Baritone action height

DownUpDave

DownUpDave

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Most of my tenor ukuleles have an action height of 5/64" at the 12th fret. I find this very easy to play. I have a baritone that is set at over 7/64", close to 8/74" really. Are baritone ukes set up higher because of less string tension when tuned to DGBE? Maybe this baritone was not set up properly after the Misi pick up was installed or is this action height acceptable.

I have this tuned to A, E, C#, F# and I find fretting effort to be excessive, feels like I have a mile of travel to make contact when I am playing above the 7th fret.

Thanks
 
Not sure about what is normal Dave but the beater Kala bari i got last year came from HMS super low, actually way too low and i am having to raise it up a bit since it buzzes below 12. I fingerpick and usually like the action a little higher than normal since i find when i dig in a bit i can create rattle on really low actions but i'm thinking yours is too high and mine too low...
 
I don't think that Baritones would have much higher action as a general rule. Mine are set somewhere between 2 and 2.5 mm, similar to my Tenors. 2.75 mm wouldn't bother me much, though. I guess you could take the saddle down a little bit, but I wouldn't go to far in order to avoid buzzing. Since this will depend on neck relief / forward curvature, a little something could probably be done with the truss rod, if there is one.
 
In 64ths, 5 is just under 2mm which has been too low to not buzz in my experience (but I like a looser tension so maybe you could get by with it with higher tension). I like 2.5mm for all sizes which is between 6 and 7/64ths. 8 would be a little over 3.1mm which I agree is higher than I prefer but still lower than my bruko baritone came from the shop. Of course we know that is bruko and not baris in general.
 
Between 2.0 and 2.5mm at the 12th is where I set all of mine going out the door. If it's tuned to GCEA they get the 2.2 on the bass and 2.0 on the treble side, if a lower pitch (most want DGBE then it will be 2.5 on the bass side and transitioning to 2.2 on the treble.
 
Thanks very much guys for all your feedback and info. Seems this is higher than it should be so I will lower it at the saddle and see now that works. It also seems high at the 1st fret as well. When I push down on the third fret there is no resistance on a doubled up piece of paper placed between the string and first fret wire.
 
Allen said:
Between 2.0 and 2.5mm at the 12th is where I set all of mine going out the door.
Click to expand...

OK silly question time... the 2.5mm measurement is from the top of the string to the fretboard or the bottom of the string to the top of the fret?
 
billten said:
OK silly question time... the 2.5mm measurement is from the top of the string to the fretboard or the bottom of the string to the top of the fret?
Click to expand...

The latter - at least that's the way I've always understood it and is the only way that makes sense to me. If you had to account for the width of the string and the height of the fret, 2.5mm would only leave a very small gap
 
Jim Hanks said:
The latter - at least that's the way I've always understood it and is the only way that makes sense to me. If you had to account for the width of the string and the height of the fret, 2.5mm would only leave a very small gap
Click to expand...

Right! It's the space between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret.
 
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