South Coast Classic Metals....yea baby

DownUpDave

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I have been itching, really itching for the steel string sound. I almost bought a tenor guitar yesterday, story for another time. Fortunately my South Coast HML-CM strings arrived yesterday and I strung up one of my tenors. These Classic Metal strings are mind blowing to say the least. Dirk really is a genius to be able to pull this off.

If you are not familiar with these strings they ARE made for ukuleles and all 4 strings ARE metal in low G tuning. The G, C & E strings are wound, the A string is steel. To give you an idea of how hard this must have been to pull off consider the diameters

G - .023
C - .018
E - . 013
A - .010

The sound is very nicely balanced with a deep enough bass and great sparkle from the treble A string. They are on the firm side to fret, a little higher tension than most low G tenor sets that might be considered high tension. I like a high tension string so they are ok for me. It is not so much the actual tension because forming chords seems easy. Metal strings will let you know immediately if your technique is sloppy, you guitar players know what I am talking about.

It is the over all sound that just has me captivated, that steel string acoustic guitar chime that reminds me of so much great folk music from the 60s. Who says you can never go home again.
 
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Sigh... every time I think I'm done ordering strings for a while, I see a post like this. Off to Southcoast's site I go... again. :)
 
So am I reading correctly (long day at work = less capacity to absorb the tech specs) that these are meant for tenor or baritone? (She asks, thinking that only the concert in her herd is really ripe for restringing...)
 
So am I reading correctly (long day at work = less capacity to absorb the tech specs) that these are meant for tenor or baritone? (She asks, thinking that only the concert in her herd is really ripe for restringing...)

Yes they are meant for tenor or baritone. If I understand correctly from the SC website a baritone should be tuned up to Bb or B to get the correct tension. Others might know better about these on baritone. On tenor the standard C tuning is great.
 
Thank you for this. I would like to play around with this someday too. I assume they're safe/ not too much tension to bend the neck. I would assume Dirk did all the math already for that.
I would like a tenor guitar too, but they're just too big. This sounds like a great compromise.
 
Hmmmm so slap some steel strings on a beater bari and instant tenor guitar sound??? Dave, have you tried both the tenor and bari strings or just the tenor? Very curious as to how the bari version sounds.
 
Hmmmm so slap some steel strings on a beater bari and instant tenor guitar sound??? Dave, have you tried both the tenor and bari strings or just the tenor? Very curious as to how the bari version sounds.

Hey Bill, there is only one model of HML-CM strings. South Coast does have a tension / tuning chart for different scale lengths. I know other members here have had them on baritones. One even has them on a Pono baritone nui, which I think has a 23" scale length.

That person had commented on Rakele's review thread about Pono baritone nui vs Kala tenor guitar here in this subform.
 
:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

I hear ya. Sometimes I think I just own ukuleles so I can test out strings.

You are not alone in this thinking. I may be guilty of buying more ukes to keep different sets of strings that I like in use instead of serially and manically changing/testing strings every three weeks, on 5 different ukes, like I had been for the past 18 months or so.

Yes, I've tried string sets from every maker under the sun that I could get hold of (I'm on a first name basis with folks from StringsByMail and StringsAndBeyond by now LOL).

Tried them ALL except for Southcoast and Savarez. What put me off Southcoast was the cost per set, and the the Savarez web site is a nightmare with little useful information to me to compare any classical string sets for adaptation on other instruments in non-standard tunings...might need to buy a dozen spools of Seaguars FC fishing leader in guages from 0.017" up to 0.130" in order to find the end of this yellow brick road...

Anyway, thanks for making this thread. I have to look at Southcoast again now. These strings are very interesting to me.

Any thoughts as to if these strings would be suitable for fifths-tuning, in GDAE or CGDA on a 19" scale bari that was built for nylon strings?

Thanks for sharing :)
 
I've tried these strings on a tenor and a bari, and though I like there sound in certain applications, I eventually moved on.

On a bari, you definitely want to tune up.

Booli, I wouldn't recommend using any tunings other than the ones Dirk recommends for the strings. These are pretty fragile strings--I don't think there is a whole lotta wiggle room.

To my ears, they always sounded best fingerpicked. In fact, they sound pretty amazing fingerpicked. Strumming--especially on a bari--always sounded a bit thin. I too was looking at it as a cheap alternative to buying a tenor guitar, but the body of a uke--even a bari--just isn't big enough, to get that fuller tenor guitar sound.

I also felt like the intonation was always a bit off when I went up the neck. Perhaps a setup would have fixed that, but I wasn't willing to commit to changing an instrument to fit one particular set of strings.

