Re: Better Tone & Volume above the 12th fret?
Originally Posted by
Kinsho
I think this quality of clarity and tone is true on other instruments too. I have tinkered with uke for years and have a few tenors. My best one starts to choke the higher you go but, it's better than many others I've owned and played. Cost is relative to this and perhaps 'skill level'. However, cutting a long story short, I was introduced to a beautiful koa kamaka a few years ago and, wow, it was ringing notes, with clarity and sustain in spots where every other uke I've played was 'ping ping ping', you know, high pitched banjo'y kind of decay with no discernible note. I would have expected mandolins to follow this paradigm. Unless people like Thile really are cheating?
Both my Kamaka long neck soprano (HF1-LD) and my Ko'Aloha Silver Tenor ring beautifully above the 12th fret, but these are the first two ukuleles (of many!) that play that way. Every other ukulele I've played dies off very quickly in the upper registers. I always assumed it was physics kicking me in the butt, but while it's true that tone and volume fall off when you're playing with less than half the string length, there are definitely ways for instrument makers to minimize the problem.
When I picked my Northfield, I picked it based in part on how incredibly loud and clear the upper register is.
1913 Gibson F2 (Blacktop)
2022 Big Muddy Mandola (M-16, Ziricote back and sides, Adirondack top)
2022 Kentucky KM-120 (Elevated fretboard conversion)
1940s Kay Banjolin
1930s Martin Style 0 Ukulele
1920s Vega Senator Plectrum Banjo (GDAE octave mando tuning)
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