Ukulele Frets

I have decided to make the switch to Ukulele from Guitar after 6 years of playing and I think that you guys may be able to help me with my decision for my first Uke! I have been practicing my Uke Chords by capo-ing the 5th fret of my guitar and have memorized almost all of the fingerings. My question is regarding soprano or concert? For any of the Ukulele players here that have a guitar laying around, this question is directed towards you! For each uke, What fret on the guitar is the same size as the first fret of each sized ukulele? As I don't have any shops near me, this can really help me in making my decision! Thanks for reading all of that! Please Help! Thanks!

Maybe I can answer your question. I don't know the scale length of the particular guitar you are using but that would be helpful to know.
Let's assume you guitar's scale length is around 25". Most tenor uke scale lengths are about 17", concerts about 15 1/4" and sopranos about 13 1/2" give or take.
I actually use a Fender 25.5" fret template when slotting my fret boards for any size uke I build. How's that done? For a tenor fret board I use the 5th fret on the fender template as my nut position. It's the same thing you're doing with the capo on your guitar. For a concert, I'll move two frets down to the 7th fret for my nut position and for a soprano I move another two frets so that my nut is at the 9th fret on the Fender 25/5" template. Knowing this it should be easy to see where on the fret board you are most comfortable.

Chuck and I seem to be in disagreement about which fret will get you to the soprano or concerts scales I just measured the scale length on my Martin guitar and came up with the information below.

If you are talking about string spacing, the distance from the nut to the first fret on a uke being the same as the distance on a guitar, from the fifth fret to the sixth, you will probably have to go to a tenor or baritone size uke to get close to the same distance. A soprano uke scale is 13 3/4" long, the distance for the nut to the bridge saddle. The concert uke is a 15" scale. The distance on a guitar from the fifth fret to the bridge saddle is about 19" (assuming the guitar is the standard 25 1/4" scale) so to get to the same size you are looking for, you will need to play a baritone uke which has a scale length of 19" - 20". To get to a concert scale on a guitar, you will have to capo at the 9th fret. For a soprano uke scale, you will have to capo the guitar at the 11th fret.

I hope all this makes sense to you.

Yep, my bad, you are certainly correct Duane. I mis spoke. I'm looking at my fretting template and the fifth fret is for a baritone scale. After being disappointed with most ukulele fret templates I decided upon a Stew Mac stainless steel one, about as accurate as I could find. I found a scale length that works for me by choosing a guitar template that, when measured between any 13 slots would equal exactly 8.5", or half of a tenor scale length. The Fended 25.5 does that (or more precisely, 17.03"). My cut-down template starts at the fifth fret of a Fender 25.5", for a baritone scale, but since I've never built a bari I was thinking 5th instead of 7th. I've long tossed the other part of the template so I was going by memory. I stand corrected as follows: 5th fret=baritone, 7th=tenor, 9th=concert, 11th for soprano. That'll put you in the ballpark for most average ukulele scales.
Thanks for keeping me honest.

That's great info from the experts. Seems very intuitive but I'm not that type of person so glad someone actually figured it out.

Next time when my guitar friends ask, I can guide them to their guitar.

Great work guys!!

Thanks for the great answers, but I think you might have misunderstood my question What I'm asking is; if you were to measure the length of the fret on a guitar, which fret on the guitar is the same size (length-wise) as the soprano ukulele's first fret? Like if the Ukulele's first fret is x-inches long, what guitar fret has that same length? And again, I know this is confusing but thanks SO much for your patience and help!

Criss said:

Thanks for the great answers, but I think you might have misunderstood my question What I'm asking is; if you were to measure the length of the fret on a guitar, which fret on the guitar is the same size (length-wise) as the soprano ukulele's first fret? Like if the Ukulele's first fret is x-inches long, what guitar fret has that same length? And again, I know this is confusing but thanks SO much for your patience and help!

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Maybe I am confused, too, but I thought the fellas were saying that the length of the guitar's 11th fret is the same as a soprano's first fret. Am I interpreting things wrong?

Thats what I was looking for! If that is accurate, then that is exactly what I needed! If anyone can jump in and verify, be my guest! Thanks!

Well I just lined up my soprano uke with my classical guitar. When I line the saddles up, the nut of the soprano coincides with the 11th fret of the guitar. The frets from that point line up pretty much exactly - well they have to! So I can verify that much.

This question makes no sense to me. You asked about fret length, NOT scale length. For the record, the length of the first fret on a ukulele is around 1 3/8", a standard steel string guitar has a nut width of 1 3/4", so there are NO frets on a guitar that are the same length as the first fret of a ukulele. The only valid comparison of fret lengths between a guitar and a ukulele is the 13th fret of a uke is close to the first fret of a guitar.

Brad

I think Criss is referring to fret spacing Brad - at least that's what I understood. So the spacing from the nut to the first fret on a soprano uke is the same as the spacing between the 11th and 12th frets on the guitar.

Hence my confusion, as Criss has never once mentioned fret spacing, but instead talks about fret length, which is the amount of fretwire I snip off of a two foot section to put into a particular slot on a fretboard. If Criss is concerned with comparing the fret spacing of different ukulele scale lengths to that of a guitar, he has been given appropriate answers. There is no exact answer as the scale lengths of the various sizes of ukuleles vary, as do the scale lengths of guitars.

Brad

Intentsu westbury

I'm sorry if I confused you guys! I was talking about the vertical measurement of the wood between each fretwire. But thanks for all of the help, and now I know that the soprano first fret is about size of the 11th on the guitar! Thanks so muchfor all of the help and if any one can answer that same question for the concert size it would ge greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Criss said:

I'm sorry if I confused you guys! I was talking about the vertical measurement of the wood between each fretwire. But thanks for all of the help, and now I know that the soprano first fret is about size of the 11th on the guitar! Thanks so muchfor all of the help and if any one can answer that same question for the concert size it would ge greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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The info is all there already, I think:

The concert uke is a 15" scale. The distance on a guitar from the fifth fret to the bridge saddle is about 19" (assuming the guitar is the standard 25 1/4" scale) so to get to the same size you are looking for, you will need to play a baritone uke which has a scale length of 19" - 20". To get to a concert scale on a guitar, you will have to capo at the 9th fret. For a soprano uke scale, you will have to capo the guitar at the 11th fret.

Click to expand...