Just out of curiosity, lutya2, do you have any experience with other fretted instruments, such as guitar or mandolin? I started out with a concert ukulele because I also play guitar. The frets on a soprano were too close together for my personal comfort, but I still found that I had a pretty good span on the concert (about 7 frets) without feeling cramped. And this is considering that I have crooked pinkies, so my reach is shortened by about a cm.