Tolerance Level for Intonation Checks?

Hey guys! I was just curious, what are you guys' tolerance level for intonation? I know it can't be exactly spot on, moving up the neck, but of course we all have to have a tolerance level.

For example, tolerance ends just about a quarter off at the 12th fret. All the strings on my ukes are at the most, a quarter off the original note at the 12th fret. My only uke that is close at this border is the C string on my non-setup (ordered from Amazon) Kala KA-CG. Considering its price and the already spot-on intonation of the other strings, I can't bother myself to adjust the height. Kudos to a stock factory Kala!

Interesting... like most ukesters (I suspect) most of my playing is down at the first position end and I seldom get beyond the fifth fret (but do play one tune that takes me up to the eighth) intonation way up at the dusty end isn't much of an issue. However, my not very expensive Lanikai is pretty much perfect at the twelfth on all four strings (doing the harmonics vs fretted check). They're about a month or so old Aquillas.

I'm guessing that a quarter off at the twelfth is noticeable a lot earlier than way up there.

zero tolerance, its simple maths to get the scale length right and the frets in the correct position, anything more expensive than a 20 dollar kids uke should be in tune or the person making and selling it doesn't have the right to call it a proper instrument, it's not rocket science.

If you buy a uke without first trying it out because you ordered it, and then when it comes its not intoned correctly, send it back, and make a noise about it.

If you are in a shop trying out instruments ask for a digital tuner and do the intonation test right there in front of the salesman, if it's out then don't buy it, and ask them why they would even put it out on display.

why people accept shoddy workmanship is a mystery to me.

would you buy a computer keyboard if every time you hit the enter key it did a backspace instead ?

Would you buy a car that had one wheel smaller than the others.

just because it's a uke doesn't mean it's a toy, and if people are asking you to spend good money on something they should have pride in their work or get out of the music business.

Sounds like time to go shopping for a better ukulele. I've said on a few other threads that I kept buying Kalas until I finally decided the intonation was worse than I could tolerate on ALL of them.

Anyone with your needs must have better. No set up will make you love that ukulele.

Interesting reading relative to intonation.

http://www.jimloy.com/physics/scale.htm
http://www.justonic.com/history.htm
http://www.dkeenan.com/Music/EqualTemperedMusicalScales.htm

Really? I can't even tell that my C string is off that much... by a quarter off that's relative to my tuner, I guess my ears just aren't as tuned to notice this difference. There's no buzzing on any of my ukes which is my main concern anyways.

I think the Kalas and Lanikais were better 2-3 years ago, regarding to intonation, string action and setup issues.