Dolphin / Shark incremental string changes

By good luck and being watchful I've just managed to 'pick-up' a brand new Dolphin Soprano for a very good price - it's even in a colour that I like. This Uke was purchased for outdoor use, holidays and use anywhere where I didn't want to take something more valuable - it will be cared but loss or damage will be no big deal.

I'm pleased with the purchase: it looks good, seems well made and sounds OK with the now standard (on Dolphins & Sharks) Aquila strings. There have been many threads on Dolphin strings but non that I see are definative - too subjective for that really - or describe the series of changes that lead to settling on a particular string. What's been tried, rejected and replaced by something better?

As I understand it the Soprano Aquila strings can be improved on. Aquila Concerts, Martin M600's and Worth Browns have all been mentioned in the past but I really can't spot which is considered the best of the bunch, or why, or how that decision been arrived at. Edit. String choices might be subjective and personal to each user, however I'm seeking to follow your progress and experiences through your selection process and your iterative choices (sequntial selections seeking further improvement).

For my use I don't require great volume and am interested in a sweet, ringing, mellow tone - I love the sound of my Kala Pineapple (KA-P) which is fitted with M600's.

What selection processes have Dolphin / Shark owners used for selecting replacement strings, what have they tried and rejected, and what are the comparative merits of the 'better' (than stock fitted) strings?

Thanks for your comments.

I think it is too subjective to answer well. Everyone has different opinions on what sounds good.

I do like the Dolphin/Shark though. I had a Dolphin that I gave to my brother and a Shark that I love the color of and enjoy playing. As you say, I don't have to worry about damaging it.

I should prob change the strings on it, though. It still has the black strings it came with.

My string selection/satisfaction criteria on a given uke are in the following order of importance to me:

1. Intonation accuracy. I can hear if the intonation is +/- 4 cents off, and more than that I find the instrument simply unplayable, like fingernails on a chalkboard. I play all the way up to the 15th fret now, so intonation is a serious concern. (yes I do my own setups)

2. Tone and note clarity with all of the following: strummed chords, fingerstyle, campanella, etc. This varies for each instrument

3. SUSTAIN. Atypical of old-school thinking, I want as MUCH sustain as possible.

Having said the above, I have observed the following:

- Thinner strings = more sustain = less tension = less volume = brighter tone

- Thicker strings = less sustain = more tension = more volume = warmer tone

- I am not really a fan of 'nylon' strings save for the D'Addario T2 titanium, but for one uke, typically the sustain of nylon strings is about 1/4 that of fluoro strings, and sounds too much 'hit-and-run' for the style of music that I write and play.

- I much prefer and have easily found #1,2,3 above in FLUOROCARBON strings and Worth has 15 differently gauged string sets, but lately I am finding favor with the Martin M600 & 620, D'Addario EJ99, Oasis brights, and Worth CM or BM sets, all dependent upon the instrument's individual sound profile.

Yes, string & uke combos are different for different people, there is no best, what I like, you may not, it comes down to trial & error, until you find what suits you & your uke.

Booli said:

I much prefer and have easily found #1,2,3 above in FLUOROCARBON strings and Worth has 15 differently gauged string sets, but lately I am finding favor with the Martin M600 & 620, D'Addario EJ99, Oasis brights, and Worth CM or BM sets, all dependent upon the instrument's individual sound profile.

Click to expand...

Thank you all for your posts and for the time and trouble taken to prepare it. The criteria above and direction of travel seem right to me, you others are miles ahead of me on the Uke journey ..... so much to learn.

M600's replaced the black strings on a Makala Soprano (MK-SN) that I used to have, they were a great choice in terms of volume and sound quality improvement. M600's also replaced the Aquilas on my KA-P and again an improvement in volume and sound quality - subjective but there and, should anyone be interested, worth copying.

Measuring sustain with my clip on tuner I find the Martins better than the Aquila Nyglut. Perhaps my findings are flawed, I'll let the readers of this thread judge as to whether or not these indicative results have value. I placed my clip-on tuner onto my Dolphin's headstock, thumb plucked each string in turn and counted whilst waiting for the display to clear. Pluck on (the count of) one and count onwards. The Dolphins Aquilas sustained to a count of three, repeating the exercise on the KA-P with its Martins got me a count of four. As sustain was measure on the headstock I don't believe that the body had any effect.

Sound and volume is more subjective and the body of the Uke is (now) surely a factor. Standing the two Ukes side by side in front of me I, repeatedly and alternately, drew the top face of a finger nail across each Ukes' four stings to sound a C6 chord. The Martins definitely sounded louder and more bell like (singing or chiming) in tone to me.

I've made a start on the experimental process, but would really like to know how others progressed in their own Dolphin string selection 'journey'.

