Bridge Placement On Baritone For Tenor Scale Length

Hi all i just have a question. I have a set of baritone plans and am going to make a baritone sized ukulele however I want a tenor scale length and tuning. Is it a simple case of moving the bridge placement? Is there a formula for this. I don't want to just change the tuning of Baritone strings I want to use tenor strings and tenor tuning. I know you can do the reverse so make a tenor with a baritone scale or long neck tenor so hoping one can do the reverse. The current scale length is 511.2mm and it joins the body at the 14th fret.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Take a look here.

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator/

It's not that simple I'm afraid!

Let's suppose your tenor scale is 2 inches shorter than your baritone scale. Your options are:

1. Keep the existing length of neck on the plans but move the bridge 2 inches closer to the sound hole. That would look very odd indeed, and would move the bridge away from the "sweet" spot on the top which will give you the most volume and best sound. Also the bridge will not now be supported properly by the bracing and bridge plate, so all that would need to be moved.

2. Keep the bridge in the same place but shorten the neck by 2 inches. This works mechanically, but your neck probably joins the body around the 10th fret. It'll look a bit odd, but if you don't use the higher frets it will be playable OK.

3. Compromise by shortening the neck by 1 inch and moving the bridge up 1 inch. This might look reasonably OK (think dreadnaught guitar, where the bridge is rather too near the sound hole) and the neck body join could be around the 12th fret. You'd need to tweak the bracing of the top, but probably not too radically.

So you have to decide where you are going to compromise, and start from there. Option 3 looks the best to me, but option 2 is easiest because you just shorten the neck. Sketch out your options to see how you like them.

Is it as simple as moving the bridge? No.

Along with what ProfChris has just stated the really important factor is that the scale length NEEDS to match a fretboard cut for that scale length.

Putting a bridge on a baritone ukulele at a tenor scale length does not make it a tenor.

Anthony

Leave the bridge where it is at, use a shorter neck, access the higher frets with a cutaway.

The plans you have probably show fret spacing for a baritone. That won't work fort a tenor scale. The fret spacing is different.
You're not really building a baritone, you're building a super-tenor. One is for sale currently in the UU Marketplace.
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?121910-Kanile-a-Super-Tenor-Diamond-Edition
You could buy this one, take measurements, build yours, and sell.

Futurethink said:

You're not really building a baritone, you're building a super-tenor.

Click to expand...

My first thought is: why not just build a tenor with a tenor scale length? Also by moving the bridge up you have changed the geometry of the baritone design. All that sound board real-estate south of the bridge that isn't doing anything but looking weird and possibly sounding wolfy... However, I do also think about this question myself. Always thinking of more power and projection, but where does it end? What is an ukulele anyway?

By the way, I think Profchris's points are great. Where is the compromise going to be? It can be done, but have we created a compromise that is less than the sum of its parts? I would love to hear (and see) how this experiment works out.

I'm surprised no one has put up this reason why, the scale length is not only the distance from the nut to the saddle in the bridge, it's also set by the 12th fret. The distance from the nut to the 12th must be exactly the same as from the 12th fret to the saddle. That's why you can't just move the bridge to get tenor scale (17").

Yeah, that's a long neck tenor with a baritone body. Just build it according to the plans and put tenor strings on it. Done.

http://theunofficialmartinguitarfor...Tenor-Strings-On-My-Baritone-Uke#.V8ckICmECHs

Been involved in enough engineering projects to know there is no such thing as a 'minor" change.

Why not just build the baritone and use a capo? That gives you a "two-fer."

It looks totally doable but you'll have to join at the 12th fret. Your bridge will move up only a little so adjust bracing and bridge patch accordingly. And yes, recalculate the fret spacing. Links for that previously provided.

Red represents the 511mm baritone scale, green represents a 17" (431.8mm) tenor scale:



Actually, as I look at it, if you're okay with an 18" scale tenor, you could leave the bridge where it is and shorten the neck to the 2nd fret.

Here, listen to the difference between the regular Kamaka 17" tenor and their long neck 19" tenor. http://www.theukulelereview.com/2013/03/19/comparing-kamaka-ukulele/ Very little difference, if anything the long neck is a little bit richer sounding. So, why not just build the baritone as the plans indicate and string it as a tenor? In addition to being the most straightforward way to proceed, it would also allow you to later string it as a baritone, if you wanted to try that out.

The thing about uke scales is that they seem to be all over the board these days. The 19" scale has been a baritone scale for many years and to call it a tenor scale because you want to is.......well, what's the point? You could call it a 19" soprano scale because you want to, but is it? I don't mean to be snarky, just sayin.

Matt Clara said:

Here, listen to the difference between the regular Kamaka 17" tenor and their long neck 19" tenor. http://www.theukulelereview.com/2013/03/19/comparing-kamaka-ukulele/ Very little difference, if anything the long neck is a little bit richer sounding. So, why not just build the baritone as the plans indicate and string it as a tenor? In addition to being the most straightforward way to proceed, it would also allow you to later string it as a baritone, if you wanted to try that out.

Click to expand...