OldePhart
Well-known member
If I had a nickel for every time I've recommended to people that they buy an instrument from a reputable dealer who will set it up I could...well...not retire...but probably buy another ukulele.
Even so, it just hit me today how absolutely critical it is to have a good setup (in terms of the nut height being correct so that intonation is good at the first few frets). Let me share how I've come to this meaningful insight (and the crowd exclaims, yes, John, please share!)
I played guitar, and quite heavily at times, for twenty years. I've owned a lot of guitars and for many years I've always checked the intonation at the first few frets with a tuner and passed on buying the guitar if the first-fret tuning was off by more than ten cents on any string. For all those years that was as good as my ear got - if it was within ten cents I was happy. I used to think my blind friend with perfect absolute pitch was just being picky if he commented on something not being right when I couldn't hear it.
Well, about two years ago I broke down and bought some fret files, built a fretboard "straightedge" with gaps for the frets, and got some long sanding blocks. I started doing my own setups, especially of nut height. As a consequence, every stringed instrument I own is basically perfectly intonated as near perfectly as makes no difference at the first fret.
This week I got an eleuke solid-body concert. I told Mim not to waste a lot of time setting it up because I'd probably want to intonate the bridge saddle anyway. When the uke arrived I checked intonation with a tuner, as I always do. I was surprised to find that all strings were within a few cents at the first fret on a good tuner and showed green on a simple clip-on tuner. I decided I wouldn't bother to break out the files as it was "close enough" (much better intonated, in fact, than many guitars I'd happily played for years before I bought my nut files).
But, every time I picked it up today I just couldn't play for long before I put it down with a disatisfied feeling (I play for a few moments here and there as I'm working to relieve stress and kick-start my brain - kind of like a "smoke break" when I used to smoke). Anyway, I finally broke out the files and did the final touch up to get the intonation at the first fret perfect. Instantly, playing the uke was satisfying - it sounded right!
So, what's my point? Simply this: for twenty years my "pitch sense" never became more refined than about ten cents - and now I think it's mostly because I was playing instruments where the intonation at the first fret was sometimes off by that much. After less than two years of playing only instruments that were intonated very nearly perfectly at the first fret, my "pitch sense" became much more refined - so much so that a chord where one or more strings are off by a few cents (even though all are showing "green" on a clip-on tuner) just sounds "wrong."
So, if one of your goals is to develop a good ear for music, I think this pretty much makes the case for buying instruments only from dealers who have a reputation for setting them up well. I also think it makes the case for getting a decent tuner. I've tried clip-ons by Kala and Fishman and both would show "green" when strings were tuned within about five to eight cents (+ or -). This means you can be tuning one string five cents low and others five cents high - and your chords just aren't going to be "right." Of course, the only ones who will know that are those with a more refined pitch sense, and it seems that the way to get that more refined pitch sense (or at least one way) is to play instruments that are perfectly tuned and intonated.
Even so, it just hit me today how absolutely critical it is to have a good setup (in terms of the nut height being correct so that intonation is good at the first few frets). Let me share how I've come to this meaningful insight (and the crowd exclaims, yes, John, please share!)
I played guitar, and quite heavily at times, for twenty years. I've owned a lot of guitars and for many years I've always checked the intonation at the first few frets with a tuner and passed on buying the guitar if the first-fret tuning was off by more than ten cents on any string. For all those years that was as good as my ear got - if it was within ten cents I was happy. I used to think my blind friend with perfect absolute pitch was just being picky if he commented on something not being right when I couldn't hear it.
Well, about two years ago I broke down and bought some fret files, built a fretboard "straightedge" with gaps for the frets, and got some long sanding blocks. I started doing my own setups, especially of nut height. As a consequence, every stringed instrument I own is basically perfectly intonated as near perfectly as makes no difference at the first fret.
This week I got an eleuke solid-body concert. I told Mim not to waste a lot of time setting it up because I'd probably want to intonate the bridge saddle anyway. When the uke arrived I checked intonation with a tuner, as I always do. I was surprised to find that all strings were within a few cents at the first fret on a good tuner and showed green on a simple clip-on tuner. I decided I wouldn't bother to break out the files as it was "close enough" (much better intonated, in fact, than many guitars I'd happily played for years before I bought my nut files).
But, every time I picked it up today I just couldn't play for long before I put it down with a disatisfied feeling (I play for a few moments here and there as I'm working to relieve stress and kick-start my brain - kind of like a "smoke break" when I used to smoke). Anyway, I finally broke out the files and did the final touch up to get the intonation at the first fret perfect. Instantly, playing the uke was satisfying - it sounded right!
So, what's my point? Simply this: for twenty years my "pitch sense" never became more refined than about ten cents - and now I think it's mostly because I was playing instruments where the intonation at the first fret was sometimes off by that much. After less than two years of playing only instruments that were intonated very nearly perfectly at the first fret, my "pitch sense" became much more refined - so much so that a chord where one or more strings are off by a few cents (even though all are showing "green" on a clip-on tuner) just sounds "wrong."
So, if one of your goals is to develop a good ear for music, I think this pretty much makes the case for buying instruments only from dealers who have a reputation for setting them up well. I also think it makes the case for getting a decent tuner. I've tried clip-ons by Kala and Fishman and both would show "green" when strings were tuned within about five to eight cents (+ or -). This means you can be tuning one string five cents low and others five cents high - and your chords just aren't going to be "right." Of course, the only ones who will know that are those with a more refined pitch sense, and it seems that the way to get that more refined pitch sense (or at least one way) is to play instruments that are perfectly tuned and intonated.
Duly noted.
