sequoia
Well-known member
Just to let everyone know, I found a serious error in the instructions for the premium ukulele kit. Even though I've built many ukuleles from scratch, I bought one of these kits just for the hell of it to see how it looked and went together. I finally got around to reading the instruction booklet. The instructions are well illustrated, detailed and clear for the most part. However... When I got to the part about determining the bridge location there was an error:
Measure carefully along this centerline to locate the bridge. Start from the end of the fingerboard where it will contact the nut, and measure 16-31/32". This is the distance from the nut to the center of the saddle.
You will notice that there is no compensation for the bridge/saddle scale length measurement. This measurement is absolutely critical to the intonation and how the uke is going to sound. It will tend to play somewhat sharp with no compensation. I measured the fretboard and the scale length is actually 16-15/16" (1/32" less than stated). Using a "rule of thumb" compensation distance of 3/32" (on a 17" scale), the correct distance from the nut to the center of the saddle should be 17-1/32" distance.
This is actually pretty serious as the home builder takes many hours to build a beautiful ukulele that might not sound that great. I contacted Stew Mac about the issue and they were prompt and detailed in their answer (Stew Mac has great customer service). They admitted that this was an error in the instructions but that the uke would still sound... good. Um...yeah. I think a revision in the instructions is in order.
Measure carefully along this centerline to locate the bridge. Start from the end of the fingerboard where it will contact the nut, and measure 16-31/32". This is the distance from the nut to the center of the saddle.
You will notice that there is no compensation for the bridge/saddle scale length measurement. This measurement is absolutely critical to the intonation and how the uke is going to sound. It will tend to play somewhat sharp with no compensation. I measured the fretboard and the scale length is actually 16-15/16" (1/32" less than stated). Using a "rule of thumb" compensation distance of 3/32" (on a 17" scale), the correct distance from the nut to the center of the saddle should be 17-1/32" distance.
This is actually pretty serious as the home builder takes many hours to build a beautiful ukulele that might not sound that great. I contacted Stew Mac about the issue and they were prompt and detailed in their answer (Stew Mac has great customer service). They admitted that this was an error in the instructions but that the uke would still sound... good. Um...yeah. I think a revision in the instructions is in order.
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