As someone mentioned, the strings are a bit pricey. So if one of the strings breaks, it's costly to replace.

Just my thoughts and observations, YMMV.

- FiL
 
I have these on my D'Angelico archtop at the moment, and they sound great. Yes, it is actually a soprano scaled ukulele (13.75 inches), but the body has more volume than a typical soprano, and the low G resonates very nicely.

My preference would be for a slightly higher tension (since these were intended for a longer scale). They seem to hit the sweet spot if I tune up a major 3rd or even a 4th... but I keep it tuned to C.

Rtnrlfy, these strings would be perfectly fine on a concert. I would go ahead and give them a go.
 
Tried them ALL except for Southcoast and Savarez. What put me off Southcoast was the cost per set, and the the Savarez web site is a nightmare with little useful information to me to compare any classical string sets for adaptation on other instruments in non-standard tunings...might need to buy a dozen spools of Seaguars FC fishing leader in guages from 0.017" up to 0.130" in order to find the end of this yellow brick road...

What info do you need? Savarez and SBM both list the individual diameters and tensions of the uke and classical string/sets. SBM also lists the diameters of the entire range of classical speciality singles available as well, from .0118" thru .0826", in both 1 and 2 meter lengths. They are really nice strings, my go to, and favorite string. I would be very surprised if you didn't like them, if you try them.

Heck, Collings uses them as their OEM string, although, they do use a very slightly different diameter than from the ukulele set on two (A and C strings) of the strings. The standard uke set is .52/.69/.84/.57 vs .57/.69/.81/.57 (in millimeters) for Collings.
 
Southcoast strings are a little pricey (especially when you pay in Australian $). Shipping to Australia was a lot too.

However, the XLU strings i got for my Caramel solid acacia sopranino transformed it in to really nice player with a sound I would be ok with playing in front of anyone.

I will be back for more Southcoast love in due time i think.
 
Southcoast strings are a little pricey (especially when you pay in Australian $). Shipping to Australia was a lot too.

However, the XLU strings i got for my Caramel solid acacia sopranino transformed it in to really nice player with a sound I would be ok with playing in front of anyone.

I will be back for more Southcoast love in due time i think.


Glad you found a set of strings that work well on your uke. Being from Canada we are in the same boat regarding shipping cost and our weak dollar. But when a set of strings make you love the sound of your uke and they are the price of "lunch" it is a no brainer.
 
Glad you found a set of strings that work well on your uke. Being from Canada we are in the same boat regarding shipping cost and our weak dollar. But when a set of strings make you love the sound of your uke and they are the price of "lunch" it is a no brainer.

Definitely a no brainer Dave. SC's have transformed even very good Ukes of mine very positively. These metals sound very interesting. Now which Uke should I try it on? I think my upcoming Beau Hannam is going to be my fingerpicking Uke of choice so that may be the first to try one of these sets.
 
Hi there !

I'm interested in metal strings for ukes.

I have a few questions about the strings you have mentioned :

Do they have any ball or anything on one end ?

For nylon strings, usually a knot is enough to retain them in the slot - how do you get the metal strings to hold.

I have guitars all over the place AND lots of spare single strings - can I use them if I find the same gauges - or are the strings you are using somehow different to regular guitar strings (which the only difference with them might be that they are longer !) ??

Many thanks for your help !
 
Hi there !

I'm interested in metal strings for ukes.

I have a few questions about the strings you have mentioned :

Do they have any ball or anything on one end ?

For nylon strings, usually a knot is enough to retain them in the slot - how do you get the metal strings to hold.

I have guitars all over the place AND lots of spare single strings - can I use them if I find the same gauges - or are the strings you are using somehow different to regular guitar strings (which the only difference with them might be that they are longer !) ??

Many thanks for your help !


When I inquired with Southcoast about these 'classic metals' strings back in July 2017, Dirk told me:


"We discontinued that material almost a year ago to concentrate on the more typical classical material."

So it seems that they are not available any more.

Using 'guitar', 'banjo' or 'mandolin' steel strings will apply about 4-5x MORE tension on the neck, body and saddle than nylon-type strings, and as such, and EVEN with a truss rod, you still run the chance of warping the neck or causing the neck joint to fail, i.e., the instrument will be DAMAGED.

Aside from that, on a shorter scale, you will have a hell of a time trying to compensate the saddle on a in order to get your intonation anything close to +20 cents or more SHARP.

You need to have an instrument that is built for steel strings in order to handle the tension, as well as a different saddle configuration.

Putting steel guitar strings on your uke is very sure to destroy it from string tension.
 
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