'holding tune'

lemmie

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Hello all!
I'm hoping someone can explain this to me. I'm confused about ukuleles' ability to 'hold tune'. In a lot of uke reviews and even guides on what to look for when buying a uke, people say that a good quality instrument will 'hold tune' better than a poorer/cheaper one. I don't understand this. As long as the strings are stretched and aren't slipping (and they pretty much all have geared tuners anyway), what is it about the build that would affect whether or not it stays in tune?

Thanks!
 
Yes, once strings are stretched and settled, they will 'hold tune' unless you are using friction tuners, which need to be properly tightened so they don't slip.

If you are looking at the miasma of Amazon reviews, I would bet that 99% of those buyers are clueless about nylon and similar strings needing to stretch out over time before they are stabilized.

I know I should not be, but I am often bothered when I see would-be buyers of lots of things are lazy and do not do proper research before spending money and then blame the vendor or the product when their expectations (usually borne from ignorance and fantasy) are not met when the product is in hand.

Intonation problems are a different story, and that is another way to be not 'holding tune' but this is usually and easily fixed by that instrument having a proper setup.

Amazon does not do setups. Most things there are shipped from a warehouse. Only proper ukulele specialists will always offer a setup with each uke sold, vendors like Uke Republic, Mim's Ukes, Elderly Music and Hawaii Music Supply (there are others too, but this is a short list of the most common here in the USA).
 
Yes, generally most ukuleles will hold tune. An exception are plastic ukuleles which have some bendiness in the neck (Kala Waterman for example), and can therefore, I reckon, be more susceptible to temperature changes and so on.

I also reckon that the nut is important in that if the string doesn't pass fairly smoothly through the nut, then it will jump from one tuning to another as you tighten or loosen the tuner. This is usually easily fixed either by filing the slot in the nut a little, or by choosing different (thinner and/or slippier) strings.
 
You have the right idea, once the strings have stretched it will stay in tune; some people do not know about this factor, & will comment that it doesn't stay in tune.

Most reviews, that are not on a specialist site, are written by Joe Public, who are just starting out & know nothing about their instrument.
(Edit: It is the same with harmonicas, they blame the harmonica, & not their technique.)
 
I agree with everything said above. As indicated, there are basically two different possibilities of an instrument not staying in tune: One is the stretching of (new) strings which has little to do with a specific instrument as it is inherent to the strings; the other is the slipping of tuners, which is most likely to happen with friction tuners, as all other types of tuners have gears to hold them in place.

Another issue would be intonation all across the fretboard, but this depends on several criteria as well (not just the correct placement of the frets, the nut, and the saddle, but also "soft" factors such as type of strings, their gauges, the pressure applied by the player, etc.). So if anyone complains about bad intonation of their uke, that doesn't necessarily mean that the instrument itself is faulty, and it certainly does not mean that all instruments from that specific brand would have bad intonation.
 
Even with stretched strings and tight tuners, you will end up tuning some ukes more than others. A poor neck seems like it would move around the most, but an instrument is a living, breathing thing and it could be any part, really.

I've found that higher quality instruments need to be tuned less. If I played one and it didn't stay in tune after settling in I'd be concerned about what else was happening to the instrument.
 
The clueless uke review phenomenon reminds me of the clueless kitchen knife review phenom on Amazon: "I paid $100 for this knife and used it every day. In two weeks, it needed sharpening! It's junk! I wuz robbed!"
 
Thanks all for the clarification about uke's (and harmonicas. and kitchen knives. ;)) Sucks that there is SO MUCH garbage input on amazon, what an echo chamber for misinformation! I'm still very much a beginner, but looking to upgrade my little soprano. I'm getting into playing higher up the fretboard, but its getting kinda tight, even for my little fingers, plus it only has 12 frets! Because of that, I've been real interested in reviews about intonation up the fretboard. So thanks, Rakelele, for teaching me about that too!
 
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