Anyone tried the Aquila Sugar Strings?

yeah, I am there is silence ah ah
ok, thinnner gauges (just a bit, I image). I will do the job.
Squeak? well, I have tried a lot of solution, no way. The issue is in the polymer itshelf. However I have some other things to try.
what I can say is that the problem is on those that has dry fingers or washed them with soap and then they became dry. After a bit of playing the problem is much more less.
At present the only option is to use hand- cream on the fingers and/or on the strings. It work for a few days till the issue, with the use, became less. What to say... unfortunately nobody is perfect.. i am doing my best...... give to the strings one day to stabilize: the sound quality improve a lot after a day or so on. I think that, till other solution, it worth to use a bit of hand -cream because the sound is maarvelous. And not because they are aquila, because i feel that they are so. Mimmo

I hope Aquila is hearing this, but if you guys can make a thinner gauge sugar string and eliminate some of the squeak...$$$$$

Wait, one person isn't happy with the string gauge and you're going to change it? What about those who bought these strings and are happy with them? If I have to wonder if everytime I buy your strings they may be different because somebody didn't like something...well, you can count me out as a customer. Changing the diameters will affect the tension and the sound. I expect consistency from a manufacturer, I can't be wondering what I will get each time I need a string change.

Why not just do what Savarez, D'Addario, Pyramid, to name a few, do then and offer a variety of individual string gauges? Then they can be tailored to your own individual wants or needs without compromising other customers. This is commonplace in the classical guitar world.
 
yeah, I am there is silence ah ah
ok, thinnner gauges (just a bit, I image). I will do the job.
Squeak? well, I have tried a lot of solution, no way. The issue is in the polymer itshelf. However I have some other things to try.
what I can say is that the problem is on those that has dry fingers or washed them with soap and then they became dry. After a bit of playing the problem is much more less.
At present the only option is to use hand- cream on the fingers and/or on the strings. It work for a few days till the issue, with the use, became less. What to say... unfortunately nobody is perfect.. i am doing my best...... give to the strings one day to stabilize: the sound quality improve a lot after a day or so on. I think that, till other solution, it worth to use a bit of hand -cream because the sound is maarvelous. And not because they are aquila, because i feel that they are so. Mimmo

Great job on these strings. I think you are really onto something here and applaud your creativity in creating new products.

I think you are right about the squeak, as I initially did not have any issue, but then noticed it later in the day when I went back to play, which was right after I washed some dishes!
 
well, there is an explanation why we must do a bit thinner gauges. At present they have the same diameters of nylgut. But nylgut stretch a lot more than Sugar so there is a compensation to do because what is important is that, under tension they has the same gauges (density is same on both materials) I have already seen the problem before this post. So this change is necessary-
To speack polite, I have never seen a similar rude reaction agaist me before. I have not apreciate it: there are different ways to say the same thing, man.
mimmo
 
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Let me put my words somewhat. I will be interested to try these strings whose valuations only now come into our knowledge. Mimmo has been posting a really long time about these, but well they have not been available before a few days, except to only selected by mimmo's friends I guess.

For me it is I seldom change strings, so if the above somewhat sissy burst was to hammer40' reply, I sort of agree with hammer40?
As I seldom change my strings, certainly not to test something new, I sort of want to know that the strings then stay consistent. It has not maybe been told us clear enough that the strings are in evolutional phase where their thickness can be changed from patch to patch?
 
well, there is an explanation why we must do a bit thinner gauges. At present they have the same diameters of nylgut. But nylgut stretch a lot more than Sugar so there is a compensation to do because what is important is that, under tension they has the same gauges (density is same on both materials) I have already seen the problem before this post. So this change is necessary-
To speack polite, I have never seen a similar rude reaction agaist me before. I have not apreciate it: there are different ways to say the same thing, man.
mimmo

If this is directed toward me, then let me respond. I see nothing that can be characterised as rude. I was, as a customer, questioning your response to the singular mention of string gauges being to large. Your response was that you would change it in the next batch. You made no mention of intonation issues as the reason for the change. That would have been valuable information to have, and I would absolutely agree it is beneficial to correct a known issue (to you) with your product. As far as I know, these strings are still not a "beta" product but a production product, so I would expect consistency, that was my only point.

I was part of the demo process on these strings, and posted a very nice review of them...I liked them and still do...squeak and all. I also applaud your attempts at innovation and sharing it all with us here. So, no worries on my end Mimmo.
 
Well, In the far past I have done almost 4 changes on the nylgut strings gauges till to reach the final product in late 2011. Very few recognized these changes. We can do the job and reach out the best balance because we run the extruder plants and thus we can do everything in matter of gauges. The other factory are obviously more consistent than us because they have not the extruders: they buy the strings in bulks directly from the plastic monofilament producer. The plastic monofilament producer make the gauges that they have in the price list. Not possible to ask for different sizes. Hence the consistence of the product.
Instead we can do our best. These Sugar are itshelf the final version despite the fact that the gauges, in the future, will be done a bit thinner just to compensate the difference in elongation/stretchly that exist between nylgut and Sugar plastic. The goal is to reach out the same working tension.
Hammer 40 if you want I will send you a set with the new gauges and you will tell me your fell. Do you agree? Fells you free to acept o refuse
Mimmo
 
