Strings A quick opinion on the new D'Addario EJ99T Fluorocarbon strings

Not so much a review, but more of just my opinion on the new D'Addario EJ99T (tenor) Fluorocarbon uke strings. While D'Addario are not the first on the block with fluro's they sure have a winner in my opinion. I have only had them a couple of days now, but I really like them a lot.

The gauges are as follows, A) .0205 E) .0260 C) .031 G) .0224, with a total tension of 45.60lbs for the set. I find them to be a well balanced set, similar to PhD strings in that regard. A nice over all softer feel to them, but yet they remain articulate with very good note separation. They do well strumming or picking, and have nice volume and sustain with the intonation up the neck very good as well.

I'm a big Savarez fan, still using and prefer the singles from the Alliance sets over the slightly thinner 150R uke sets. I have to say these D'Addario strings are right there with the Savarez in tone for me. The D'Addario's have a slightly more neutral or natural sound, where the Savarez has a bit more mid range punch I would say. Well, at least to my ear anyway.

The D'Addario sets are going for around $6.50 ($11 to $12 for Savarez,) a heck of a lot of bang for the buck for sure. They aren't in every store just yet, Guitar Center said they will carry them in the store eventually but had to order them for me for now. Just Strings has them as well as Elderly, but not yet up at Guitar Strings by Mail.

These sound interesting and are a good price as well. Do you know how they compare to D'addario Titanium strings? I wonder which are brighter and/or punchier?

mocash2003 said:

Do you know how they compare to D'addario Titanium strings? I wonder which are brighter and/or punchier?

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It's been a long time since I have used the Titanium strings, so I can't really say. Generally, I have found Fluorocarbons to be the brighter string. It's always hard to describe sounds, one man's "punch" is another man's "harsh" and each uke will yield a difference as well.

When it comes to strings, you really just have to try them to know for sure what is going to work for you.

hammer40 said:

Not so much a review, but more of just my opinion on the new D'Addario EJ99T (tenor) Fluorocarbon uke strings.
...
The gauges are as follows, A) .0205 E) .0260 C) .031 G) .0224, with a total tension of 45.60lbs for the set.
...
The D'Addario sets are going for around $6.50 ($11 to $12 for Savarez,)...Just Strings has them as well as Elderly, but not yet up at Guitar Strings by Mail.

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WOW.

I would have not found out about these yet until your post, which has some great info there. The guages seem to be right inbetween the Worth CL/BL and CT/BT, like the Worth CM/BM's and pretty close the Fremont Blacklines and Living Waters sets guages.

I am defnitely going to be adding these to my next string order, which will also include some of the new GHS fluoro strings, as well as the Aquila LAVA strings.

Still trying to find the best strings for my tenor Flea right now.

What scale length instrument do you have them on? and what tuning are you in?

Booli said:

What scale length instrument do you have them on? and what tuning are you in?

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I have them on my Compass Rose, which is a 17" (tenor) scale. It's in a standard reenterant GCEA tuning. I had PhD strings on right before these, and I would say they are very similar in balance, feel and tension. The PhD's, which I really liked as well, had a more pronounced mid range, while the EJ99's are more neutral. Again, my attempt at describing the sound.

Sounds great--another one to add to my list to try! Thanks for the review.

Booli said:

WOW.


Still trying to find the best strings for my tenor Flea right now.

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I'm having a similar issue with my soprano Flea. Martins seem to work OK, but not great. I've been disappointed with Aquilas and the D'Addario Titaniums. Any suggestions out there?

I will second what Booli said with another thank you for bringing these to our attention. I was not even aware they were coming out with a florocarbon string.

Thanks for the head's up!

Great info...thanks!

hendulele said:

I'm having a similar issue with my soprano Flea. Martins seem to work OK, but not great. I've been disappointed with Aquilas and the D'Addario Titaniums. Any suggestions out there?

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For my concert & soprano Flea ukes I like the Fremont Blacklines re-entrant sets, they have 2 tensions - they offer a 'medium' set and a 'hard' set. I first tried the 'medium' set and thought that the strings were like rubber bands for the tension but love the tone and silky smooth feel under the fingers, and then I tried the HARD set, and they had MORE tension, but still VERY easy to fret, and the sound and feel otherwise was just perfect for me. I will be ordering more sets of these to try with other sopranos.

For the Fleas I've tried 5 different set each of the Worths both brown and clear sets (i.e. CL/CS/CM/CT/CF & BL/BS/BM/BT/BF), Martin, D'Addario Nyltech, J88, J87 & T2, Aquila Nylgut, Jim Dunlop nylon, SuperNylgut & REDS, Living Water and Oasis strings.

The Fremont Blacklines HARD tension sounded and felt the best of all of them so far on the soprano and concert Flea, however remember that also due to personal sound prefs, and your own playing technique, your mileage may vary (YMMV)

See the link in my signature below to save some money too

I put these on a couple of my tenors... I must say I am impressed!
All my string experiments have left me with a very unscientific "I'll know it when I hear it" feeling.
I think these are "The Ones" !!!!!
Great sound, even tension across strings, nice "not too slick, not too woolly" feel, and good price.
I'll be stocking up.

Thanks for the review. Can't wait to try them.

Will definitely check these out. I had tried Titaniums and found them too hard for my liking.

These are not bad at all. I tried a low G set, and it's pretty decent. Not as bright as worth clears, but louder.
Seems a good set for a tenor. I dislike high tension which is why I quit using Maring 620's, and these while not soft, are still comfortable enough.
Thanks to the OP for bringing it to attention.

I bought a soprano set of these as soon as they were in stock, but I haven't tried them...yet. I was uke-less for about two or three weeks after I got them (sorta long story). I was actually planning on putting them on the uke I have now today, then I saw this thread. Funny coincidence.

As far as the D'addario strings and tension goes.. I've seen several people mention the titanium strings being higher tension. I'm wondering what you're comparing them to? If you go over to D'addario's page for their uke strings: http://www.daddario.com/DADProductsUkulele.Page?ActiveID=3781
You can click on the various string sets and pull up the tension. The T2 strings appear to be the lowest tension set of their whole line. That said, the difference is within one pound per set between most of their strings, so it's barely even worth mentioning. Maybe it's the FEEL of the strings that make them seem to have a higher tension to those who claim that? Either that, or people are using another brand that just has lower tension in general.
I was going to try the T2 on my soprano too, but the C string is a little too fat for my nut and bridge slot. I don't think I'll like the strings enough to want to spend the time to modify it.
The "Carbon" strings are listed as the brightest string they make. It'll be interesting to finally try them out. Also to note, these strings say they are "Assembled in the USA using foreign materials". That could mean more than one thing. It might simply mean they buy the same Japanese fishing line a lot of others do and cut it and put it in the packages... D'addario has really high standards, so I expect this to be a good quality string.

Booli said:

For my concert & soprano Flea ukes I like the Fremont Blacklines re-entrant sets, they have 2 tensions - they offer a 'medium' set and a 'hard' set. I first tried the 'medium' set and thought that the strings were like rubber bands for the tension but love the tone and silky smooth feel under the fingers, and then I tried the HARD set, and they had MORE tension, but still VERY easy to fret, and the sound and feel otherwise was just perfect for me. I will be ordering more sets of these to try with other sopranos.

For the Fleas I've tried 5 different set each of the Worths both brown and clear sets (i.e. CL/CS/CM/CT/CF & BL/BS/BM/BT/BF), Martin, D'Addario Nyltech, J88, J87 & T2, Aquila Nylgut, Jim Dunlop nylon, SuperNylgut & REDS, Living Water and Oasis strings.

The Fremont Blacklines HARD tension sounded and felt the best of all of them so far on the soprano and concert Flea, however remember that also due to personal sound prefs, and your own playing technique, your mileage may vary (YMMV)

See the link in my signature below to save some money too

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(BELATED REPLY): Thanks! I have an unused half set of Worth Browns and a full set of Worth Clears that I'll give a shot. And I'm intrigued by the "savings" option, too.

Again, thanks.

jer said:

As far as the D'addario strings and tension goes.. I've seen several people mention the titanium strings being higher tension. I'm wondering what you're comparing them to? If you go over to D'addario's page for their uke strings: http://www.daddario.com/DADProductsUkulele.Page?ActiveID=3781
You can click on the various string sets and pull up the tension. The T2 strings appear to be the lowest tension set of their whole line. That said, the difference is within one pound per set between most of their strings, so it's barely even worth mentioning. Maybe it's the FEEL of the strings that make them seem to have a higher tension to those who claim that? Either that, or people are using another brand that just has lower tension in general.

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That's what makes recommending strings so difficult to others, it's all so subjective. One persons bright is another's warm, one persons high tension is another's low.

hammer40 said:

That's what makes recommending strings so difficult to others, it's all so subjective. One persons bright is another's warm, one persons high tension is another's low.

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I think you hit the nail on the head with that one.

I tried out the carbon soprano set briefly. I didn't have them on for very long. They sound fine...but they are just too thin/small in diameter for me. If a string doesn't feel good to me, it's out. For you folks who like skinny flouro strings, you might find you like them quite a bit.
I ended up slightly adjusting my C nut slot and going with the T2's. I like them much better. I'm not sure if I like them better than Nyltech. I need more time with them to see. They seem to be settling in quicker than the others.

Just to further prove what hammer40 is saying up there, I can't really agree with D'addario's brightness scale on their site. To my ears the carbon and the T2 (marked as their brightest two string sets) sound different than the Nyltech (marked as one of the most mellow) but I'm not quite sure I'd call it brightness. Hm. Maybe just more pure..less overtones. Something. It's impossible to describe sound with words.

I agree.... It is very subjective. You really need to try them out with your uke and your hands and ears...
That's why I've got a box full of string sets!!!