Graham Greenbag
Well-known member
I’ve created this thread to share an observation and to seek a bit of advice, hope someone can help but if not then be more informed anyway.
It’s a few years since I started playing, my progress hasn’t been stellar but rather rather slow and steady. If the Tortoise and the Hare analogy is used then I’m possible amongst the slowest of Tortoises but have still achieved a useful level of club player level skill. I practice most days.
With that in mind I was a bit shocked to discover that a simple and subtle feature on my two favourite Ukes is making life difficult. I’d put a recently observed difficulty down to weaknesses in my own developing technique, etc. When I’m playing up near the nut on chords such as G7 and Fdim I find if best to turn my hand such that my fingers point down the Uke towards the Saddle. However, in doing so the side of my hand, below my first finger is pushed firmly into the Uke headstock and ideally I could do with being able to rotate my hand further. That’s a difficult picture but try those chords in the same way and you might better follow what I say.
For reference, with numbering from the G string (http://www.gotaukulele.com/2011/01/beginner-tips-what-do-4-digit-numbers.html), the G7 chord would be 0212 and the lesser known Fdim would be 1212.
The Ukes concerned are a LU-21P and a KA-P, to me they sound lovely and they have repaid, in spades, the time and effort put into setting them up. However, on both Ukes (they are near clones), the transition profile between nut and tuners would be best moved towards the tuners and so leave space for a more rotated hand. Well that’s my view of my hands and my Ukes, its an opinion and, very likely, YMMV.
Looking at older Ukes with friction tuners (and the current Martin S1) it looks, to me, that they have a noticeably narrower Headstock and that the Tuning Pegs are placed further away from the nut.
Edit 1). Of course that might be an optical illusion and might vary between manufacturers, some measurements are needed.
Edit 2). Having now taken a few dimensions, by scaling off of photographs, my two Ukes are far from the worse culprits and there were some surprises. It’s no surprise to me though though that the best that I’ve seen was on a well know design from decades ago, that company no longer trades.
Perhaps that more ergonomic design is as a result of player input for function rather than making something with perhaps more visual or sales appeal - I don’t know but I’m cynical.
I’m wondering what my options are now and have identified a few - including just ‘grin and bare it’. For a few reasons I’m loathed to attack the headstocks with my woodworking gear but could. For virtually every other need that I currently have these Ukes are great. However, perhaps one pragmatic option is to let one or both of them go to a new user (who should be delighted with them) and to then purchase another Uke with a ‘better’ headstock profile, but if so then how do I identify a superior profile. For reference all my Ukes have been internet purchases, I don’t mind used instruments, IMHO physical shops can be better than web based suppliers but mostly aren’t.
Your suggestions and shared experience would be welcomed.
Edit.
In later posts the terminology (name) of one of my suggested chords seems to be in question, for completeness in this original post my reference source is: https://ukuchords.com/files/UkuChord...ard.png?x37163 .
Edim (0101) is also easier with the fingers pointing down the fretboard towards the saddle.
It’s a few years since I started playing, my progress hasn’t been stellar but rather rather slow and steady. If the Tortoise and the Hare analogy is used then I’m possible amongst the slowest of Tortoises but have still achieved a useful level of club player level skill. I practice most days.
With that in mind I was a bit shocked to discover that a simple and subtle feature on my two favourite Ukes is making life difficult. I’d put a recently observed difficulty down to weaknesses in my own developing technique, etc. When I’m playing up near the nut on chords such as G7 and Fdim I find if best to turn my hand such that my fingers point down the Uke towards the Saddle. However, in doing so the side of my hand, below my first finger is pushed firmly into the Uke headstock and ideally I could do with being able to rotate my hand further. That’s a difficult picture but try those chords in the same way and you might better follow what I say.
For reference, with numbering from the G string (http://www.gotaukulele.com/2011/01/beginner-tips-what-do-4-digit-numbers.html), the G7 chord would be 0212 and the lesser known Fdim would be 1212.
The Ukes concerned are a LU-21P and a KA-P, to me they sound lovely and they have repaid, in spades, the time and effort put into setting them up. However, on both Ukes (they are near clones), the transition profile between nut and tuners would be best moved towards the tuners and so leave space for a more rotated hand. Well that’s my view of my hands and my Ukes, its an opinion and, very likely, YMMV.
Looking at older Ukes with friction tuners (and the current Martin S1) it looks, to me, that they have a noticeably narrower Headstock and that the Tuning Pegs are placed further away from the nut.
Edit 1). Of course that might be an optical illusion and might vary between manufacturers, some measurements are needed.
Edit 2). Having now taken a few dimensions, by scaling off of photographs, my two Ukes are far from the worse culprits and there were some surprises. It’s no surprise to me though though that the best that I’ve seen was on a well know design from decades ago, that company no longer trades.
Perhaps that more ergonomic design is as a result of player input for function rather than making something with perhaps more visual or sales appeal - I don’t know but I’m cynical.
I’m wondering what my options are now and have identified a few - including just ‘grin and bare it’. For a few reasons I’m loathed to attack the headstocks with my woodworking gear but could. For virtually every other need that I currently have these Ukes are great. However, perhaps one pragmatic option is to let one or both of them go to a new user (who should be delighted with them) and to then purchase another Uke with a ‘better’ headstock profile, but if so then how do I identify a superior profile. For reference all my Ukes have been internet purchases, I don’t mind used instruments, IMHO physical shops can be better than web based suppliers but mostly aren’t.
Your suggestions and shared experience would be welcomed.
Edit.
In later posts the terminology (name) of one of my suggested chords seems to be in question, for completeness in this original post my reference source is: https://ukuchords.com/files/UkuChord...ard.png?x37163 .
Edim (0101) is also easier with the fingers pointing down the fretboard towards the saddle.
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