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Well, i have done almost 4 changes on the nylgut strings gauges till to reach the final product in late 2011. Very few recognized these changes. We can do the job and reach out the best balance because we run the extruder plants and thus we can do everything in matter of gauges. The other factory are obviously more consistent than us because they have not the extruders: they buy the strings in bulks directly from the plastic monofilament producer. The plastic monofilament producer make the gauges that they have in the price list. Not possible to ask for different sizes. Hence the consistence of the product.
Instead we can do our best. These Sugar are itshelf the final version despite the fact that the gauges, in the future, will be done a bit thinner just to compensate the difference in elongation/stretchly that exist between nylgut and Sugar plastic. The goal is to reach out the same working tension.
Hammer 40 if you want I will send you a set with the new gauges and you will tell me your fell. Do you agree? felle you free to acept o refuse
Mimmo

Sure, I would be happy to help out again. I will send you a pm.
 
Mimmo, feel free to send a pack my way if you need an extra opinion ;)
 
I will also be happy to offer input if needed. As I mentioned earlier, I think that these strings are really nice and offer something that is different than the other strings on the market.
 
Dang, feeling like the kid who brought the ball to the game but didn’t get picked on a team haha. All good!
 
Drop Mimmo a line. He is a good guy and very interested in making/improving his product!
 
I did right before your post lol. I do plan on getting a YouTube channel up to document my ukulele journey, so maybe I will then.
 
I did a quick sound sample before swapping out the Sugar strings. Especially on the second song (Still Can't Say Goodbye), you can hear the finger squeaking. As I shared earlier in this thread, I did not care for these strings. I find them too hard for my liking, too noisy and felt the A string in particular responded best to a much harder attack than I typically use.

Let me add, I really appreciate Mimmo working hard to give us a lot of choices. I do like the Carbonblacks and have them on several instruments.

Sugar - Linear C
https://soundcloud.com/ukulele-eddie/yoshida-sugar-linear-c

After I removed the strings, I put on Oasis Brights. I let them settle for an hour or so and then recorded this quick sample:

Oasis Brights - Linear C
https://soundcloud.com/ukulele-eddie/joji-yoshida-oasis-brights

Both were recorded the same night, using an Apogee iMic straight into Garageband on my iPhone.
 
I did a quick sound sample before swapping out the Sugar strings. Especially on the second song (Still Can't Say Goodbye), you can hear the finger squeaking. As I shared earlier in this thread, I did not care for these strings. I find them too hard for my liking, too noisy and felt the A string in particular responded best to a much harder attack than I typically use.

Let me add, I really appreciate Mimmo working hard to give us a lot of choices. I do like the Carbonblacks and have them on several instruments.

Sugar - Linear C
https://soundcloud.com/ukulele-eddie/yoshida-sugar-linear-c

After I removed the strings, I put on Oasis Brights. I let them settle for an hour or so and then recorded this quick sample:

Oasis Brights - Linear C
https://soundcloud.com/ukulele-eddie/joji-yoshida-oasis-brights

Both were recorded the same night, using an Apogee iMic straight into Garageband on my iPhone.

Thanks for the samples! I do prefer the sound of the Sugars over the Oasis Brights, but like you, am currently just having to deal with the squeak and hardness of the strings. I just got a pack of Fremont Blacks in today and will try to post a sound sample/comparison as well.
 
Good comparison Eddie. Personally I like the tone of the sugars better than the brights, and I am using just about exclusively fluorocarbons. But I agree the squeaks are distracting in this sample.
 
well, there is an explanation why we must do a bit thinner gauges. At present they have the same diameters of nylgut. But nylgut stretch a lot more than Sugar so there is a compensation to do because what is important is that, under tension they has the same gauges (density is same on both materials) I have already seen the problem before this post. So this change is necessary-
To speack polite, I have never seen a similar rude reaction agaist me before. I have not apreciate it: there are different ways to say the same thing, man.
mimmo

Mimmo, this is my first comment on this thread and it is ment to be a help to you. I’ve read through the whole thread and nothing within it is ment in any nasty way, in fact people really appreaciate what you do and are trying to give you honest feedback in a reasonable way.

When translating things between languages - English/American and Italian in this case - there will always be some errors and some misunderstandings. Sometimes I struggle to fully understand what you write, but I’m pleased that you do write. Do you sometimes struggle to understand written English/American?

People here like you and they like your products, but language translation can be a problem. I hope that I have made my point in a nice and kind way, and I hope that it will help you.
 
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Ciao Graham,
I have realized that, however thanks. I have invited him to test the samples and he is very happy to do the job. We are already in contact by mail so everything is ok.
I am curious what happen using a but thinner gauges. One more thing about tension: all the carbon strings, except those of Martin, has very high tension, surely higher than the Sugar strings. But one thing is the tension in Kg and another thing is the feel of tension under the fingers. So maybe the Sugar give the impression by feel to have a lot of tension...
many thanks!
Mimmo
 
Mimmo, while I have not used those from sugar cane based strings, I would expect the sound be totally different with thinner strings and thus less tension. That is why I posted my reply in this thread.
While some people may prefer thinner strings, they maybe don't prefer the changed sound if you do that with Aquila?
 
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