Uke Size and tension?

iDavid

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I was noticing that my soprano is WAY easier to play barre chords on compared to my concert, and the concert is easier than my tenors. Is the tension just less on the smaller instruments? Is it the shorter scale length that makes it easier? OR, is it the width of the fretboard. Both the soprano and concert are about 1 3/8. The two tenors I have are 1.4 and 1.5 at the nut.

All my ukes are set-up well, so that isn't the issue.

I may get a lower tension set of strings for one of the tenors. I tried tuning the tenors down and it seems to help a bit...

thoughts?
 
It's the shorter scale length: takes less tension to "drive" the vibrations through the soundboard. Experimenting with lower tunings on concert and tenor sizes is well worth the time. On most of my tenors, for example, I have tuned down a half step to Bflat and they sound really fine.
 
Ditto to what the others have said. It's scale length. But if you tune your soprano to D instead of C you will notice that the tension goes up. That was one of the first things I noticed when I tried D tuning. I preferred the higher tension because I was used to my tenor. The lower tension is easier to barre but I find that the lower tension equates to having a more difficult time keeping my chords in tune. I have to have my fingers placed just right or I bend a string out of tune and the chord doesn't sound right.

Kurt
 
I hear that BP's are set-up really well so I image that helps. All my ukes were set-up professionally and have pretty low action. I am not sure it the make of the uke could effect things, but image it could to some point. If the neck it poorly made, that would have to screw things up.
 
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