Good suggestion! It would be the most intrusive but it is very interesting! Will have to look up the tooling neededHow about scalloping the fretboard? Very common with electric guitars.
Good suggestion! It would be the most intrusive but it is very interesting! Will have to look up the tooling neededHow about scalloping the fretboard? Very common with electric guitars.
Yup! and it is not the nut..My memory and a quick Google search indicate that the fluke has a zero fret. Adjustments to the height at the lower frets would be impossible or limited.
I don’t think it is the nut.. I think it has to do with the fleshy-ness of my fingers and the contours of it and what it takes to make sure that all strings are evenly pressed. I really have to place and press the string so that the string is pressed enough that it rings. If I get the placement with regards to contour right it is easy else I have to press a bit more. This is not a problem with string tension or the section of the string between my finger and nut but the string between my finger and the fret being barred.. at least that is my understanding. I have a compass rose, Ono and Tin guitar where the frets are high, a lot higher than other ukes and how I place my finger (difference in mm) has no impact, the string always rings when the fret is barred.
Thank you Beau, this helped, I reduced the saddle height down by half a mm. It reduced the pressure on the fingers quite a bit. This feels comfortable now.lower the action at the saddle- it has the same effect....
Thank you. Yeah I do try different positions but the problem only occurs on a specific uke not all ukes.. so some of it is the setup and frets. Lowering saddle actually helped.From this description is sounds as if you are barreing with the fleshy part of your finger and not the bony side. It might be worth trying to roll your wrist a little as you barre.
If you want to keep your existing playing technique, which seems to require higher frets, then the easiest and cheapest way is to re-fret it yourself. Much easier than you'd think if you read up on it thoroughly and don't rush at it.
Lowering the saddle will have almost no effect at the lower frets, so if your barreing is OK at the higher frets I wouldn't bother with that.
Update: lowered the saddle by 0.7 mm approx. Bar chords play smoothly now.. the only remaining issue is when playing a single note with the pinky, the pressing is not perfect. Higher frets would help but reducing the saddle height had amazing results.
Yes. their saddle design has changed over the years, not sure which one you have. There is a small piece of saddle made of some black man made material that sits in a slot on the bridge (quite hard to sand down without a sander), I removed it, used a coarse knife sharpener and a blade to shave it down and kept measuring using a caliper for the uniformity of the sanding.
The saddle pops off easily with the string tension is relaxed. I was able to get the saddle out and in without removing the strings, which is super nice. The saddle itself was a pain to sand (unlike bone saddle).