Seasonistas Baritone Thread

I'm probably going to get a baritone within the next few months. Does anyone know if anyone makes a set of all wound strings, so I don't have a mixture of wound and regular strings?

Not sure why you'd want to do this.
"Regular" baritone strings are a mixture of wound and unwound strings.
'Classical' guitar regular strings are a mixture of wound and unwound strings.
I'll sure be interested in what it sounds like if you get it done....

btw the wound strings wear much faster than the nonwound strings.
 
Not sure why you'd want to do this.
"Regular" baritone strings are a mixture of wound and unwound strings.
'Classical' guitar regular strings are a mixture of wound and unwound strings.
I'll sure be interested in what it sounds like if you get it done....

btw the wound strings wear much faster than the nonwound strings.

Mostly just curious as to how it work and sound.
 
Not sure why you'd want to do this.
"Regular" baritone strings are a mixture of wound and unwound strings.
'Classical' guitar regular strings are a mixture of wound and unwound strings.
I'll sure be interested in what it sounds like if you get it done....

btw the wound strings wear much faster than the nonwound strings.

My baritone has Living Water strings on it. All unwound fluorocarbon strings.

I was surprised just how quickly the wound strings that came on it when new wore. It was only a matter of weeks and they were ready for changing. That's partly why I went for all unwound.
 
Hey guys,

I'm ready to restring my two vintage baritones. One is the Martin and the other the Favilla. I have read a million times on other threads what strings people like and wouldn't you know it, I can't find anything in my searching without having to read and read and read.

I thought this was a good place to have this discussion so we seasonistas know where to come back and find it.

So, What strings are you in love with?

#1. The Martin is a well balanced warm instrument and I'm looking to enhance both ukes with a string choice.

#2. The other is the Favilla. The Favilla has a big voice so I'm not really looking for anything that will make it louder. Does that make sense? Just something to enhance its warm tones without drownding out the vocals.

Both have been strung with Aquila and Martin strings in the past. They are both low DGBE which I prefer for them.

Any thoughts before I place an order for the same old thing? Nothing wrong with the same old thing but its fun to experiment!
 
After much experimentation, my favorite bari strings come from D'Addario ("Duh!" :rolleyes:) - "Baritone Ukulele Titanium" EJ87B. My Pono Mango Bari likes 'em... ¾ identical to the Ko'olau 'Alohi string set and one-half the price!
Hey guys,

I'm ready to restring my two vintage baritones. One is the Martin and the other the Favilla. I have read a million times on other threads what strings people like and wouldn't you know it, I can't find anything in my searching without having to read and read and read.

I thought this was a good place to have this discussion so we seasonistas know where to come back and find it.

So, What strings are you in love with?

#1. The Martin is a well balanced warm instrument and I'm looking to enhance both ukes with a string choice.

#2. The other is the Favilla. The Favilla has a big voice so I'm not really looking for anything that will make it louder. Does that make sense? Just something to enhance its warm tones without drownding out the vocals.

Both have been strung with Aquila and Martin strings in the past. They are both low DGBE which I prefer for them.

Any thoughts before I place an order for the same old thing? Nothing wrong with the same old thing but its fun to experiment!
 
Hey guys,

I'm ready to restring my two vintage baritones. One is the Martin and the other the Favilla. I have read a million times on other threads what strings people like and wouldn't you know it, I can't find anything in my searching without having to read and read and read.

I thought this was a good place to have this discussion so we seasonistas know where to come back and find it.

So, What strings are you in love with?

#1. The Martin is a well balanced warm instrument and I'm looking to enhance both ukes with a string choice.

#2. The other is the Favilla. The Favilla has a big voice so I'm not really looking for anything that will make it louder. Does that make sense? Just something to enhance its warm tones without drownding out the vocals.

Both have been strung with Aquila and Martin strings in the past. They are both low DGBE which I prefer for them.

Any thoughts before I place an order for the same old thing? Nothing wrong with the same old thing but its fun to experiment!

I get the experimentation thing, but whatever you've had on the Favilla I think is perfect. Love the sound of that uke.
 
Mine came with Aquilas and the two would strings began to wear very quickly. I realise wound strings wear more quickly than unwound but this was much quicker than they should have. The wound strings on my 6 and 8 string tenors lasted much better.

I changed the strings for Living Water - all unwound fluorocarbon and I've been very happy with them. Many prefer wound strings. It's a matter of personal preference but having two new ones is a good opportunity to experiment to find what you like best. Get different strings for the two and see how you get on. Strings are not really expensive so a little experimenting doesn't cost too much.
 
I'm a re-entrant player and like the unwound FC sets. However the "Normal" DGBE players seem to like Southcoast as they have a lot of various tensions available.

I liked Worth Browns but understand that the Clears are brighter.