It sounds like you have had luck with the Martin M600s in the past. That would lead me to put them on the Makala as well.

Make sure you give the strings time to settle before making any judgement. Strings can mellow with time. Take your time. The journey and destination cliches apply here.

It's a little while since I got the Dolphin and I've kept the Aquila strings on whilst I did work on the saddle, nut and strap pin. The Dolphin has been played nearly everyday and the strings had pretty much settled/stretched out. In the end I got to dislike the sound of the Dolphin fitted with Aquila's and decided to change the strings to Martin 600's in line with Booli's suggestion and his string sound analysis reports elsewhere. I'm pleased with the change, to me the Dolphin now sounds both louder and more pleasant. It's now hard, with a side by side test, to tell whether my Dolphin or my KA-P is the louder of the pair and their tone is similar with the KA-P pleasantly mellower and the Dolphin slightly more punchy - I like both but prefer the KA-P. Sustain on the Dolphin has not increased with the change in strings.

I hope that my update is useful to another member at some point in the future.

Edit.

1) On playing the Dolphin alone for a few days after the string change I put it away and picked up the KA-P which, when I started strumming it, seemed quite a bit louder than the Dolphin. Perhaps the above face on (to me) side by side test was flawed and perhaps sound comes out of pineapple and figure eight shaped Ukes differently; whatever, the Dolpin's the better of the two for late night playing whilst the rest of the house sleeps.

2) The Martin strings settled quickly, as suggested on another thread I played the Uke after stringing then tuned it up by half a tone before leaving it to rest overnight. Further tuning was necessary each time I picked it up but it was less than expected. The A string buzzes slightly when not fretted - that issue wasn't there before - but I'm not to bothered about it at the moment and it might settle in time.

Graham Greenbag said:

...to tell whether my Dolphin or my KA-P is the louder of the pair and their tone is similar with the KA-P pleasantly mellower and the Dolphin slightly more punchy - I like both but prefer the KA-P. Sustain on the Dolphin has not increased with the change in strings....

Click to expand...

Likely the difference in tone from the Dolphin to the KA-P is affected by the KA-P having a pineapple shape, with a little more wood as the resonating surface, as well as a little more air volume in the sound box, also due to the shape...

IIRC, I may have read somewhere that Manuel Nunes' first instrument was a pineapple shape, and thus the 'original'...but I could be wrong...

Maybe the double-bout figure-eight shape was the second model as per being a familiar shape to the lute players or guitar players of the day?

As far as being able to maximize the Dolphin's volume and tone, there may be only so much one can get from it, regardless of strings...that old saying about 'getting a silk purse from a sow's ear' comes to mind...

I have the same strings, the Martin M600 on both a $30 Mahalo U30 soprano, and also a $229 Martin 0XK, and they do not sound the same at all. The Martin is rich with complex and pleasing overtones, long sustain, wide dynamic range (very responsive), bright bell-like tone and can also give the gut-punch 'barking' tone when you drive it hard, whereas the Mahalo is a mere shadow of all these and merely hints at the same features of the Martin, while falling short, very short on all of them...

They both 'sound like an ukulele', but the Martin is like turning the Mahalo up to 'eleventy-nine'...

(and the Martin is made of FORMICA and not even wood, so the Formica being used by Martin, is quite resonant to my ears)

Thanks for the reply and insights Booli, they have been particularly helpful.

When I bought the Dolphin I made, as best I could, a judgement on buying a 'beater' that could be taken anywhere without too much thought of the financial loss should it get damaged or go astray. What I hadn't factored in properly was the investment in time and effort to set the instrument up, the limit to which it could be improved and that my expectations of sound quality have risen - and maybe still will - over time. If I was buying a beater again I'd spend double the amount on a KA-S or similar, accept the extra cost (minimal in the bigger picture of things) and get more pleasure from playing my designated beater. That's certainly not to disparage the Dolphin in anyway but rather to better accept and understand what it's best for.

On the plus side the Dolphin provides a cheap instrument on which to practice my set-up skills, it works acceptably well for my beater purpose (but not much more than that) and, if it survives the outdoor use intended, it will at some point will be given to someone as relatively good starter instrument - everybody sort of wins. As a bonus no-one expects much of a Dolphin Uke player so if I visit any new club with it and play reasonably well then I'll exceed their expectations rather than disappoint - that's my theory anyway.

It's interesting to me that some very early Nunes Ukes might have been Pineapple shaped (see Booli's post above), to me there is some logic to that. However the punters might have wanted figure eight style instruments, one builds what sells and the shaping of acoustics might be better achieved with the more difficult and expensive to make figure eight style - I wish that I knew more about that but perhaps it's a topic for a different thread.

Thankyou to everybody who has contributed to this thread.