Slanted Bridge On Ukulele?

[Mickguard]

My friend's kids tore his cheapo POS ukulele apart... since he was going to throw it in the trash, I asked him if I could try to fix it (he really liked playing it, but knowing him, he'll never buy himself a new one, much less a real instrument).

I'm ready to glue the bridge back on, but I'm wondering-- should I slant the bridge like one would on a guitar, or should the bridge be straight? I've seen photos with both --SwedishLuthier posted a pic of his super-cool electric uke, and it looks like he put a the bridge on a slant there. But it's hard to tell.

And if it does need a slant, how much of an angle should that be (I don't have much leeway, if I want to be able to hide the repair).

I'm not sure if it'll matter at all...we're talking plastic strings...

[unclej]

if it didn't have a compensated bridge to begin with then i'd just glue it back where it was. i just glued the top and back on my first uke yesterday and while researching the building of ukes i didn't see any mention of slanting the bridge. a real short scale and the fact that most cords are played in the first few frets may be why it's not needed.

good luck

[tirapop]

Mick,

Remember the uke is tuned G C E A, so, you can't have a continuous slant without *#@$-ing up the G string compensation.

Info on uke compensation.

[SwedishLuthier]

Mickey, the bridge on my electric ukulele is straight. It’s the photo that makes it look like its slanted. Tirapop is right about the problem with the G-string (although the guy that has this ukulele tune it A D F# . The Ukulele is tuned like a guitar with a capo on the fifth fret, except that the G sting is tuned one octave higher. With a slanted bridge you would end up with a G string that never play n tune.

[Mickguard]

I'm pretty sure my friend says he was tuning his like a guitar. I'll just put the bridge on straight then, since that's easiest. And like unclej says, I don't think he plays all the way up the neck all that much --the thing drives his wife crazy no matter where he plays on it...

[tirapop]

I've got a baritone uke. It's tuned to DGBE, like the top 4 strings of a guitar.

[JimC]

For a baritone uke tuned DBGE, must the bridge be slanted?

[JimC]

After looking at a bunch of photos of bari ukes I believe I have my answer! (no)

[Bizman62]

Nylon strings are like a rubber band, it takes a whole lot of stretching even for a semitone. That's why you can't bend nylon strings and that's also (partially) why you don't need to slant the bridge.

Further, the outermost strings on a uke are the thinnest. As the slanting is done to compensate the thickness (and stiffness) of the strings you can't do it similarly to a steel stringed guitar where you intonate the E strings and slant the bridge accordingly.

Individual bridge pieces could be used but most likely the effect would be insignificant.