Last time I changed strings I got crazy and put on some D'Addrio EJ99T tenor strings, tuned dGBE. Brighter than the Worth Browns and good volume. I may change out the d for a D using a Fremont Soloist that worked well as a low D on a tenor I strung DGBE for Gary.

I guess I'm a string-aholic, I've never worn out a set of strings.;)
 
In response to everyone so far -

Today I went through my stack of strings sets. I keep the empty packaging and sometimes the old strings. I found two empty packages of D'Add's (EJ87B and EJ88B).

The thing I am learning after all this time is that I need to get a small spiral note pad and keep a record of what instrument is getting which set and the dates installed. Some people are good at recognizing a set after they are on an instrument. Me, not so much! Too many different instruments lead to the confusion. Every size instrument needs something different. I have to say that I like the LW's on my concert and soprano.

I do have reentrant LW on my Harmony. Unfortunately, it's not the instrument I grab. I don't love the LW linear on a baritone. I am one that doesn't mind the squeak of the strings. In fact, I kinda miss it when it's gone. The Harmony typically is setup a bit high and so I ignore that instrument. Poor thing :/ I have reset it to as low as it can go and its much better that way but not great.

I've tried worth browns on my tenor when I started playing and they seemed too thin at the time for me. I've also played my daughter's bari with worth clears from HMS. At least that's what they listed them as. I like them much better than the browns if that's what they truly were.

I have Aquila Reds on a tenor at the cabin and I love the Reds tone. I hate the string breakage problems that come with them though. I would say I like the tone of those strings more than any other strings I've tried. Its a pain to have them snap in the middle of the night shortly after you've put them on! I do love them so much that I keep buying them for the Outdoor Uke. Last time I bought a set they shipped with a red wound low D. So far so good because I took days bringing them up to pitch. Seriously I took at least five days upping a half step until I got them there to see if that would help them not go into shock. It seemed to work.

I haven't tried Freemonts or Southcoast's yet. Keep the suggestions coming. I haven't made any decisions yet!
 
Try the southcoast options Linda.
What Dirk doesn't know about strings aint worth knowing.
I only use southcoasts these days on my baritone -
and he does have a number of sets to choose from.
that said, if you like the feel of the Aquila reds, I would suggest
giving the worth browns a try. they're nice and soft under your fingers
and have a certain warmth and feel most other bari sets don't have.
I like them but the tension is a little too slack for me with that scale
for me to recommend them too highly. ymmv.
 
Thanks Jon.
I just went over to check the Southcoast strings out and I will pick some up.
I hadnt ever heard of the Lili'u tuning before. Have you or anyone else ever tried them?
They sound like a fun change.

So far tonight Ive picked up some D'Adds and some Aquila Blacks (Raggy loves them). Thought it would be fun to check them out.
Ill order some Southcoasts too.
And a small spiral note book to keep a record of who is getting what!
 
I love string threads, I'm a bit of a string junky. My go to sets are Martin M630, D'Addario Titanium and South Coast. The new Aquila carbon blacks and reds are nice too, on the brighter side. I have experimented alot with classical guitar strings with great success. You can buy single strings from Strings by Mail making it more reasonable than full sets. I have had great results with Dogal Diamente, Hannabach Silver Series and Oasis Carbon GPX. Keep in mind when buying the wounds this way you will be using the A string on the D position of your baritone and the D string on the G position of your baritone. This will get you the proper diameter .035" & .030" for D & G positions respectively.

Oasis are florocarbon so are the brightest. Dogal are a hybrid mix of nylon and carbon so a bit warmer and Hannabach are nylon so warmer still. The Dogal and Hannabach come in 5 different tensions which also effect tone, extra low is brighest and they get warmer as they increase. You can really dial the sound you want with all those options.......................But be careful of going down this rabbit hole as you might never return:p
 
Last edited:
Thank you Dave. That is terrific information that we can all use as a great guideline. I appreciate your input!
 
Mine came with Aquilas and the two would strings began to wear very quickly.

Mine also came with Aquilas that wore out in no time at all. Like Tootler, I put on a set of Living Waters fluorocarbaons and they are holding up a lot better. They did seem to have a lot of stretch though. The Aquilas would hold tuning while the LWs have to be retuned a lot more often. I also bought a set of D'Addario EJ87B but haven't tried them yet. Really enjoy playing the bari.
 
Hello Bari friends.
Can someone point me some resources besides youtube to some fingerpicking patterns for Baritone DGBE tunning? A pdf would be awesome. I'm not quite sure if fingerpicking a Bari is different from fingerpicking a "normal" uke. I've seen some videos and I really enjoy them, but I need some sheet of paper to follow or I just get lost. Thanks a lot.
 
Top Bottom