How long for new strings to settle?

A few weeks ago I put new strings on my regular player (the Uke that sits next to my arm chair), now it's pretty much in tune every time I pick it up which is what was expected. My regular player isn't my best Uke and a few weeks ago I sat then both side by side plucking strings and checking tone and sustain, the strings are different but pretty much the same age. To my ear my best or playing out Uke has a nicer tone and longer sustain than my regular player; tone is subjective but sustain I sort of measured by the time (pluck on one and count onwards - two, three, four, etc.) it took for the digital tuner to stop displaying a note.

Last night I sat tuning my regular Uke up and plucking strings as before but, as best I can tell, the sustain seems to have slightly improved (in duration). I can't say that my results are the finding of rigorous experimentation, they arrived by chance alone and their validity is rather questionable. However, besides not needing tuning as often do 'settled' strings have a longer sustain too?

New strings in general improve sustain. It is my opinion that settling in is as much the knots tightening as string stretch. I usually get my strings stable in a day or two. After a string change there is a noticeable improvement in tone and sustain. I try to change strings often enough so the change is not dramatic.

I have a bad habit of changing strings top rarely. Especially on my guitar that I seldom play. I can leave them on for years, until I can hang it on the wall for a week, pick it down, and it is still in tune...

But for practical purposes, I would say that strings are settled in when you can play a handful of tunes without tuning in between. Tuning an instrument whenever you start a playing session should be expected.

OK, settling in is one thing (new strings will hold a tuning better), but how about tone? Assuming the new strings are in tune, is the best tone right from the beginning, or can that get better too over days/weeks?

SailingUke said:

New strings in general improve sustain. It is my opinion that settling in is as much the knots tightening as string stretch. I usually get my strings stable in a day or two. After a string change there is a noticeable improvement in tone and sustain. I try to change strings often enough so the change is not dramatic.

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That's really only true for steel strings. If you were to take a steel string and hang a weight on it, it would stretch by a fixed amount and no further. If you do the same thing with a nylon string (or a fluorocarbon one), there would be an initial amount of stretch but then, unlike the steel string, it would continue to stretch and it would take some time to reach its maximum extension. This is an important difference in the physical properties of polymers compared with metals. Polymers take time to fully react to an applied stress. So with ukulele strings, the initial relaxing of a new string immediately after the initial tightening will be largely due to the string settling into place and the knot "pulling up" but the continued relaxing of the string over time will be largely due to the polymers taking time to fully react to the applied stress of tightening the string.

I just changed my strings to Freemont Blacklines. I love them but they took about 2 weeks to finally settle.

Just ordered some of the new Koolau Aho Flourocarbons and going to change out my other uke with those. Hopefully, those settle more quickly.