Bridge placement for Kasha baritone uke?

[kmatsu]

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"Originally Posted on:Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:59 am"


I'm building a Kasha baritone ukulele (it has a slanted saddle). I'm not quite clear on exactly how to place the bridge.

I used Stew-Mac's Fret Calculator for the uke, for the 20.125" scale, but it was only for the straight saddle.

Then I used the calculator for acoustic guitar, for a 20.125" scale, and it showed a Treble E measurement of 20.195", Bass E 20.294".

When I measure from the nut to the center of the saddle (using Stew-Mac's acoustic guitar measurements), it's 20.25". However, on the Hanalima baritone plan, it's only 20.125" to the center of the saddle.

So.....is using the acoustic guitar compensation for a 20.125" scale going to work for this Kasha baritone uke? (Or are there other measurements I should use?)

Kathy Matsushita

[jeffhigh]

Hi Kathy,
Using the stewmac acoustic guitar calculator is probably not appropriate if this is a nylon strung 4 String baritone (as they usually are)
The stewmac Acoustic calculation is for a steel strung 6 string where the bass strings need more compensation.
I think the uke calculation is going to be misleading too becase it would be based on normal uke strings tuned to A rather than baritone tuned to E
My best guess at the moment would be to add about 1.6mm to the scale length to the FRONT of the saddle, with the saddle straight across
Its a single scale instrument rather than fanned fret?

[jeffhigh]

I see from your site that you are using the Hannalima plan.
I may be worth asking them to clarify what the measurement should be.
They should be able to tell you what has worked for them and others.

[kiwigeo]

Welcome to the forum Kathy,

Nice to have another of the "great names" of American Luthiery on our humble forum.

Cheers Martin

[kmatsu]

jeffhigh wrote:
Hi Kathy,
Using the stewmac acoustic guitar calculator is probably not appropriate if this is a nylon strung 4 String baritone (as they usually are)
The stewmac Acoustic calculation is for a steel strung 6 string where the bass strings need more compensation.
I think the uke calculation is going to be misleading too becase it would be based on normal uke strings tuned to A rather than baritone tuned to E
My best guess at the moment would be to add about 1.6mm to the scale length to the FRONT of the saddle, with the saddle straight across
Its a single scale instrument rather than fanned fret?

Duh....after reading this post, I realize how stupid my idea was! (I forgot about the 4 strings vs. 6 strings difference, and nylon vs. steel strings!)

Here's where I'm confused now --- Do I place the center of the slanted saddle at 20.24" (as the Stew-Mac calculator shows for a straight saddle), or at 20.125" (which is what the Kasha plans show to be the center of the slanted saddle)?
(Why do the Stew-Mac calculator and the Kasha plans disagree on the measurement? They're both for ukulele.)

Kathy

Last edited by kmatsu on Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:43 am; edited 1 time in total

[kiwigeo]

jeffhigh wrote:

My best guess at the moment would be to add about 1.6mm to the scale length to the FRONT of the saddle, with the saddle straight across
Its a single scale instrument rather than fanned fret?

The Stewmac intonator obviously wont work on your uke. However I've seen someone work out compensation by temporarily stringing up an instrument using a tailpiece hooked over the butt of the instrument. Perhaps you could make up a temporary bridge/saddle arrangement and determine compensation that way. From memory I read about it in a GAL publication..either the journal or one of The Big Red Books.

Cheers Martin

[jeffhigh]

Kathy is the true scale length 20.125 ie nut to 12th by 2?
or is it 20"?
What is the nut to 12th fret distance?

[kmatsu]

jeffhigh wrote:
Kathy is the true scale length 20.125 ie nut to 12th by 2?
or is it 20"?
What is the nut to 12th fret distance?

Yes, it is 20-1/8" --- I just measured, to make sure. The nut to 12th fret is 10-1/16".

[DarwinStrings]

I think it is worth having a look around David Hurd's site Kathy http://www.ukuleles.com/ he has some interesting stuff on saddle compensation for different strings.

Jim

Life is good when you are amongst the wood

[Puff]

My baritones are 245mm to 12th and 492 to front of saddle, Pretty low action at the nut (1mm) but a fair relief (5mm @ 12th). Standard baritone uke strings and I tune GDAE.

[jeffhigh]

You will always need some compensaion above the scale length.
If the hana lima plan shows just scale length to the centre of the saddle length at the centre of the slot, then it is wrong.
How much slope of the saddle is shown?

[kmatsu]

jeffhigh wrote:
You will always need some compensaion above the scale length.
If the hana lima plan shows just scale length to the centre of the saddle length at the centre of the slot, then it is wrong.
How much slope of the saddle is shown?

The Hanalima plan shows, for the 2-1/8" long saddle slot (1/8" saddle width), front edge of saddle is 1/8" in front of the bridge center line at the treble end of the saddle slot, and back edge of saddle is 1/8" behind the center line at the bass end of the saddle slot. The center of the saddle slot (between the 2nd and 3rd strings) is at 20-1/8" from the nut.

[jeffhigh]

!/8" slope from one end to the other! does not seem right when you consider that classical guitars (and a baritone uke really is just a short scale 4 string classical) generally have an unsloped saddle.
And if you have the scale length at the middle then the treble strings will have negative compensation which does not work.
You would never need a string to be shorter than the scale length.
Something seems wrong.

[Puff]

Kathy your scale length is less than mine. Given that intonation issues diminish as scale length increases I reckon you are in the ball park and 1/8th saddle width set on a tiny angle will suffice. Will still depend on strings, action height etc but .... Perfection is an aiming point owned by the One.

[jeffhigh]

Hey Puff, you are using 2mm compensation to the front of the saddle slot. Kathy's plan seems to be calling for -1.6mm at the front of the saddle, between the middle strings.
Thats a 3.6mm discrepancy (corrected for arithmetic)

Last edited by jeffhigh on Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:31 pm; edited 2 times in total

[Puff]

I stand corrected.

[Puff]

Actually Kathy's scale length is longer than mine - my descriptive mistake. I stand by the rest and am actually strumming one right now.


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