Soprano vs Long neck So

artcrocker

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I have this urge lately to buy a true Soprano uke since a have a few tenors, a concert, and Flea. However every time I start looking at them I wonder if the short neck limits one to only playing down the neck. I think my question is, Do soprano owners often wish they had bought the extended neck version?

Trying to avoid remorse since I am looking at Kamaka or Maui Music.
 
Sometimes I don't want the extra size so the soprano neck is fine. Plus, the extra length might make just enough of a difference to affect portability, so it's worth having a true soprano.

A concert Flea is actually more of a super-soprano than a true concert.
 
I honestly believe that the only limitations is the limitation you put on yourself.
After watching John King and others, they play all over the place.

A person I met on Tuesday who I discovered plays the Uke prefers Soprano to any other, and he has every size there is. He is also very very good and plays all over the frets in Jazz style.
 
Thanks for the reply, I was hoping I would hear that a true soprano is worth having for the reasons stated. I just happen to be on Maui right now and pass by Bounty Music every day so it looks like a new soprano is in the near future.

Only problem is that Bounty has such a huge selection the choice will be difficult (I am not really complaining).
 
I wonder if the short neck limits one to only playing down the neck.
Although I'm a diehard tenor fan, I recently got a soprano Ohana for its zebrawood. Stunning little instrument. I find I play it reasonably well, but I have a tendency to overreach for frets that are like objects in your side-view mirror: closer than they appear.

I don't play over the 12th fret a lot on my tenors, so I'm not too worried about doing so on a soprano. However, I find the small spaces between frets on the soprano combine with my big fingertips to make playing at and above the ninth fret more challenging. Even at the seventh fret I have to exercise more care: it is rather easy to plunk down a finger in the wrong place. And chords at that height cramp my hands into awkward shapes like wounded birds.

I did own a tenor-necked Ohana with a soprano body, which made playing higher up the neck a lot easier, but I didn't like the feel or the sound particuarly. And the look was odd.​
 
I'm wondering how many of us actually go above half a dozen frets or so. I know a heck of a lot do but I don't venture that way if I can avoid it:D
 
I'm wondering how many of us actually go above half a dozen frets or so. I know a heck of a lot do but I don't venture that way if I can avoid it:D

Me neither. Between my pudgy fingers and my love for the sound of chords with open strings in them, I do 98% of my playing on the lowest half-dozen frets. That's actually why I like a concert neck - even though the neck is only slightly longer, I somehow feel I have far more room to play closely positioned chords on the first few frets than I do on my soprano. Even basic chords like Dm7 2213 are a lot harder for me on my soprano. But that's also a reflection of me still being new to the instrument, I presume.
 
I actively make a habit of learning and using things at the upper end of the fret board for the TCUO to keep it from being 8 or 9 folks playing exactly the same thing. It keeps things interesting and makes me learn multiple chord positions. Knowledge is power and I get bored easily.

I've got a Kelii soprano with 16 frets that I absolutely love. I might miss those extra four if I got a vintage 12 fret one, but I'd probably find a way around that limitation. (But it's not going to be an issue with the ones you're considering anyway.) You just adapt your playing and what you play to the instrument in your hands.
 
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