Baton Rouge soprano

PeteS

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As I have a bit of hand/finger movement problems recently it is often painful chording my little Ohana sk2o Soprano so I was considering a soprano body and concert neck instrument to give me a little more wriggle room when forming chord. As this may be only a temporary problem I was looking in the budget range and thought about a Baton Rouge v1sl I had seen on ukulele world web pages,has any player had experience of these or similar?
 
I have a Kala & an Ohana long neck sopranos, they play like a concert because of the scale, but keep the soprano sound & size, with slightly more sustain.

I have 2 Baton Rouge concert ukes, nice ukes & play well. :music:
 
I recall Baz doing a review of a wide nut Baton Rouge, so that might help with your issue too. Tried to put a link to his review, but apparently that makes me a spammer. Go to gotaukulele.com and check his reviews.
 
I can't comment on the soprano or long neck version but I have 6 & 8 string tenors and find they play well and are amazing value for money.
 
I can't comment on the soprano or long neck version but I have 6 & 8 string tenors and find they play well and are amazing value for money.

Well I took the plunge and ordered myself a long neck Baton Rouge soprano from World of Ukes today so with luck it should arrive tomorrow. I have had good reports of the quality of ukes from this name although not on this model and the price seemed very reasonable so what the heck I gave it a go,watch this space.
 
The new Baton Rouge long neck soprano arrived this lunch time about 24 hours after I ordered it,thank you white van man. At first glance it looks fairly well made and has a nice sound considering that I got the instrument plus a decent padded gig bag delivered to my door from World of Ukes for £91 cheers Matt. I've only had a short while to play around on the instrument but the neck seems to suit my hands very well. I was at our local physio dept yesterday and the lady,after giving me a good check up seemed to think I had some form of arthritis in my hands but an ultra sound scan should show the definite problem. I was given some exercises to do and was told that picking or strumming on a light weight instrument i.e. uke or banjo uke may be beneficial. I'm glad she said that as I may have ignored advice to stop playing some sort of instrument. I now have to keep reminding Mrs S that the standard soprano suits her well and the new one is mine for medical reasons not sure if that will work though !!
 
This is the age old myth that longer necks give more wriggle room, when in reality it's wider necks that give that. If anything, longer necks create more stretching!)

The good news is that Baton Rouge make a wide nut soprano - exactly what it sounds like you are after!

My review here - https://www.gotaukulele.com/2018/05/baton-rouge-v2-sw-sun-soprano-ukulele.html

This has more comfort on the neck than many tenor ukes I have seen
 
I hear what you are saying Baz and have read your thoughts on the subject but compared to what has been my usual go to instrument,Ohana sk20, my fingers seem to have a little less painful. I found this first on the neck of my Little Gem banjo uke,it could be that the slightly longer neck means I am a bit less cramped in my playing position. Basically I suppose what I am playing is a small bodied concert uke,whatever it feels good
 
It's one of those subjects where there is really no one size fits all. But I am certainly of the opinion that the claim that longer scales 'automatically' mean more comfort is unhelpful, as that claim avoids the variables like:

1. size of the persons hand
2. Length of the persons fingers
3. Mobility of the person
4. The width of the string spacing not necessarily following the increase in scale length
5. The profile of the neck itself

All these things vary. What I do note though is - the vast majortity of 'my fingers don't fit' complaints I see (if not ALL) are people strugglng with things like 3 fnger D chords or others that involve putting more than one finger next to each other on the same fret. Increasing the scale length alone will NOT help that, but increasing string spacing will. If anything, if you make a tenor with a narrow nut (and I have reviewed one by Snail) you don't create any advantage in lateral space and then add in the increased other issue of longer stretches in other chords.

All in all - it's far from a one size fits all. But in my experience - for 'most' people, it's nut width that matters more - they just dont realise that is what it is because generally larger scales have wider nuts and they think its the larger scale that sorted it. But that's kind of a consequence that doesn't always follow. I have played sopranos with more neck space than some tenors!

