How Far is Too Far

[Pilothawk]

If ever a question has been posed out of ignorance, it is this one.

I am new to the world of music. I have three ukes; a Kala Trimline Tenor, a KPK Concert and a Oscar Schmidt Pineapple.

I was just messing around with the Kala and I noted that the E String, when playing a F NOTE is 20+ cents sharp. My other ukes, including the cheap OSchmidt only register around five to ten and in some cases 15 cents off on their notes.

Is this the way it should be, and if so, why? How far off is too far off? What can be the reasons?

BTW...these measurements were taken by use of AP3 tuner on the net. I make no representation as to the accuracy of the measurement.

Thanks in advance for any education you might provide.

 

[Bradford]

20 cents sharp for a half step up is quite a bit off. It is hard for me to guess why. Do the notes get sharper as you go up the neck? Possible causes could be high action at the nut, high action at the saddle, incorrect fretting (bending the note), lack of compensation or your fret position is wrong. Many times simply changing to a different brand of strings helps.

Brad

 

[Pilothawk]

This might give you some help:
This is the Kala Travel Uke with Aquilas. MGM setup, so I think it should be right.

E4 -0.02
F4 - +18.9
F4# - +29.3
G4 - +19.6
A4 - +19.8
B4 - +21.8
C5 - + 13.9
D5 - +8.1
E5 - +8.9

 

[Bradford]

If the other strings show a similar trend, then I would judge the fret postions to be wrong. If however, the other strings are OK, then your fret positions are good and it may be a bad string. Try turning it end for end, or replacing it. Many times you can get a bad string that is not uniform in diameter and can cause this sort of thing.

Brad

 

[buddhuu]

If the fretted notes become less sharp as you go up the fretboard, then I think it most likely that the problem is high action at the nut. That is very common indeed. Glitchy frets do happen, but they are far less common than they used to be.