Final Setup on the Lanikai O-8 Ukulele

The Lanikai O-8 has been getting the Hula Shaker treatment all week.  I think it's ready to finish the setup and play it.  I had the Shaker running on it for about 150 hours. 

I'm just going to take a bit out of the nut slots to lower the string height.  The nut is plastic - and the slots are wider than I expected them to be.

But it's still the regular filing process - but it takes longer since there are 8 strings instead of 4.

 Hard to get a clean picture, but you can get an idea of how low the strings are over the first fret.  It was three times this height when I started.

I would like to make a bone nut for it eventually.  The strings pinch a lot in the plastic, and I had to make the slots pretty deep, so the strings sit very low in the slots.  Not a good thing.  When I change the strings on this one I'll make a new nut. 

Finished and ready to go.  It's a nice looking instrument.

The top is solid spruce and the sides are laminate Ovangkol.

I like the headstock design.  The tuners are pretty decent quality.  I don't think I'll be changing them, since this will be an instrument I only play occasionally.

It plays very nicely now.  And as for the Shaker experiment, it worked.  It's much louder and seems to sound a little more 'rounded' - it was very trebly before.

I'll eventually put different strings on it - I'd like to have a heavier wound string on the low G.  The one that's there now is overwhelmed by the other strings.  Another note:  much like the high G on a 12-string guitar, this 8 string also has a high "screamer" string - the high C (6th string).   It's tuned to the C on the third fret on the top strings - it's the highest open pitch of all the strings.  And it really screams when you play it!