cheap is cheap, or maybe I *do* have arthritis in my fingers

[lauradi7dw]

I finally put the new string on the old ukulele. The uke has A D F# B painted right on it, under the strings, but in fact after some goofing around with the uke, the piano, and a pitch pipe, the uke clearly wants to be tuned G C E A, fortunately what is suggested by ukuleletricks.com. Except that the tuning pegs still don't like to stay put, much like those on my other cheap ukulele. It's pretty annoying to have to keep re-tuning, and it wouldn't be practical to do it during a song. At my current stage (C chord strum 2 3 4 change to G chord 2 3 4 back to C 2 3 4) it's OK, because I get hand cramps and have to take a break fairly soon anyway. It's surprisingly awkward to push three fingers down at once, for example, and I have started to wonder whether the ER doc at Lahey who remarked that I have arthritis in all my fingers was correct, with the reminder that he was one of the people who missed the fracture (the radiologist was the other one). Maybe I'll put out one of the recorders and see whether my fingers are still willing to move around in the old familiar way.

Comments

[acw.livejournal.com]

I had a uke that wouldn't hold tune either, back around the time we used to see more of each other. It was intensely annoying to have to retune every five minutes.

I'm guessing that it's "wanting" to be tuned a whole-step down mostly because the pegs hold even worse under higher tension.