Tenor Uke Compensation

Hi
Im building my first Tenor and wondering about saddle compensation.
How much should I add to the scale length? I will probably be playing Low G
Thanks

You might find what David Hurd wrote about his methods for compensation useful.
http://www.ukuleles.com/Technology/compensate.html


StewMac also has a calculator for fret position and saddle compensation.
http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Reference/Calculators/i-fretcalc.html

Yes, check David Hurd's findings. It took me a couple of times to notice though, that the percentage is how much more string you have between 12th and saddle, compared to the length between nut and 12th. So don't apply the numbers to the entire scale length.

I think you'll see what I mean when you read it. My Swenglish is not enough for explanations like this.

Wow 4 mm

I notice that the compensation for a Tenor Uke C string is .16"
4 mm seems like a very lot!

Whatever did we do before Robinson tuners?

Steve Davis said:

I notice that the compensation for a Tenor Uke C string is .16"
4 mm seems like a very lot!

Click to expand...

That does seem like an awful lot. But remember that correct compensation also depends upon the intended action. My compensation for a 17" scale is a hair over a couple of millimeters for action that is set @ .090" above the 12th fret. If your action is set extremely high you might need .16" of compensation. But the higher your action the more you increase the chances of intonation being off amongst the individual frets along the length of the finger board. (That is, a long compensation with a high action may intonate correctly at the 12th but be flat on the 3rd, for example.)

434mm it is!

Thanks for the input...Im guessing 4mm is probably the max necessary
Stewmac is in there around 2.5 mm. Im definitely going for a low action.
I think i will add 2mm to the 431.8 (17") call it 434mm and hope the width of the saddle (2.5mm) will cope with the rest

Steve Davis said:

hope the width of the saddle (2.5mm) will cope with the rest

Click to expand...

If anything you may have to kick back the saddle a wee bit at the C string location. It really depends on the strings you use though.