Sopranos lose brilliance and sustain when played at the higher frets ?

gerardo1000

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During the past year I returned a couple of sopranos (not very expensive, but also not cheap) from two well known mainstream brands, because when I was playing on the higher frets (from the fifth/sixth fret and over) the sound was becoming a bit dull and almost with no sustain. especially with barre chords. I am mainly a tenor and concert player (and an amateur) and I am no expert on sopranos, and I wonder if this is typical of all sopranos ? Or should I invest more in order to get a soprano that keeps its brilliance and sustain not only on the first frets? Thank you for your opinions !
 
It makes sense to me. As you move up the fret board you are really shortening the strings, less vibration less sound.
 
Yes it makes sense to me too but I was wondering if, instead, this issue is more typical of inexpensive sopranos and if a quality soprano sounds better at the higher frets...
 
Well I bought an inexpensive soprano from a major brand, with laminate b/s but solid top, that I felt sounded that way. So I sent it back. My two Pono sopranos sound much better. But yes, you are shortening the strings, so you won't have as much vibration as you do with the larger ukes.
 
I playing pretty much only sopranos.
The tone has the same brilliance up the fretboard; but sustain is, of course, decreased due to shorter string.

I'll give you a sound sample.
The tonal characteristic should be the same up and down the fretboard for any decent ukulele.
 
This occurs for all instruments. You lose a bit of tone up the scale.
It also depends on the quality of the instrument.

On well made instruments, the loss is not as significant as a crap one with a dead tone.
 
when i play short scales, like soprano, sopranino, i've noticed that technique is critical
left hand --> very carefull not to touch the string outside the fret specially barre chords.
 
I am simply not a good enough player to venture past the fifth fret and I only play concert and tenor ukes including high end models. There is not enough space there for me to play ringing notes that are not off in intonation and I admire the virtuosos that are able to do that.
 
I also play mostly sopranos and agree with most of the sentiments here. Playing higher up the neck always decreases sustain because the string gets shorter, particularly on the shorter scale soprano. Intuitively, I would've said that the quality of the instrument doesn't matter that much as long as the basic qualities of the uke are ok (even frets, no dead notes/strings, etc.), but I have seen several reviews of ukes where the sustain and clarity on the higher notes is better than average so I'm open to the idea that the quality of the instrument can affect sustain higher up the fretboard. That being said, I would put heavy emphasis on the type of strings used as well. I find that fluorocarbon has the best projection and sustain on the higher notes, whereas thicker strings tend to lose sustain more easily.
 
I also play mostly sopranos and agree with most of the sentiments here. Playing higher up the neck always decreases sustain because the string gets shorter, particularly on the shorter scale soprano. Intuitively, I would've said that the quality of the instrument doesn't matter that much as long as the basic qualities of the uke are ok (even frets, no dead notes/strings, etc.), but I have seen several reviews of ukes where the sustain and clarity on the higher notes is better than average so I'm open to the idea that the quality of the instrument can affect sustain higher up the fretboard. That being said, I would put heavy emphasis on the type of strings used as well. I find that fluorocarbon has the best projection and sustain on the higher notes, whereas thicker strings tend to lose sustain more easily.
I never payed much attention to intonation and sustain up the fretboard because, frankly, for many years I did not play up there. Nowadays, I play up there all the time and have become sensitive to the issue. I found fluorocarbon strings to have better sustain, probably because they are thinner and more flexible, therefore vibrating more. Also, in my case nylons caused intonation issues up the neck, as the thicker nyllon strings did not sit completely in the nut slot. My original strings on my soprano were fluorocarbon and I only switched to nylon a year ago, when I moved to fifths tuning. I didn’t want to widen the nut slots and in fairness, that might have solved the intonation issue, but I didn’t like the tone or sustain of the nylon, so I wasn’t gonna do that. I’m cobbling together a set now. If you use conventional tuning and are using nylon now , I think a reg set of fluorocarbon will give you some improvement.
 
I never payed much attention to intonation and sustain up the fretboard because, frankly, for many years I did not play up there. Nowadays, I play up there all the time and have become sensitive to the issue. I found fluorocarbon strings to have better sustain, probably because they are thinner and more flexible, therefore vibrating more. Also, in my case nylons caused intonation issues up the neck, as the thicker nyllon strings did not sit completely in the nut slot. My original strings on my soprano were fluorocarbon and I only switched to nylon a year ago, when I moved to fifths tuning. I didn’t want to widen the nut slots and in fairness, that might have solved the intonation issue, but I didn’t like the tone or sustain of the nylon, so I wasn’t gonna do that. I’m cobbling together a set now. If you use conventional tuning and are using nylon now , I think a reg set of fluorocarbon will give you some improvement.

All of this is generally true. A uke built with fluorocarbon strings as stock will have better intonation with fluorocarbon strings assuming the build quality is good to begin with. If you put nylon strings on such a uke and if they don't fit the nut slots well enough, you will most probably experience some intonation issues. The opposite is true as well, a uke built with nylon or nylgut (fairly similar gauges usually) as stock will behave best with nylon or nylgut strings in terms of intonation, but switching to fluorocarbons might not mess up intonation that much. Fluorocarbon strings are usually more stable in terms of intonation and other aspects as well, so worst case in this kind of situation is usually that the strings might go flat higher up the fretboard if at all. Often there might be almost zero issues. Nylon strings in particular are pretty bad in terms of intonation unless they're set up specifically for the uke.

Now in terms of sustain and projection, I think there's more to the build of a uke than just the nut and saddle and intonation. I agree that the smaller gauge of fluorocarbon strings definitely benefits the sustain.
 
This guy then seems to have a great technique because his soprano (I guess an old Martin) rings brilliantly up to the higher frets!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p8k9LmThMw

He does play nicely but higher frets? From what I saw be was mostly in the middle of the fretboard and barely went above the tenth fret. Whatever, a lovely example of a good player extracting good music from a very good instrument - I’m not sure whether it’s a Soprano or Concert Uke, but I think an old style Concert. Maybe some French speaker can check out his site and advise us. https://www.laplaceduukulele.com/

With regard to Sopranos it’s all about the mechanics of short strings, string mass, string tension, soundboard quality and soundboard size. Sopranos just don’t have strings that, high up the fret board, have enough energy in them to excite their soundboard. That’s a broad generalisation but IMHO generally the case - there’re exceptions to every rule and the better the instrument the higher up the fretboard it will play for you.

If playing high up the neck is important to you then you will typically need a Tenor sized instrument. Personally I just accept the limitations of the Soprano sized Ukes and enjoy their many advantages.
 
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"Surely that's a concert rather than a soprano". It looks like it is a soprano to me ?

No, that's a Martin concert for sure, he also does a video on the different sizes featuring this one.

Yes, there are soprano-sized tonecanons, but they really are at the higher end of the market, and not because of their inlays or expensive woods, but rather because of the expert hands that made them.
 
Yes it makes sense to me too but I was wondering if, instead, this issue is more typical of inexpensive sopranos and if a quality soprano sounds better at the higher frets...

I have no problems with my Martin 5K soprano. It is a true tone monster.
 
Isn't this universal? I don't play sopranos, but my tenors (a Kamaka and a custom uke) have less sustain up there. I remedied, or at least mitigated, it by downtuning so that the strings are looser. And those higher frets are a bit unforgiving. I was playing a D# super lokrian bb7 which falls between the 15th and 19th frets and I got some plunky notes when I didn't nail the fingering exactly.
 
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