Crooked bridge.

Hello experts! I recently purchased a new tenor uke. It's nicely set up but while playing it tonight I noticed that the bridge is very crooked. I checked the intonation at the 12th and it's correct according to my tuner except the A string is a little off. Here are some pictures. Do you think this will be an issue? What's your advice.
Thanks!
Rich

I am NO expert on the subject. That being said I've heard that most tenor ukes tuned to low"g" tend to have a saddle made on a slant to compensate for string tensions - I'm not sure if that's true - I've never actually played or even seen anything other than a soprano in person, so my advice is useless there. if your intonation is prettymuch bang on, except for the "a" string being a little off, maybe you should leave it be. If it doesn't really bug you, why fix it? But of course, if it does bug you, maybe you should consider taking it in to get fixed (not the same way you would get a dog fixed mind you, different principles), if it were a cheapie, which it doesn't look like it is, then I'd say you could fix it yourself. It doesn't look like it though, so unless you have some good experience with that sort of thing, take it into a luthier, or if that was a custom one, to whoever built it.

edit: I think the best thing you can do at the moment is just keep playing, don't think about it, if you can't really notice it, is anything really wrong? I mean, I don't want to say that you should play a "broken" or "bad" instrument, but I think a rash decision could just make things worse, sometimes we chase after "perfection" so adamantly that what ends up happening could actually be harmful. So play it for a few weeks, maybe even a few months, if it doesn't bother you, why mess with a good thing?

Thanks pie man! I think it is just an aesthetic thing. I only checked the intonation at the 12 th fret and open and it's all GCEA (a little flat on the A). Anything else I should check for? Funny you mention the dog fixing analogy. I'm a veterinarian and fixing dogs is what I do for a living! I'll just let it be and mark it as an "aloha lean".

Your second picture is a little mis-leading because the uke is leaning to the right so it's hard to tell just how much it's skewed.
Kelii is a decent brand and it looks like a good uke. If the intonation is good, it should be OK.
My Pono is cocked just a little in the same direction. Have not measured to see how much. It intonate s fine.
My Ohana looks like it's cocked in the other direction. Think it just looks that way because the grain of the top is not parallel to the strings.

pie_man_25 said:

...I've heard that most tenor ukes tuned to low"g" tend to have a saddle made on a slant to compensate for string tensions

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In that case it would be slanted in the other direction, and actually you would normally put the bridge on straight and slant the saddle.

In the pics it looks like the high A string is longer and the G (in this case high G) is shorter, thus |::|======/ So that would be the wrong direction for a "slanted saddle". I would definitely send it back.

Measure from the nut (fret board side) to the saddle; again, the fret board side or where the strings contacts the crest of the saddle.
It should measure 17" give or take a cat whisker.
Saddle thickness is typically 3/32" to 1/8". Would not expect a difference greater than this (the realm of saddle compensation).
This will tell if it's an optical illusion or something else.

The A string problem could just be the string, not the uke.
I've seen ukes that look as if the bridge is crooked in relation to the body, but in relation to the neck, it was straight.
If the neck is just a hair off to one side or the other, then the bridge should compensate for that to be correct.

Thanks for the tips Fahrner. I'll check it tonight after work. The picture wasn't a great picture but looking at the ruler the lines don't run parallel with the strings so I don't believe it is an illusion. Since it sounds nice I think I'm not going to worry about it.
Rich

fahrner said:

Measure from the nut (fret board side) to the saddle; again, the fret board side or where the strings contacts the crest of the saddle.
It should measure 17" give or take a cat whisker.
Saddle thickness is typically 3/32" to 1/8". Would not expect a difference greater than this (the realm of saddle compensation).
This will tell if it's an optical illusion or something else.

Click to expand...

I would send it back since you said it is a new one. They should be able to give you a replacement. Every time I would pick it up to play that would be the first thing I would see... Call me crazy.