List of strings to try?

I hope this hasn't been discussed to death. I did search the forums and didn't find quite this question.

I have two ukes now, a Cordoba 20BM baritone and a Mainland mahogany tenor. I'm happy with them, but like most people, am always wondering if I could be happier. I don't plan on switching ukes soon because I'm too new to playing. I need to get my feet on the ground with it before I select other instruments. But, I can mess around with strings. I'm thinking I want to create a list of strings to try on each uke. I assume that if I hit the "right" strings for me on each uke, I'll know and will stop there.

I have the tenor set up with a low G, which I like. I'm not sure what the strings are--they're whatever Mike put on it.

Right now, the baritone is set up with standard baritone tuning. The strings on that are Aquila 21Us. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to stay with the standard baritone tuning on that. It depends on how confused I get going between the 2 ukes.

I've read that non-wound strings are a good deal fatter than wound strings and I'm not interested in fatter strings, so I'm thinking 2 wound, 2 plain. I do some strumming with other people but am mostly enjoying fingerpicking and chord/melody playing. I like a warm, balanced sound. Given a choice, I prefer to avoid squeaks. On my guitars, I always played light gauge strings, but those were steel so I'm not sure that's a good comparison.

Do people have thoughts about the strings I should try next on the tenor? On the baritone? And the strings after that?

Thanks!
Tery

There are so many strings out there you could develop a huge list and be busy for a very long time. There are three basic types of strings, nylon, florocarbon and Aquila, each has its own sound characteristics. When searching for the "right" string for each individual instrument it is important to have a goal in mind. Is the instrument too bright and you want to mellow it out of vise versa.

For what it is worth I like florocarbon strings best as they seem to give a netural sound and let the instruments natural tone be reproduced. Oasis, Worth, Fremont, South Coast etc........the world is your oyster

Dave has given you some good insight. You are going to want try many sets and see what works for you and each instrument.

I have recently switched to using classical guitar strings on my tenor. You might want to add those to the list for both your instruments too.

I'll add Living Water strings to the list. They're my current favorite, with a Freemont Soloist low g string.

When I got my bari, I put Living Water strings on it, can't stand wound strings, (I mainly thumb pick melodies).

Since doing that, I have down tuned my tenor to DGBE, to match the bari.

On my Pono baritone, I really like the Aquila Red Series set with two wound strings (I feel that both the low-D and G unwound strings sound lifeless and just very dull, especially as you go up the neck). I had tried a number of different sets and these stood out. For low-G on a tenor, I would also always go for a wound string, but your mileage may vary. Matter of preference, really.

DownUpDave said:

There are so many strings out there you could develop a huge list and be busy for a very long time. There are three basic types of strings, nylon, florocarbon and Aquila, each has its own sound characteristics. When searching for the "right" string for each individual instrument it is important to have a goal in mind. Is the instrument too bright and you want to mellow it out of vise versa.

For what it is worth I like florocarbon strings best as they seem to give a netural sound and let the instruments natural tone be reproduced. Oasis, Worth, Fremont, South Coast etc........the world is your oyster

Click to expand...

My first couple ukuleles came with Aquilas, and I thought they worked great. Then I signed up here and read others talking about a bunch of different strings and I was amazed there could be so many! So I went out and bought a set of fluorocarbon strings (Martins) and a set of nylon strings (D'Addario) to see what they were like. Wow! Quite a difference! And not necessarily better in my opinion. I first tried the nylon and could not stand the feel and the sound was more muted. I didn't like them at all so I took them off and put on fluorocarbons. I liked the Aquilas, but the fluorocarbons were excellent! The feel, the sound, the tension. I loved them all. So I was able to narrow my search to fluorocarbon strings and have been playing around quite a bit in this arena since. Dave gave a list of some good ones to start with. The other string I would add to my "trial" now is the Aquila Reds. They are unlike any other string I have tried. I have no idea from what materials they are made, but I really like them. They are very unique in feel and sound.

WCBarnes said:

The other string I would add to my "trial" now is the Aquila Reds. They are unlike any other string I have tried. I have no idea from what materials they are made, but I really like them. They are very unique in feel and sound.

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They are Nylgut with copper powder, as far as I know. Yes, I love them, too.

I had the tenor version of that Cordoba, and it hated Aquila strings. I strung it low g with mellow strings for a deep, rich sound. I'd suggest Southcoast strings for that Bari. You will be sure of getting the best "tension" on all 4 of the strings and can get string sets from bright to mellow.

My heart is still on the red after trying different brands.
I have red on my new baritone
The package came with a wound G and C . Since the original that came with the baritone
also has wound Aquila brand ,can I assume the two wounds are the same as the wound in the red package ? I didn't change them out because of that !

I love my Worth Brown strings. They are definitely "worth" trying out.
Aquilas? I'm real good at breaking them. I put a Red lo G on my Kala two weeks ago, and I don't like it. At all. Maybe on a different uke.....?

Nickie said:

I put a Red lo G on my Kala two weeks ago, and I don't like it. At all. Maybe on a different uke.....?

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Those come wound and unwound. I love the red wound low-G, but the unwound one is probably as thuddy as all unwound low-Gs, if not more so (I think it's thicker than several fluorocarbon low-Gs). The wound red, though, I really like it.

Mivo said:

Those come wound and unwound. I love the red wound low-G, but the unwound one is probably as thuddy as all unwound low-Gs, if not more so (I think it's thicker than several fluorocarbon low-Gs). The wound red, though, I really like it.

Click to expand...

Thanks I might try that!

Lots of good info. Thanks!

I think my list now starts with the Aquila Reds, the Worth Browns (not sure which order) then something from South Coast. If I haven't fallen in love at that point, I'll add some of the others people have mentioned to the list. I guess this will take a while, since I don't want (and can't afford) to be changing strings every week.

Just saw this on my feed:



Not for your sizes, though, but may still give you some idea on how different materials have different qualities.

Mivo said:

Just saw this on my feed:



Not for your sizes, though, but may still give you some idea on how different materials have different qualities.

Click to expand...

Wow. I'm going to go back through and listen to the fingerpicking back-to-back then the strumming back-to-back, but he is one amazing player.

um, I'll just leave this here...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsxmo63MW4E

and ALSO just say that you might want to try LIVING WATER strings for which Uke Republic is the ONLY vendor in the USA, and also MARTIN M600 and M620 strings...which you can throw a stone in absolutely every direction, and find on sale right next to the Aquila and D'Addario strings....