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nikita
Aloha
1 Posts |
 Posted - 12/13/2003 : 02:50:58 AM
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Hi.
I had one of my "why not" moments and picked up a Hilo ukulele for CAN$45 at my music store whilst shopping for some guitar strings.
I am a guitarist.
I am experiencing some strange intonation problems with it: the intonation of the frets is close to perfect, but the discrepancy between fretted and open is something that scratches the ear. It gets better when I tune to A B D F#. I got the floor model (they were out...), so the strings must not be all that new, but it's probably not been played much. I understand that this is a common problem with new ukuleles, and that they should simply be given time to settle in. The problem is worse on some strings, better on others. It's at its worst on the 1st-A string, then the G string, then E, and on C it is the least evident. Since this goes in descending order of pitch and thickness, I'm inclined to think that this really is a string-related affair. I measured the distance from nut to 12th fret and from 12th fret to bridge, and everything seems to be fine there.
My question is this: should I expect it to shift to a better intonation with time? Or will this kind of thing stay?
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 12/13/2003 : 02:59:35 AM
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Hi Nikita,
I think ukulele player has had intonation problems with cheap or even expensive ukes.
The short scale magnifies poor intonation from the way the frets are cut, but a lot of basic ukes have cheap strings and high frets, so that simple chording stretches the strings out of tune when pressed hard. Some guitarists have to learn to only press the strings to the frets, and not the fretboard. You've figured out that the tighter the strings (ABDF#), the less likely you'll hear the sour notes from stretching the strings over too-high frets.
Better strings would probably help, too.
Jesse Tinsley
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