SlingshotCannon
Active member
I bought my Risa ST solid body electric ukulele a couple of years ago, and I've always been generally happy with it, even though the intonation has always been a little bit (to occasionally moderately) off when I would fret pretty much any note. I put it down to poor technique on my part, because I know electric strings can be more finicky. Since buying the uke, I replaced the strings twice using official Risa sets, and have continued to have the same problem. It's not that bad, but it has been frustrating.
But I kept reading in various threads that the stock (and light gauge) Risa strings are notorious for being hard to fret in-tune, and that a better alternative is to go heavier gauge. I saw a specific recommendation for:
(Sorry, I don't remember where I got this from, but just copied it into a storage text file.)
So last week, when it was time for my regular string replacement, I went with a set of D'Addario strings of the above gauges (low G) rather than once again using an official Risa set.
And sure enough, the fretted note accuracy is much better. MUCH better. Still not perfect, but then again, neither is my technique, so that's probably fair.
So I'm posting this for any future Risa owners who are wondering why the fretted note intonation seems off. I can't promise it will work for you, but for me at least, as well as for the various thread authors I'd read who led me to doing this, changing the strings to the heavier gauge has led to noticeable improvement.
Frankly, I don't understand why Risa doesn't ship and sell a higher-gauge branded string. But I'll leave them to running their business. I'm just happy that I've made the switch, and I'm never going back!
(So, does anyone want to buy my unused official Risa string sets I still have lying around? )
But I kept reading in various threads that the stock (and light gauge) Risa strings are notorious for being hard to fret in-tune, and that a better alternative is to go heavier gauge. I saw a specific recommendation for:
(Sorry, I don't remember where I got this from, but just copied it into a storage text file.)
So last week, when it was time for my regular string replacement, I went with a set of D'Addario strings of the above gauges (low G) rather than once again using an official Risa set.
And sure enough, the fretted note accuracy is much better. MUCH better. Still not perfect, but then again, neither is my technique, so that's probably fair.
So I'm posting this for any future Risa owners who are wondering why the fretted note intonation seems off. I can't promise it will work for you, but for me at least, as well as for the various thread authors I'd read who led me to doing this, changing the strings to the heavier gauge has led to noticeable improvement.
Frankly, I don't understand why Risa doesn't ship and sell a higher-gauge branded string. But I'll leave them to running their business. I'm just happy that I've made the switch, and I'm never going back!
(So, does anyone want to buy my unused official Risa string sets I still have lying around?
)
