movements! ( unless we are talking planetary tuners , but let's not complicate things....)

Geared are 'generally' trouble free but unless nicely styled can look out of place on a small uke or are too heavy ( beware cheap ukes using guitar tuners - too big, too heavy, makes uke look like mickey mouse!)

You will read in forums that some people can't abide one or the other. I have a different view. I think both types are great so long as you consider the cost. In my experience, very cheap ukes with friction pegs, tend to have pegs that are nothing but trouble. Geared tuners on a cheap uke way well work better ( but beware , there are bad geared tuners too!)

But if you buy a good beginner instrument, like a makala, or lanikai, you should be ok whatever they are. But do try both! My collection has some of each!

Oh, and even the best frictions can slip- just tighten them till they bite with a screwdriver!

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Dry fretboard treatments

As was the case with my new uke, and often with cheaper new instruments, the condition of rosewood or dark wood fingerboards leaves a lot to be desired

Often the wood is drying out. In the best case this just looks unsightly and can feel rough, but if left untreated, in dry conditions can lead to the warping or splitting of the top surface.

This can be very simply treated, as I did.

Firstly though, if you have a maple fingerboard (pale yellow and shiny) you don't need a treatment as they are sealed. Also if you have a super cheap uke with a (ugh!) painted fingerboard, don't waste your time

But, if you have a rosewood fingerboard looking sorry and dry (looking pale) then a very simple application of an oil will do the trick.

In the past I have successfully used lemon oil, available from guitar shops, applied very thinly to the fingerboard of an unstrung instrument with a cloth. Allow 10 mins to soak in then polish. Fingerboard should now look darker and conditioned (and smell nice!)

I have recently read some bad things about lemon oil though, particularly some of the ingredients in modern versions that might actually harm the wood. I was pointed in the direction of Fret Doctor which is a bore oil. This is the stuff used to condition insides of clarinets, bassoons, bagpipes etc. This stuff just needs a drop on each fret space, spread out with cotton bud and leave to soak in.

I don't know if there is any truth in lemon oil stories, but I will say that the bore oil seems to be taken up by the wood better in my view, and leaves a nicer finish.

Either way though, if you have a dry fingerboard, you should think about conditioning in some way.

IMPORTANT - don't get carried away with this stuff! You need only a light covering, but more importantly, it's a once a year treatment, at most! If you over oil your wood you can similarly warp and ruin the finish. If the fingerboard looks dark and smooth, leave it alone!

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Ukulele beginners tips - All things strings

(NOTE - This is a very old Got A Ukulele post from 2009. I used to update it to reflect changes in string brands, but it became an endless task. I therefore consider it a bit out of date! Bear that in mind!)

A bit like guitar, there are a range of strings available for the Uke. If you are a Ukulele beginner and have bought an entry level instrument, the chances are, it will arrive with cheap basic strings on it (usually GHS). You can tell, they will be jet black and shiny, or clear and shiny.

One of the very best upgrades you can make to a cheaper Uke is a string upgrade - probably costing you no more than about £6 or £7.

Now, dont expect to walk into your local music shop and see a huge range - that aint gonna happen. The internet, and ebay, is your friend however. As for which, it's hard to recommend a perfect string for everyone, simply because such a thing doesn't exist. The thing is, we all have different ukulele, different playing styles, different tastes and different ears. There is no one size fits all. What may suit one person may not suit another. The answer is to experiment.

A couple of brands that you may come across include:

Aquila - Italian made from a substance called nylgut, which attempts to recreate the properties of real gut that instruments used to be strung with. They are pretty thick, and are not slippy - have a kind of rough coating. They are white and opaque. make sure you get the right set for your size of instrument (ie soprano, tenor etc), and choose high or low G string.

In my view, Aquilas are superb strings, particularly at bringing cheap ukuleles to life - they are loud, have loads of bell like sustain and are quite bright sounding. Some people, however, dont like them - they are thicker than some strings, and if you are an absolute beginner, they can hurt the fingers. The rough coating can also make a noise when you slide your fingers on them that some people dont like. For me though, as a guitar player - my fingers are used to the soreness, and the noise you get from wound strings. If they dont sound right for you, take a look at the next suggestion.

Worth - these are Japanese strings, and come in a bewildering range of styles. As well as size styles, they come in different thicknesses, and two colours (brown and clear). I personally like the Brown Mediums, labelled as BM (well... duh!). These strings are thinner than Aquilas, and are smooth in finish (so slippy). I think they also have less tension, and are easier on the fingers. They sing better than Aquila to my ears when picked, but I prefer Aquilas when strummed. - Horses for courses I suppose. They work very well on mahogany instruments. Some say there is no difference between the brown and clear strings, but to my ears, the brown are mellower. Worths generally I find are a mellower sound than Aquila.

Others - you will probably struggle in the UK to find much else to buy - but if you do see others, try out Martin flourocarbons - nice strings apparently. I think the key is to go for flourocarbon strings, not nylon.

To be honest though, there are SO many and you want to know what I use don't you? I use these. Seriously!

Have fun - but I do urge you - if you have an entry level instrument with cheap strings - upgrade - it is well, well worth the effort.

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