Cheaper uke better in tune than the more expensive one

I love this dolphin and it seems to have a slightly heavier gauge of Aquilas than my pineapple. It is also better in tune than the pineapple, which just sort of baffles me. The pineapple is not bad out of tune, but sharp enough on the second and third fret to be noticeable. What gives UUers?!

Setup, pure and simple

Perhaps, but the guy that set mine up is very credible. I actually just chord and play around it, as the sound of the pina is awesome. Perhaps I am expecting too much for my $90...lol, and out of a folk instrument. Sort of gives it a character voice though.

$90 vs $45 for a Dolphin is about the same.

Actually it's twice the price.

Again, setup - if it's out of tune at the first couple of fret's that always a defective string or a saddle that needs to have the slots lowered (or sometimes widened, if it's just a matter of the string being too wide to settle to the bottom of the slot.

BTW, you can't count on good intonation (up the neck) just because a uke is expensive, nor expect poor intonation just because a uke is not expensive. In fact, I've got two Mainland sopranos that intonate better up the neck than does my $700 KoAloha! Part of the secret, of course, is string selection - that's probably the biggest factor (other than a mis-located bridge, of course) affecting intonation up the neck. The problem is that the only strings I've found that my KoAloha longneck soprano "likes" at all are "CM" gage clear fluorocarbons - and the intonation up the neck with them is only fair. Other higher tension strings have given better intonation but completely "squashed" the voice of the uke. The Mainlands, on the other hand, love heavy gage strings and intonate extremely well with them.

Bottom line - you have to find the strings that your uke likes and that will affect intonation up the neck.

John

ukuhippo said:

Actually it's twice the price.

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So u saying it's twice as nice Sherlock?