Bridge Placement

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Yestyn The Great

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I recently purchased a bruceweiart tenor ukulele of of e-bay for about 100 dollars. It has not arrived yet but after looking at the pictures a bit more I noticed that the bridge did not look straight. But after seeing a picture of a custom ukulele I noticed that the bridge on it did not look straight either. Is this normal. And if it is why dose my OS tenor have a straight bridge?
 
Probably because the photos were shot with cheap lenses and not straight-on.
 
Agreed with the comment above.
A bridge should be perpendicular to the body. No exceptions that I'm aware of. Sometimes the saddle itself will be slanted to provide overall string compensation but that certainly isn't the case on the uke you mentioned. To find the correct bridge position, measure the distance between the leading edge of the nut and the middle of the 12th fret and multiply by two. Then a couple of mm for string compensation depending upon the action (string height) you choose. This will give you the distance between the leading edge of the nut and the center of the saddle.
 
Unless its a fan fret uke, which i never heard of someone doing.
 
I would post pictures of bolth ukes but dose anyone know how to post on an I pod?
 
Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
And why would you want one?
Click to expand...

I like the profile pic, Chuck. It's like mine and sends the "we're doomed" message.

I want one because it is an interesting concept. I can imagine the feel (I think) and it seems like something my fingers would like. Maybe "want to try one" is a better statement. Keep on keeping me honest...
 
Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
Nothing could be more ridiculous on an ukulele.
Click to expand...

Indeed. It would look like a boomerang, one which I hope would never come back. I handled a fan fret guitar on the weekend for the first time. Strange things to look at but you dont really 'feel' the strangeness if you dont look at it. But this neck was still separate from the body.

I think a normal uke with an inlay of a fanned fret uke on it would be a good compromise ;) Equally strange though.
 
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Hippie Guy said:
I want one because it is an interesting concept. I can imagine the feel (I think) and it seems like something my fingers would like. Maybe "want to try one" is a better statement. Keep on keeping me honest...
Click to expand...

You could have varying degrees of fan . Like not so drastic but enough to compensate for the imbalance in string tension, especially for Plain Low G players. I too was surprised when playing a guitar with the Novak system how easy it was. And I always liked it on bass because of the Low b floppy issue but ukulele could use a little spread to perfect balance. Not ridiculous at all, or at least not the most ridiculous. But the fretboard slots would be insanely hard to calculate perfectly. that would take a hardcore geek session to math that out. fretless!! now thats more ridiculous already, even with a straight bridge.
 
AndrewKuker said:
Who's that?
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That's exactly my point. It's hardly practical on a ukulele.
Unless I'm misreading it I think the comment regarding fan frets was made in jest. I don't know of any builder that would invest the time to pursue such a thing on ukuleles, neither the money nor the demand is there. Can it be done? Certainly. I just don't think we're going to be seeing fan frets on ukuleles any time soon.
Then again, Beau promised to build one for Brad so who knows.
 
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Because it hasn't been done is no argument toward it being impractical. From a musical standpoint, or even the pursuit of lutherie, it could be more practical then all the time spent on fancy inlays. Personally I love beautiful inlays but practicality was never my first interest. A fan fret uke would be easy to play, and would most likely give a more balanced tension which would also improve the performance of an under saddle pickup. I'm rooting for Beau. You can do it! I will buy!
 
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