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Thanks for all the help so far.

Rather than bury the next question in an unrelated topic on bracing, I thought I should start anew.

What are your preferred measurements for string clearance at the 12th fret, and string height above the soundboard at the saddle?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

.100 over the 12th, lower with high tension strings, maybe.

Fretboard is around .200, bridge around .250.

The measurement from soundboard to strings is not one I've taken, but you can do the math from the above measurements once you get the height at the nut.

And I say "around" because depending on my milling, it may be a little less on the fretboard, especially if its inlayed and I sand down a bit (usually a non-issue).

My pickups are about .050 undersaddle, and I go by the 50/50 rule AFTER the pickup is installed. No pickup means more inside the saddle slot than out.

Sorry I don't have a better answer for you.

All my ukes are set up with low action.

I go with 2.2mm clearance at the 12th fret and 9.5 - 10.5 mm at the saddle.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Jim, forgive me for intruding on your thread but I'd like to ask a related question. I have only made 1 tenor uke and it was my first nylon strung instrument. I used a zero fret and the uke players feedback I got was that the action at the nut was too high. I didn't even know too high was possible. I have another one in the not too distant future. What action at the nut are you guys using? How high above fret 1. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I set mine .015 to .020 at the first.

1.5-2mm @12

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Pat

I set up my ukes with 0.01" at the 1st fret and 0.09" at the 12th. 12th fret action can depend on the player....0.1" for heavy strummers and 0.08" for light players. The 1st fret is more critical....it sets the whole "feel" of the instrument

Thanks for all the input.

Bryan - your question confused me - how do you get too high an action at the nut end using a zero fret? Seems to me the neck angle would have to be out of whack for such a thing to happen. (Or is the zero fret not crowned to the same height as the regular frets?)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Sorry for the confusion Jim, I meant to say that the feed am I got from uke players was that the action was too low. I've never before heard anyone want anything but the lowest possible action up there. I'm not sure if this applies to ukes only or other nylon stringed instruments. Or, maybe it was just the small sample size. It is hard to raise first fret action with a zero fret too. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I had a buzz with zero fret so I replaced the zero fret with taller fret wire, problem solved.

Bob

That is what I ended up doing. I put in a guitar fret. I wouldn't do that on a new build though, using a taller fret pretty much negates the whole point of using a zero fret. Using and actual nut would allow me to sneak up on the preferred nut action whatever that is. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Thanks to everyone who has provided help so far. I found some time to get back to it this week. Backs are braced (15' radius), tops getting braced now (flat), fretboards slotted today, neck heels rough-carved.

Today's question - what do you think the target bridge weight should be? (Tenor, no bridge patch, tie block rather than pins). I'm formulating ideas about the bridge design, but I'm not sure what the target should be.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu