Best strings for an Ohana-OBU-22 FLM

Now I feel like a jerk. It was just a guy in a costume.



Gillian, way to persevere in getting these made. Can you share any info on availability and cost?
I would love to be able to play this beautiful instrument and have it sound like that.
Thanks for showing this!
Croakie

Hi, Croakie,

Ha! The person to contact is Louis at Ohana. They are in southern California at (562) 997-9080. I think Louis said the string maker has made 5 sets and when word gets out, I think those sets will be gone quickly. They are NOT cheap. Louis said each string takes 90 minutes to make by hand. I'm waiting for Louis to send me the bill but I'm expecting it to be $80+.

How does one justify a set of bass strings that cost that much? Well, a mass-produced set like LaBellas cost around $35-$45. A set of genuine Hofner flatwound strings cost $90 (on sale!). These strings are custom made for this bass ukulele. It's also a good thing that bass strings last a long time.

To finally have this lovely instrument sound so good, it was worth the wait and expense to me.

Gillian said:

I got the flatwounds from Ohana yesterday and I couldn't be more pleased.

Watch the video I just made.

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Sounds great Gillian!

I too cant stand round-wound strings, on ANY instrument, and always try to get flat-wounds.

Was the first bass line you played in your video clip, with the round-wounds 'All My Loving'?

Thanks for sharing your video, I did not know about these strings before seeing it.

Mahalo,

Booli

Was the first bass line you played in your video clip, with the round-wounds 'All My Loving'?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah! Another great McCartney bass line.

What has me still mad is the damage done to the fretboard by those damned roundwounds. Ohana didn't think this through when they introduced the fretless model and put those horrible strings on it.

I emailed Louis at Ohana this AM, no response as of yet.
Mine is a fretted and I believe in a previous email with him he said that flat-wounds will not work on fretted.
Guess it will stay in the closet till I find a buyer.

Croakie said:

I emailed Louis at Ohana this AM, no response as of yet.
Mine is a fretted and I believe in a previous email with him he said that flat-wounds will not work on fretted.
Guess it will stay in the closet till I find a buyer.

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No!...don't give up! Persevere!

I would call rather than email...faster response. I would ask Louis again re: using the flatwounds on a fretted model. I don't see why they wouldn't work or have an intonation issue. The scale is the same and there's plenty of 'excess' at the top so length isn't a problem. Other makers of flatwound strings don't say they can only be used on fretted or fretless instruments. I don't think the maker of these strings would say that either.

Your video made me smile! Are these steel core or nylon core?

mrufino1 said:

Your video made me smile! Are these steel core or nylon core?

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Hi,

I'm glad you liked the video. The strings are all stainless steel, both inside and out.

Woo Hoo

Someone from Ohana got around to answering my email. Not the person I emailed? They said the new strings are OK on fretted. I will get a pair ordered soon. Custom strings come at a price.You can get them at, http://www.octave4plus.com/. Sure hope Ohana provides this as an option on future sales. Instead of making customers jump thru hoops.

And I feel none of this would have happened without Gillian!

I thank you and so should Ohana.

Woo hoo is right! Now you can take your OBU out of the closet and enjoy it.

I sent Louis an email with my video link saying they should NOT sell the fretless OBU with roundwounds because of the damage they do to the fretboard. The flatwounds should come standard on it. Heck, they should just put the much nicer sounding flatwounds on all their OBUs.

Glad to be the squeaky wheel.

Cheers!