Hello. Just joined here and have first of all some questions about my baritone ukulele, which I've had just over a week. It's a Barnes & Mullins costing just over 150 British pounds, spruce and spalted maple, maple neck I think.
It came with Aquila strings on with none of them wound, though I think still tuned DGBE. I'm left-handed so my first job was to convert the uke. Having done my own guitar maintenance for fifteen years I had good tools. I had seen a friend's baritone a few times which eventually made me get decisive about buying one after considering it a few years.
It's not a bad instrument but is a bit underwhelming and I suspect a factory second as it's finish is quite haphazard (bubbles, whitish miscolorations in some lights, absolutely minimal buffing with visible swirls, chipped bits of spruce under the varnish etc) and the neck binding uses two different colour bits of wood, the right side almost looking like they forgot to bind it.
Anyway I wanted to ask if these measurements are average for a baritone ukulele. The string spacing at the nut is 29 mm, at the saddle it's 38 mm. Around the fifteenth fret on the bass side there is about 8 mm of gap from the fingerboard edge, 5 mm on the treble side at that fret. My friend's uke has around the guitar norm of 2 1/2 mm of gap between string and fretboard edge at the nut end where mine is about 4 mm. So does it vary or might they have slapped a tenor's bridge and nut on mine or something or the factory worker used tenor measurements? It's not uncomfortable but I'm strongly considering replacing the nut and have the blank nut ready. Not so sure or comfortable about drilling new holes at the bridge to widen the spacing there but it may not be necessary.
The relief at the 7th fret seems not dangerously out but is more noticeable than most guitars I've had, maybe just under the thickness of a uke's E string. The uke certainly has a stiffer feel than my friend's. his action is lower admittedly. I've lowered mine and am considering going further but fortuitously the right-handed saddle is about perfect for using with two wound strings and left-handed playing without being reversed or otherwise altered, as the 'b bump' compensation is in the same place as it is on a guitar. The action is now about 2 1/4 mm at the 12th fret, both sides, maybe fractionally lower on the treble side.
I have altered the nut slots on three different days thinking if I do eventually go too far I can just put the new nut on. So far all is well and the intonation has drastically improved with the alterations. The action at that end is maybe a hair higher than I'd use for a steel string acoustic guitar, but with the current stiffness there is no danger of buzzing and I may try and have a fourth and last nut slot filing session tomorrow.
At the last string change I had D'addario titanium trebles from a baritone uke set and the bottom two are D'addario classical guitar strings, a .028 and a .034, slightly thinner than came with the titanium set. I thought I'd go lighter to see how much the 7th fret relief changed and may try a .024 and a .032 but if the sound weakens that'll be a one-off.
Normally I would tune a semi-tone lower on guitar but I'm due to have a jam with the friend and wanted to get used to concert pitch, otherwise the 7th fret relief might be normal when tuned Db Gb Bb Eb. I did wonder if the maple neck is weaker than, say, a mahogany one - my Indonesian G&L stratocaster has a maple neck and is the most flexi neck I've ever had, quite annoyingly so at times when tuning.
Okay, hope I don't sound like I'm babbling, I know this is a bit techy but hopefully people have been here and will know what to say.
Many thanks in advance.
[If you're wondering, I didn't return the uke as I didn't notice flaws until I'd starting cutting the nut. The dealer has partially compensated me with a gig bag but they were certainly happy to get out of doing more.]
It came with Aquila strings on with none of them wound, though I think still tuned DGBE. I'm left-handed so my first job was to convert the uke. Having done my own guitar maintenance for fifteen years I had good tools. I had seen a friend's baritone a few times which eventually made me get decisive about buying one after considering it a few years.
It's not a bad instrument but is a bit underwhelming and I suspect a factory second as it's finish is quite haphazard (bubbles, whitish miscolorations in some lights, absolutely minimal buffing with visible swirls, chipped bits of spruce under the varnish etc) and the neck binding uses two different colour bits of wood, the right side almost looking like they forgot to bind it.
Anyway I wanted to ask if these measurements are average for a baritone ukulele. The string spacing at the nut is 29 mm, at the saddle it's 38 mm. Around the fifteenth fret on the bass side there is about 8 mm of gap from the fingerboard edge, 5 mm on the treble side at that fret. My friend's uke has around the guitar norm of 2 1/2 mm of gap between string and fretboard edge at the nut end where mine is about 4 mm. So does it vary or might they have slapped a tenor's bridge and nut on mine or something or the factory worker used tenor measurements? It's not uncomfortable but I'm strongly considering replacing the nut and have the blank nut ready. Not so sure or comfortable about drilling new holes at the bridge to widen the spacing there but it may not be necessary.
The relief at the 7th fret seems not dangerously out but is more noticeable than most guitars I've had, maybe just under the thickness of a uke's E string. The uke certainly has a stiffer feel than my friend's. his action is lower admittedly. I've lowered mine and am considering going further but fortuitously the right-handed saddle is about perfect for using with two wound strings and left-handed playing without being reversed or otherwise altered, as the 'b bump' compensation is in the same place as it is on a guitar. The action is now about 2 1/4 mm at the 12th fret, both sides, maybe fractionally lower on the treble side.
I have altered the nut slots on three different days thinking if I do eventually go too far I can just put the new nut on. So far all is well and the intonation has drastically improved with the alterations. The action at that end is maybe a hair higher than I'd use for a steel string acoustic guitar, but with the current stiffness there is no danger of buzzing and I may try and have a fourth and last nut slot filing session tomorrow.
At the last string change I had D'addario titanium trebles from a baritone uke set and the bottom two are D'addario classical guitar strings, a .028 and a .034, slightly thinner than came with the titanium set. I thought I'd go lighter to see how much the 7th fret relief changed and may try a .024 and a .032 but if the sound weakens that'll be a one-off.
Normally I would tune a semi-tone lower on guitar but I'm due to have a jam with the friend and wanted to get used to concert pitch, otherwise the 7th fret relief might be normal when tuned Db Gb Bb Eb. I did wonder if the maple neck is weaker than, say, a mahogany one - my Indonesian G&L stratocaster has a maple neck and is the most flexi neck I've ever had, quite annoyingly so at times when tuning.
Okay, hope I don't sound like I'm babbling, I know this is a bit techy but hopefully people have been here and will know what to say.
Many thanks in advance.
[If you're wondering, I didn't return the uke as I didn't notice flaws until I'd starting cutting the nut. The dealer has partially compensated me with a gig bag but they were certainly happy to get out of doing more.]
