Baritone and capo gives you all the scales

Jim Hanks

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I found this old thread discussing fingerboard lengths and I got to thinking about my baritone. It has a 20.25" scale, which is the most common nowadays. Plug that in to the stewmac fret calculator and you will find that you get a pretty close approximation to the following scales by moving the capo:
19" - 1st fret
17" (tenor) - 3rd fret
15" (concert) - 5th fret
13" (soprano) - 7th fret

No, it's not exact (actual scales are 19.113, 17.027, 15.17, and 13.515), but close enough for fingering practice or to "test drive" a different scale.

Jim
 
Yeah I hear you. But capo your tenor at the 2nd fret to test drive a concert or at the 4th fret to try what a soprano would feel like. I think my ideal scale would be 18 or 19" but I'm shopping tenors now.
 
I've been thinking of my baritone that way for a while. And each scale is tuned nicely... "tenor" uke in B flat, "concert" uke in C, and "soprano" in D.
 
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