Bridge move, volume increase?

Stpete

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Hi, perhaps daft question but here goes anyway. I have an Enya Eur-x1, the round camp style soprano, as has been noted many times, it's very quiet. It has been suggested that this is due to the bridge being too low on the body and therefore too close to the edge, meaning its not in the most resonant area and so the sound is muted. Since the neck on these Enya bolts on, would it be feasible to move the bridge towards the middle of the body and space the neck away by the same amount, its a string through the body style bridge so the amount you can move is limited to about 5-7mm to leave previous string holes covered. Would a move of that much have any real difference and would there be any other bad impact on intonation or such? Thanks for the help.
 
Just move the bridge and forget about the tuning ...or make a temporary banjo type bridge just to see if the volume increases...if it does then you can do the full mod..if the volume doesn't increase leave as is.:)
 
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Just move the bridge and forget about the tuning ...or make a temporary banjo type bridge just to see if the volume increases...if it does then you can do the full mod..if the volume doesn't increase leave as is.:)
I think the idea of a temporary bridge is a good. It would be possible to try out various settings without having to physical change the ukulele. But how about measurements from the nut to the 12th fret (middle fret) to the bridge. If this is wrong won’t the intonation on frets be wrong. Is this the rule of 29?

Got that wrong. It is the rule of 18. https://www.liutaiomottola.com/formulae/fret.htm
 
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Are you expecting too much of what in reality is a low cost Uke?

With your Uke the string make and type will probably have more effect on the sound rather than fiddling around with the physics of the Uke. So why not do some research and test a few different string sets but you may also would be best advised to consider selling on your Uke and buying a better quality instrument.
 
Thanks for the help , Ivm playing with this uke cos it was a very low cost, £25 new from amazon on prime day, its about the fun of learning and fiddling. I will also try new, better strings, I'm told Worth clears can help but I also want to see if there is a more permanent fix, I could make a spacer from richlite to match bridge and finger board. I really like Timbuck's idea, if I just pop out the saddle and use a banjo style bridge the strings will clear the old bridge, I get that the tuning will be off but as he said I will give a good idea of any volume changes. Tuning it ADF#B helped a little so it does seem that slightly higher string tension would also help, suggesting a different higher tension sting will also make a difference. Thanks for the help.
 
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Very quick and dirty test, took out the saddle, slid a saddle and bridge in under strings, retuned as best as possible, not awful really at first few frets, used a sound meter app. The difference was between 3 and 4.5dbm. This suggest that moving the bridge could as much as double the volume, now I know this may not be the case in reality, double is pretty huge but it does show that the bridge is too far down the body as was suggested in the review thread. Next to make the spacer. I'm not sure about under bridge bracing, from what I can see there is only a small area of thin hpl glue to under side. Thanks for the help.
 
With a cheap uke you can not expect it to sound good or loud and moving the bridge will not likely make a change in terms of vibration as this is not likely a resonant solid top. The advantage is that you can experiment and do things to the uke without risk of a big loss if things go terribly bad. So go ahead and let us know how it worked out.
 
The whole uke is solid hpl as used in Martins, very thin and its just this particular uke that is very quit, the other hpl enya are not nearly as bad, double bout and good bridge placement.
 
I would imagine that if you can get the bridge off (challenge #1), you should also be capable of making a spacer that would go between the body and the bolt on-neck, potentially needing to get a different bolt for the neck, and the spacer could be the same width as the bridge is moved up the sound board. I'd imagine the existing holes for the pull-through bridge are very small, although it would be useful to get a scope under the instrument to see if there is bracing under the bridge.

I personally don't have any issues with the EUR-X1's sound, which is very pleasant, just not loud.
 
Hey Choirguy, do you have a preference for strings, I was thinking a higher tension would brighten the sound as well as improve attack?
 
The whole uke is solid hpl as used in Martins, very thin and its just this particular uke that is very quit, the other hpl enya are not nearly as bad, double bout and good bridge placement.

When I mentioned a "solid top" I referred to solid wood which differs from laminated wood or particle boards in that it can vibrate more freely. HPL is compressed recycled newsprint, which has a very long processing history since it was solid wood.
 
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Hey Choirguy, do you have a preference for strings, I was thinking a higher tension would brighten the sound as well as improve attack?

Perhaps you can try the Aquila Sugar strings. Those have great presence and projection. Some also like the Red strings.
 
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