Hi everyone!
Bored by lockdown towards the end of last year, I bought myself an Ortega RFU10SE soprano ukulele for my birthday. It's certainly one of the best presents I ever received, and I really like the instrument's tone, but there's a serious problem with its tuning.
I tune the open strings correctly, as verified by the uke's inbuilt tuner and the Cleartune iphone app, but depressed strings are noticeably sharp, and its worst on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets: notes played on these frets are furthest away from being in tune. I notice it most on the C string, where the C sharp is around 20% and the D is slightly sharper, even. The A7 and A7sus4 chords (which feature in one version of Neil Young's Harvest Moon I found on YouTube) sound dreadful. But it's the same on the E string, really. Funnily enough, the F on the 5th fret is only around 10% sharp.
I read a thread here where someone suggested placing a matchstick next to the nut, but that didn't seem to help (being a novice, though, I'm not sure if I put the toothpick - didn't have a matchstick - in the right place).
Could my problem simply be that the Ortega RFUSE10 is not a high-quality instrument? It's got a lovely tone, in my opinion, but the tuning problem is absolutely jarring, it's impossible not to notice.
Sorry if this post was too long - no doubt a typical rookie error. I'll be really grateful for any advice/help you can give!
Pete
Bored by lockdown towards the end of last year, I bought myself an Ortega RFU10SE soprano ukulele for my birthday. It's certainly one of the best presents I ever received, and I really like the instrument's tone, but there's a serious problem with its tuning.
I tune the open strings correctly, as verified by the uke's inbuilt tuner and the Cleartune iphone app, but depressed strings are noticeably sharp, and its worst on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets: notes played on these frets are furthest away from being in tune. I notice it most on the C string, where the C sharp is around 20% and the D is slightly sharper, even. The A7 and A7sus4 chords (which feature in one version of Neil Young's Harvest Moon I found on YouTube) sound dreadful. But it's the same on the E string, really. Funnily enough, the F on the 5th fret is only around 10% sharp.
I read a thread here where someone suggested placing a matchstick next to the nut, but that didn't seem to help (being a novice, though, I'm not sure if I put the toothpick - didn't have a matchstick - in the right place).
Could my problem simply be that the Ortega RFUSE10 is not a high-quality instrument? It's got a lovely tone, in my opinion, but the tuning problem is absolutely jarring, it's impossible not to notice.
Sorry if this post was too long - no doubt a typical rookie error. I'll be really grateful for any advice/help you can give!
Pete