How much compensation?

Check out Sven's blog: http://argapa.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Piccolo. He compensates the C string on his piccolos to produce excellent intonation. Not sure what his compensation would be on the other strings, but the C is around 1.5mm more compensated from the look of it. With any luck he will give you precise details.
 
I'll PM Sven. I am really looking for a starting spot. If the saddle is 1/8" thick I'd like to know where to put the front and back. Then I could shape the saddle to put the break point all the way forward, all the way backward, or straight up and down. I could even compensate the strings differently if it was necessary.
 
If you are using a 1/8" saddle you would put the front edge of the saddle right on the scale length. You will essentially have a full 3mm to do your adjustments. More than enough room.
 
Allen said:
If you are using a 1/8" saddle you would put the front edge of the saddle right on the scale length. You will essentially have a full 3mm to do your adjustments. More than enough room.
Click to expand...

Good point because I think the OP is going to need it. 1/8" doesn't seem like enough for such a short scale. The shorter the scale, the more compensation you need.
 
Also, when you look at Hurd's table in the useful link above, the last column with the percentage is the difference between a) nut to 12th, and b) 12th to saddle. Not between the nominal scale length and the compensated actual string length.

The distance is the same, but not the percentage. That's important if you have a different scale than those in his examples.
 
I've decide to put the front of the saddle slot 0.8 mm beyond the true scale length. My saddle is a hair over 1/8" (0.140"). So my saddle, if it leans towards the nut, will be compensated 0.8 mm. If it leans away from the nut it will be compensated about 3.5 mm. Then I plan to make four saddles out of cheap wood, compensated as follows: 0.8 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.5 mm and 3.5 mm. Keen students will note that the 0.8 mm saddle and the 3.5 mm saddle will be the same saddle, simply reversed in the slot.

I will then play the uke in all four configurations before shaping the true, bone, saddle. I hope that this leads to a clear winner.
 
I would think that the front of the slot could be 1.5 mm beyond the true scale length. And then you could go further back from there. If you want to do it as systematically as you describe, a thicker saddle would be even better.

But I'm sure you'll be fine. It is, after all, just a teeny tiny toy guitar...

Sven
 
Pondoro said:
I've decide to put the front of the saddle slot 0.8 mm beyond the true scale length. My saddle is a hair over 1/8" (0.140"). So my saddle, if it leans towards the nut, will be compensated 0.8 mm. If it leans away from the nut it will be compensated about 3.5 mm. Then I plan to make four saddles out of cheap wood, compensated as follows: 0.8 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.5 mm and 3.5 mm. Keen students will note that the 0.8 mm saddle and the 3.5 mm saddle will be the same saddle, simply reversed in the slot.
I will then play the uke in all four configurations before shaping the true, bone, saddle. I hope that this leads to a clear winner.
Click to expand...

My bet is that you won't have enough compensation starting at 0.8mm. I compensate my sopranos at 3.5mm and that's with a 13" scale. BTW, if your saddle leans you've made it or the bridge wrong. Any lean should be barely perceptible.
 
I have glued the bridge on per Sven's instructions - the front of the slot is 1.5 mm over true scale length. So this puppy will be compensated 1.5 mm or more, or I will have to remove the bridge and start again.
 
The saddle will be as vertical as possible, but the break over point can be at the very front or the very back. I had to make a new saddle to get my Lanikai LU-21 properly compensated - I widened the slot (moving it away from the nut) and made a thicker saddle that placed the break point all the way at the back.

I've got a bit more to do before I get to try this one out.
 
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