Checking in... Original Poster
The Journey…. [I’ve been signed out since the US holiday and as such just catching up on posts since 05/24]
To “respond” to a number of the comments that may seem critical as to the lengths and depths of replies and my efforts to apply the suggestions to my questions… I’ll first refresh the point of my original post!
1-Acknowledging that this is a rabbit-hole-inquiry.
2-I have three ‘ukulele, purchased at three price points.
3-For the least expensive I electronically measured the pitch at octave (12th fret) to be very close to a calculated Hz) …. all strings.
4-The most expensive was reasonably close, thought the range of “flatness” string-to-string wasn’t consistent.
5-The mid-priced was considerable flat “when compared with the other two results.”
The detail I provided as part of that original post was to provide some background that I thought would be helpful and cut down on clarifying followup questions.
I was/am seeking advice on a) what causes an instrument to play flat over all strings, b) what remedies are available if a correction is possible OR desirable, and, c) this seems like a very open and knowledgeable forum from which to search for these answers.
I was/still-am willing to apply the various measuring techniques suggested to get the knowledge AND to decide whether I want to do anything, if anything can or should be done.
Any criticism of the responses of those who are guiding me thru (or mis-guiding ! for that matter) is very short sighted. I believe the forum heading is “Tech Support” … from which I expected some level of detailed reply from experienced players, owners, builders, etc. To each of them… sincerest thanks… really.
Please note… I use paragraph breaks ;-)
More discoveries….
While away I found two videos from a quality builder/luthier of whom many of you are familiar. I think he did a nice job of an overview and summary of the matter of intonation. Anyone who has a curiosity like mine will benefit from the combined 12-14 minutes of viewing.
‘Week 45: Intonation Part I’ From MyaMoe Ukulele
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgUgMcnY8N4
‘Week 46: Intonation Part II’. From MyaMoe Ukulele
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cSZ4XmV0A
Over the next day or two I’ll finish my measuring “assignments” so as to find conclusion to the question for my mid-priced STC.
As a final note… I picked up ANOTHER ‘uke during the break, an Islander MAPG-4-C from HMS. Figured maple ‘laminate’ top, back, & sides. I upgraded to Gotoh tuners (love ‘em) which may have seemed spendthrift for a $165 instrument. But wow, I love the tone, and sustain. Super set-up by HMS. Restrung with Worth Browns. And, yes… I did the same octave pitch measures and it came in similar to the Romero Replica.