Fret Calculator for Ukelele?

Posted by Order99 on September 26, 2011 at 12:09am

   Well, i've put together a few builds and mostly-thanks to Uncle Crow and others-i've learned to calculate  Guitar fret markers(and so far markers is all they are since it's easier to burn them in than pound pre-rounded fret wire into a flat  soundboard, but I digress)...

 

  But now one of my coworkers wants a Uke. Not only are the strings in a totally different configuration from a standard guitar, I also suspect that the Frets may be as well...I don't suppose some kind soul would clue me in to the fret arrangement on a typical instrument? Also, are the standard frets Chromatic, diatonic or some other, more unique arrangement?

 

  Any help would be greatly appreciated-and once my coworkers has her Uke, I can get back to finishing my Strum Stick (i've been told it's the easiest to learn on and God knows i'd like to learn to play SOMETHING)...   :P

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Replies

  • carverman October 12, 2011 at 8:21am

    You can go up to a concert size from a soprano and decide on the number of frets you want.

    Anywhere from 14 to 17.

    http://liveukulele.com/gear/ukulele-sizes/

     

    once you decide on the size, and have the fret board ready, determine the scale length

    (concert can have a 15 inch scale. )

    here are some ideas on building one..

    http://www.wsukes.com/plans.html 

     To calculate the fret slots with any degree of accuracy, you could use Stewart-Macdonald's

    fret calculator online.

    http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

    To use it: just fill in the two boxes (ie: number of frets = 14)  (scale = 15) and for instrument type,

    select "Ukelele"   and hit the "calculate" button.   It will give you all 14 fret measurements from the nut.

     

     

  • Order99 September 29, 2011 at 12:00am

       Given what you've just told me Rand-it sounds like I could just use Uncle Crow's 'divide the total length from bridge to nut, and multiply by 0.9439' method that i've been using. I prefer this method, since I usually calculate the total Fret number on my guitars as  'stop whenever I feel like it or run out of neck'...    : }  

     

      This one's sort of a Through-neck BTW, with the neck bolted onto one block through the cigar box top and two relatively thin oak slats running between that and a small bottom block for a screw-on cedar tailpiece-given the strength of the box (a Firehouse) it's probably a touch over engineered unless the recipient wants to try steel strings later on. I plan a small, rectangular soundhole between the oak supports.... Showing you would be much easier, but until I can find a cheap camera that's backwards-compatible with a 2001 Mac running OSX 10.39...sigh.

     

      Thanks for all the Input BTW!

  • Rand Moore September 28, 2011 at 10:09am

    Hi Order99.

    You are right, ukuleles are chromatically fretted instruments. Any guitar-oriented fret calculator will work for a ukulele.

    All you need to know is the scale length and number of frets you want. With ukuleles, there are 4 standard sizes: soprano, concert, tenor and baritone. The larger models have more frets, and offer more tuning options. Should talk to your "client" to see exactly what sized instrument he/she is interested in. I have two sopranos, one concert and one tenor ukulele - all factory made. My preference is the concert, as it gives you a bit more finger (fretting) room. Anyways here are the specs courtesy of Wikipedia:

    305742183?profile=original

    The number of frets varies a bit from maker to maker. For instance, on a soprano, 12, 14 and 15 fret models are available (I guess 13 frets is unlucky). While for a tenor, usually its 17 or 18 frets. If you are building your own instruments, decide on how long you want your fretboard and whether the fretboard will overlap your sound board. If you decide on not overlapping, then you are probably stuck with 12 frets (on a soprano, the neck joins the body at the 12 fret). At some point adding an overlapping fretboard will conflict with sound hole placement, assuming you are doing a "bolt on neck" and a single big ukulele style sound hole. So, generally, you want to have as many frets as you can reasonably install. When I do fret calculations, I usually specify 24 frets and then check to see how many frets I can put on given the length of my fret board.

     

    Also, occasionally you will come across a non-standard sized ukulele such as a long neck soprano or concert, where the sound box size is standard, but the necks are longer than normal. These typically will have more frets as well.

     

    -Rand.

     

  • Order99 September 27, 2011 at 10:46pm

       Thank you both-that's exactly what I was looking for! Judging by the lengths i'm getting on the Stewmac calculator, it looks like the Ukulele will have chromatic fret positioning.

     

      My apologies for not replying sooner BTW- I followed the ling to the Stew Mac website and promptly got lost...so many pretty, shiny things over thee...   :}

  • Chris Ellbogen September 26, 2011 at 10:24am
    This is a good one. http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/
  • Shelley September 26, 2011 at 5:23am

    I use StewMac. http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Fretting/i-fretcalc.html

    Where it says 'Number of Frets' insert 12.

    Scale length is the length between the nut and bridge.

    And under this you can choose 'ukulele' from the drop down menu.

    Good luck!

    s.

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