Bad intonation - high action

ukemunga

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Just checked intonation on my OS OU-2 by using an electronic tuner and checking the 12th fret vs open. I found it to be quite a bit off.

Did the same on my Kala KA-15S and it was spot on!

On the OS OU-2 I have a set of standard Aquilas but have installed the strings in order of large to small diameter and tuned to low G. Would this mess anything up?

If I lower the action a bit (I want to anyway) by sanding the saddle might it improve? Or do I risk totally messing things up?

Thanks for any insight.

Fred

Kala KA-15S
Oscar Schmidt OU-2
Looking for a Kala KA-SLNG (everyone's out of stock)
 
Honestly, 12th fret intonation is not greatly affected by action height unless the action is just crazy high. 12th fret intonation is far more a function of string tension vs. scale length. Unless your action is ridiculously high you're better off to look at different strings until you find ones that uke is "happy with" - or at a compensated saddle - or both.

Intonation at the first couple of frets is a whole 'nuther story - if you are pulling sharp fingering at the first couple of frets it's almost always because the nut slots aren't low enough.

John
 
Thanks, John.

That was what instinct told me but I'm still new to this. Not accomplished enough to be getting fancy up the neck anyway. Still trying to learn open chords and transitions.

Do you have any thoughts on the good, bad or indifferent of installing standard high-g strings in diameter order and tuning for low-g on a concert? Don't like the idea of a wound string.

Fred
 
Do you have any thoughts on the good, bad or indifferent of installing standard high-g strings in diameter order

It will probably mess up the intonation.

Three of the strings will be at far too low a tension. This will probably give you poor intonation ayway, but will also mean that when you fret those strings you'll probably press them too far down and thus the note will be off.

Put them back in the correct order and check your intonation. If it's then OK, buy a proper low G set.
 
Just checked intonation on my OS OU-2 by using an electronic tuner and checking the 12th fret vs open. I found it to be quite a bit off.

On the OS OU-2 I have a set of standard Aquilas but have installed the strings in order of large to small diameter and tuned to low G. Would this mess anything up?

Hi Fred

If I read this correctly, you took a high-G set of strings and put the C string to low G, the E string to C, G string to E and probably kept the A string where it was. And your intonation is off, and that's unavoidable. The intonation on the A string should be alright since that string is at the designed tension. The other three strings are under much lower tensions and that will mess up the intonation royally (not to mention the less volumes and harder to fret)

Well, put the strings to where they belong and get a low-G string (or, buy a low-G set of strings). That should fix your problem.

Cheers
Chief
 
Thanks all!

I just ordered a set of Worths with the optional unwound low g.

I guess I'll check off this uninformed experiment as unsuccessful...
 
Hi Fred

If I read this correctly, you took a high-G set of strings and put the C string to low G, the E string to C, G string to E and probably kept the A string where it was. And your intonation is off, and that's unavoidable. The intonation on the A string should be alright since that string is at the designed tension. The other three strings are under much lower tensions and that will mess up the intonation royally (not to mention the less volumes and harder to fret).

I'm resurrecting a somewhat dated thread here, but this specific pattern of shuffling the four strings around (as described above) has been reported in various circles including here on UU as the precise method that Izzy employed on the tenor Martin that he used to record Somewhere Over The Rainbow. If true, I wonder how he evaded these "unavoidable" intonation issues?
 
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