Beginner - Uke Troubleshoot

[Dpinkston91]

What’s up y’all,

Just purchased a ‘Kala’ brand Uke at a relatively cheap price. Learning that the strings are GCEA.. C and E being the two in the middle, I’ve noticed on my tuner that C shows up as an E string. And the E string shows up as G. I was considering just doing a string replacement on these. No matter how high or low I tune them, the strings show the same.

Any ideas outside of string replacement? Everything else appears normal. But also, again, the Uke seems to be a relatively inexpensive and cheap begginner Uke. Could it be a quality issue with the components as a whole?

Thanks for reading,

 

[ploverwing]

If I had that happen to me, I'd be checking the tuner. You may not have it set to "chromatic" tuning mode (i.e. the tuner listens to the chromatic scale and tells you what pitch the string is actually playing), perhaps you have it set to some other kind of instrument that's not ukulele, and it'll just keep forcing you to be trying to tune to those wrong (for the ukulele) notes? If you have a button that scrolls through different tuner settings, that might be the issue.

 

[Wiggy]

Try this, as it will give a reference tone for each string. Then, as suggested^, find the "C" (chromatic) setting on your tuner.

Ukulele Tuner - UkeBuddy

Tune your uke before you jam, by ear or microphone, with our ukulele tuner! This online tuner supports all of the most popular ukulele tunings.

ukebuddy.com

 

[Dpinkston91]

If I had that happen to me, I'd be checking the tuner. You may not have it set to "chromatic" tuning mode (i.e. the tuner listens to the chromatic scale and tells you what pitch the string is actually playing), perhaps you have it set to some other kind of instrument that's not ukulele, and it'll just keep forcing you to be trying to tune to those wrong (for the ukulele) notes? If you have a button that scrolls through different tuner settings, that might be the issue.

Try this, as it will give a reference tone for each string. Then, as suggested^, find the "C" (chromatic) setting on your tuner.

Ukulele Tuner - UkeBuddy

Tune your uke before you jam, by ear or microphone, with our ukulele tuner! This online tuner supports all of the most popular ukulele tunings.

ukebuddy.com

YOU’RE THE BEST! Lol. My chords were so insanely tight for C and E. But this tuner absolutely worked, thank you.

 

[man0a]

If I had that happen to me, I'd be checking the tuner. You may not have it set to "chromatic" tuning mode (i.e. the tuner listens to the chromatic scale and tells you what pitch the string is actually playing), perhaps you have it set to some other kind of instrument that's not ukulele, and it'll just keep forcing you to be trying to tune to those wrong (for the ukulele) notes? If you have a button that scrolls through different tuner settings, that might be the issue.

Definitely. Some tuners have special modes for guitars, violins, etc that do not work for ukulele strings. I think this instrument modes feature is more confusing than useful to most users. I've seen people in my ukulele club almost break their strings trying to tune to notes that the tuner will not show them.

 

[ploverwing]

Definitely. Some tuners have special modes for guitars, violins, etc that do not work for ukulele strings. I think this instrument modes feature is more confusing than useful to most users. I've seen people in my ukulele club almost break their strings trying to tune to notes that the tuner will not show them.

Yes I didn't even know it was a thing the first time I got a tuner for my ukulele and could NOT figure out what was going on, because my ear is good enough to know it wasn't right. Then I noticed there were different modes and I flipped through them and figured it out. Eventually.

Glad that you're sorted out @Dpinkston91 and that on your way!

 

[Dpinkston91]

Thank you! It really does sing now. I appreciate y’all.

 

[PTRarch.]

Would be very odd if it came wrongly strung off the peg. Luckily @ploverwing is so clever experienced that she could put the finger right on the culprit .

 

[ploverwing]

Would be very odd if it came wrongly strung off the peg. Luckily @ploverwing is so clever experienced that she could put the finger right on the culprit .

Lol right?!