Yamaha GL1 Guitalele string change and setup

[kenstogie]

recently purchased a yammy GL1 Guitalele and as i don't have alot of classical guitar experience was wondering ......

-Should I change the stock strings? If so recommendations would be great

-tuning seems to "creep" a little any ideas to lock it in?

-any other setup tips ... i do plan to steel wool the fret board to smooth it out a little.


anecdotal stuff.... i bought this to have a usable ultra portable travel guitar and it is performing quite well and hey if something happens to it i won't need to remortgage the house. i learned how to play the harmonica because i could bring it anywhere and when i saw the guitalele i thought 'cool now i can bring a guitar any where too'..... i generally have been trying to learn flamenco style because it's just fun, awesome and fits the little guitalele. This has helped my rythem quite a bit and now i have a cool scale to use too. thanks in advance and keep on playing

[Bikewer]

I've had a GL1 for about a year now. Was not happy with the stock strings and replaced 'em with a set of D'Addario Pro Arte jobs.... Just standard classical strings.
Sound was considerably improved.
Mine seems very stable...I leave it sitting by my easy chair and frequently pick it up and riff with it.
I would seriously consider buying a "better" guilele.... I've been reading reviews of the Cordoba... But it doesn't seem that much better....

[kenstogie]

Originally Posted by Bikewer

I've had a GL1 for about a year now. Was not happy with the stock strings and replaced 'em with a set of D'Addario Pro Arte jobs.... Just standard classical strings.
Sound was considerably improved.
Mine seems very stable...I leave it sitting by my easy chair and frequently pick it up and riff with it.
I would seriously consider buying a "better" guilele.... I've been reading reviews of the Cordoba... But it doesn't seem that much better....

Cool I will give them a shot. I thought about getting a better one too and looked online at the cordoba as well (little cutaway if I recall correctly) but was not convinced it would be better based on reviews. I would gladly pay more but not if it wasn't a better axe.

For the $$ the Yamaha gets the job done and I do like the fact the fret board is not as wide as a standard classical..... though the intonation goes to $h!zam after the 7th fret I still can get a guitar fix almost anywhere which is great.

[rwrrwr]

Originally Posted by kenstogie

-tuning seems to "creep" a little any ideas to lock it in?

-any other setup tips ... i do plan to steel wool the fret board to smooth it out a little.

I keep mine in my truck and have had problems it staying in tune. I went through and tightened up all the screws. That seemed to help but didn't completely solve the problem. Nature of the beast I guess. I also had intonation issues due to the high bridge and nut. Sanded them down and fixed 85% of the problem. I really enjoy playing it now. FWIW, I like high tension strings.

[kenstogie]

Originally Posted by rwrrwr

I keep mine in my truck and have had problems it staying in tune. I went through and tightened up all the screws. That seemed to help but didn't completely solve the problem. Nature of the beast I guess. I also had intonation issues due to the high bridge and nut. Sanded them down and fixed 85% of the problem. I really enjoy playing it now. FWIW, I like high tension strings.

Hey Rex........

Whats the difference between high tension and regular?

and even more importantly ......the intonantion is much worse below then 6th fret and not bad at the 1-4th frets so perhaps if I do the same sanding of the nut/bridge ....it may help. As long as i dont take to much off and have the strings buzz it shouldn't hurt any, correct (?)..........Any other tips for that you can think of would be great.

I appreciate the advice. Thank you.

[kenstogie]

GUITALELE setup


If anyone is setting up thier guitalele this maybe helpful.. Mine wasn't bad before just not great .....now it is much better..


A-took off the stock strings save the low and high strings for later....

B-000 steel wool to the fret board and anywhere else that looked and felt like the finish was rough including the neck.

C-the fret board was as dry as a bone so I took some oil for trumpet valves and wiped it down lightly (mostly mineral oil) looks alot better

D-intonation and action was high so I pulled the bridge saddle and sanded down maybe 1/32 or 1/16 as Rex did. Sand less at first because you can't put it back on with the next string change like you can take it off. I used a low tech crystal nail file but should have used my vise and files I have at home. I did mark it with black magic marker so I had a guide and didn't go crazy with the file. I temporarily put on the low and high string to test the saddle height periodically.

E-took a wound string and then some 000 steel wool I made into "yarn" .....ran through each nut slot. Then took a pencil with soft lead to get some graphite in there. My hope is to help prevent any "jumping" or "dropping" in the tuning

F-tightened each center screw on the tuners, added a drop of trumpet valve oil on each gearand worked it in.

G-put on some diaddario pro arte regular strings (plenty of youtube videos for a newbie like me and anyone else that needs them on how to do it)

H-stretched each string and tuned a whole step lower (low and high string are G) because I think its a little high as A and why not?

Voila! its a new guitalele. Intonation and sound is MUCH better. Chords sound like chords and I can hit the 9th fret without it sounding off and out of tune. Thanks to Rex for the suggestions.