But yes - what is comfortable to you is what matters. I can only advise generally and do so based on what I find is the most common likely solution. I do point out that it varies though
 
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+1 to Baz. I find a soprano with 38mm and string spread of about 30mm much easier to play than the usual Asian tenor with 35mm nut and a string spread of only 27-28mm. It's not the length, it's the width. For example, I can easily do a 3 finger D chord on wide neck soprano, but it is more difficult on the tenor with narrower nut and string spread. But, we're all different, so YMMV.
 
+1 to Baz. I find a soprano with 38mm and string spread of about 30mm much easier to play than the usual Asian tenor with 35mm nut and a string spread of only 27-28mm. It's not the length, it's the width. For example, I can easily do a 3 finger D chord on wide neck soprano, but it is more difficult on the tenor with narrower nut and string spread. But, we're all different, so YMMV.

I'll third that notion. Before I owned my first (standard neck) soprano, I was trying a Martin against some Kalas. It was amazing how much easier to play it seemed. Only 1.5 mm extra nut width, but at least 2 mm extra string spacing.

Having said that, I have an Ohana SK-38 with a 34 mm nut that I otherwise really like. I had the string spacing spread a bit, but I'd still like a bit more neck width (and maybe depth?) to fill my palm. My Opio is a nicer fit at 36 mm.
 
It's one of those subjects where there is really no one size fits all. But I am certainly of the opinion that the claim that longer scales 'automatically' mean more comfort is unhelpful, as that claim avoids the variables like:

1. size of the persons hand
2. Length of the persons fingers
3. Mobility of the person
4. The width of the string spacing not necessarily following the increase in scale length
5. The profile of the neck itself

All these things vary. What I do note though is - the vast majortity of 'my fingers don't fit' complaints I see (if not ALL) are people strugglng with things like 3 fnger D chords or others that involve putting more than one finger next to each other on the same fret. Increasing the scale length alone will NOT help that, but increasing string spacing will. If anything, if you make a tenor with a narrow nut (and I have reviewed one by Snail) you don't create any advantage in lateral space and then add in the increased other issue of longer stretches in other chords.

All in all - it's far from a one size fits all. But in my experience - for 'most' people, it's nut width that matters more - they just dont realise that is what it is because generally larger scales have wider nuts and they think its the larger scale that sorted it. But that's kind of a consequence that doesn't always follow. I have played sopranos with more neck space than some tenors!

But yes - what is comfortable to you is what matters. I can only advise generally and do so based on what I find is the most common likely solution. I do point out that it varies though

Thanks for coming back on that again as you say it is what feels right for the player,back in my bluegrass playing days it amused my other friends in the band that I felt more comfortable with my Terada copy than my original Gibson. What has amazed me is the quality of the Baton Rouge for what is a budget instrument this is something I have noticed since becoming interested in ukuleles no wonder folk seem to gather them.
 
I first saw a Baton Rouge back in 2014 and couldn't quite believe it. Sure, they are pretty plain and 'utilitarian' looking, but they are lightly built, resonant and sound great.

In fact, for the price, I don't think anything came close to them until Kiwaya launched their Chinese value line. (Similar sort of positives with those).

Perfect antidote to the belief that all laminates are thick and boxy.
 
I'll third that notion. Before I owned my first (standard neck) soprano, I was trying a Martin against some Kalas. It was amazing how much easier to play it seemed. Only 1.5 mm extra nut width, but at least 2 mm extra string spacing.

Having said that, I have an Ohana SK-38 with a 34 mm nut that I otherwise really like. I had the string spacing spread a bit, but I'd still like a bit more neck width (and maybe depth?) to fill my palm. My Opio is a nicer fit at 36 mm.

I’ll fourth that notion. I’ve replaced (35mm) nuts on Kala’s to get a wider string spread and it really makes a lot of positive difference (made the last nut myself from an oversize blank and looking for 30 mm over the g and A strings). I’ve not bought Ohana Soprano’s because the neck is so narrow (34 mm I believe) as to make me think that I can’t reliably get a sufficiently wide string spacing for my fingers - sometimes just a mm really does make all the difference.

As an aside for anyone struggling for space with the D chord on a Soprano: I suggest that for the standard D the fingers are not placed sided by side (perfectly in-line) but rather a little staggered with the middle finger being slightly further towards the saddle. Barre on the second fret and fret the first (A) string on the fifth fret gives a D chord too. Hope that that helps somebody.
 
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