What kind of intonation is realistic for a $300 concert?

RickOlson said:

I am curious, though, about which brands in the $300 you think have better than the Kala's you've played. Maybe I'm overlooking a brand, or maybe there was another reason I wasn't considering them.

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I'd seriously consider a Pono, or the KoAloha Opio line, altough the cost a little more.

RickOlson said:

I am curious, though, about which brands in the $300 you think have better than the Kala's you've played. Maybe I'm overlooking a brand, or maybe there was another reason I wasn't considering them.

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I have found several. Pono, Ohana, Mainland, Gretsch all have very good intonation. The Magic Fluke instruments and Oscar Schmidt have superior intonation in my experience. These makers and more have models in your price range.

"Kala instruments are designed and constructed to have the best intonation possible. This is achieved by attaching the bridge to the instrument’s top so that the peak of saddle to the 12th fret is exactly half the distance from the 12th fret to the inside edge of the nut" We all know thats not right, surely?

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Absolutely. On paper it seems to make sense, but in the real world the saddle needs to be back a little further as the thickness of the strings and their inherent stiffness would otherwise throw the intonation off. On compensated saddles you'll see that the C string part of the saddle will be carved to extend the length of that string by a little (as it's the thickest). Because of this, changing to thinner or thicker strings can be enough to throw off the intonation.

The action height can also affect intonation. If you lower the action on a perfectly setup (intonation-wise) uke, then when you fret, the string will need to be pressed down a shorter distance, so they'll stretch a tiny bit less, so they'll sound flatter (and the reverse for a low action being raised). It's a tiny amount, but it can be enough to take it from acceptable to nasty. I've fixed annoyingly 'off' intonation by slightly raising the action of a uke before.

Intonation is a pet peeve and I will try to get it to be exact at the 12th. Now most of this is folly, because the tuner at best is probably +/- .5 cents (at least advertised) and I know that when I play I am not fretting perfectly especially at or above the 12th fret.

As for inexpensive ukuleles, I would think that you should be able to get within +/- 5 cents at the 12th doing a static test. This is also providing that the saddle can be compensated within its width.

There are other things that come into play when a ukulele is good at the 12 and off at the 3rd. Since we are talking about Kala, my wife has a nice cedar/Koa Kala concert from 5 or 6 years ago. the intonation was pretty good at the 12th, but for some reason when playing a G on the second string the G 4th string at the same time, they were off. For a while it drove me nuts. I worked on the nut slots and changed strings and things got better.

John

Thanks, John. You're right about the intonation across strings. There are some things that are harder to control.

I see you're from SoCal and have cornered the market on Fred Shields' ukes, so I'm guessing you're in San Diego. If you've needed work done locally, where have you taken it?

--Rick

Yeah, capturing the Fred Shields 3 string ukulele market is essential to my retirement plans.

Whether a good idea or bad, I do my own work. But if I had to, I would probably go to Moze Guitars in La Mesa. I loved their hole-in-the-wall store when it was on College.

I'm up the road a bit in Orange County (not to be confused with the fictional depiction as presented in the media) in Mission Viejo.

John

Oh, just the other day I played a friend's Pono baritone. Everything was great, but the intonation was significantly flat on the 1st string. A new set of strings later, and all was spot on. Sometimes it's as simple as that!