Multi-scale soprano uke?

henderson is go

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Hello, I'd like to make a soprano uke with fanned frets and was wondering if someone has done this before, and if so what scale lengths would work well. I don't really know if there is a clear benefit to using a multi scale pattern, but it just looks rather intriguing and is very much something I'd like to try. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks, Brian
 
I have built a couple of ukes in the past using a fanned fret system. I used the concert scale, 15", for the bottom G and a soprano scale of 13 3/4" for the high A. You can use any scale lengths you want such as a 13 3/4" scale and a 14 1/4" scale if you don't want too drastic of a fan on the frets. The frets fanned out near the nut and the 12th fret. The center of the scale was the 6th fret, which was straight as it normally would be. You can use any scale lengths you want as long as the two middle strings fall in line with the two outside scales. It worked fine and all the notes sounded correct and the intonation was good. It takes some getting use to playing a small instrument like this and I found it took a while to sell these instruments. They were a little too different for most players. Also, the bridge design gets a bit strange and you have to brace the instrument to accommodate the added stress on the base side. If you have experience building ukes, I'm sure you can figure this out.
 
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