New Barritone ukulele mk-b comes with supernylgut strings?

uke1950 said:

My Kala bari came with Aquilas, (which definately includes wound string), which I personally dislike, so I immediately put Living Water flourocarbon strings on mine.

But if you like the strings it comes with just enjoy playing it.

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ubulele said:

Baritones typically come with wound 3rd and 4th strings; most unwound 3rds and 4ths (the 4th more so than the 3rd) sound rather dull and thuddy. If you buy a set of reentrant baritone strings (high D), then they may all be unwound strings, but that varies from maker to maker: the 3rd string may still be wound. Expect wound strings to wear much faster than unwound ones; in particular, they will pit on the underside where they make contact with the frets.

The Amazon listings are confusing in several ways. First, they offer the same thing through different vendors, so "from Amazon" could mean from any one of several vendors (though most are just handling boxes they've never opened, so the stock should be just as shipped from Kala). Second, one listing may be used for several sizes, so you can't be sure whether the pics match the size uke you're interested in. Third, they seem to be mixing both old and new stock photos: I see white strings in most of the photos, but dark unwound strings in the bari headstock photos—I suspect that only bari Makalas come with Lavas, the rest with plain Nylguts. I don't see the type of strings mentioned in the listings I looked at. It surprises me that Kala would put premium strings on their bottom-tier baris, but good on them if so!

Aquila Lavas are a variant of the SuperNylguts—the main difference is the color. Though I haven't yet tried the Lavas, I have gotten tenor ukes with the SuperNylguts, which have a pearly sheen or "sparkle" to them, and I much prefer them to plain (i.e., "New") Nylguts. I'm afraid that the 21U strings are plain Nylguts, a step down from what's probably on your bari now. The Aquila part number for the baritone Lavas is 116U.

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