Mim on Strings

Jerryc41

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As most of you know, Mim is excellent. She's friendly, knowledgeable, a great performer, and she does a great setup on ukes. She has about five hundred ukuleles at home.

At the Allegheny Soiree this past weekend, I took her workshop about setup and maintenance. Naturally, the topic of strings came up. Mim hates questions about "the best strings." As she said, it's a matter of opinion.

If one brand was the best, there would be only one brand. Most ukes come with Aquila strings, and I've kept them on unless they broke or I wanted to experiment.

Another string question to generate discussion is how to pronounce "Aquila." ;)
 
As most of you know, Mim is excellent. She's friendly, knowledgeable, a great performer, and she does a great setup on ukes. She has about five hundred ukuleles at home.

At the Allegheny Soiree this past weekend, I took her workshop about setup and maintenance. Naturally, the topic of strings came up. Mim hates questions about "the best strings." As she said, it's a matter of opinion.

If one brand was the best, there would be only one brand. Most ukes come with Aquila strings, and I've kept them on unless they broke or I wanted to experiment.

Another string question to generate discussion is how to pronounce "Aquila." ;)

Wow, I'd love to take a uke setup workshop, especially from Mim! I wish she were coming to Mighty Uke Day in Lansing. :)
 
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I agree with Mim on this. Strings are always a controversial topic. Every ukulele, player, playing style, and choice of music will affect the choice of strings. Fortunately, they're relatively inexpensive so we can experiment until we find the particular brand and set that works best with a single instrument. That is, of course, until something new comes out and we just have to try that to see if it's even better! :rolleyes:
 
I don’t see anything wrong with giving an opinion on strings. It’s when someone tells you you’re wrong for thinking that way where it starts to cause trouble. Nothing wrong with disagreeing, but it shouldn’t cause a heated debate.
 
Mim is right, as far as I'm concerned. String choice, just like ukulele choice, is highly personal. I don't happen to be a big Aquila string fan, but that doesn't mean they aren't any good. 95% of the ukers I know around here play Aquilas. 99% of the ones in stores are strung with Aquilas.
I do like the fact that Aquila uses earth friendly techniques, more so compared to other makers. I bought a set of Reds, but I can't find them. When I do, if I do, I'm putting em on one of my ukes, I like the way they feel!
 
When I've purchased ukes from Mim, I ask her to put what sounds best to her *on that particular instrument*.

I've never been disappointed.

So far, the only new ukes I've purchased without playing them first were from MGM and Mim (And a custom from Bradford Donaldson, but that is a different category of instrument), and I was very pleased with those purchases.
 
When I've purchased ukes from Mim, I ask her to put what sounds best to her *on that particular instrument*.

I've never been disappointed.

So far, the only new ukes I've purchased without playing them first were from MGM and Mim (And a custom from Bradford Donaldson, but that is a different category of instrument), and I was very pleased with those purchases.

That's it, there are strings that a player likes, for what ever reason: tone, feel, warmth, or brightness, etc.
And then there are strings that the Instrument prefers, not only that, an instrument may prefer one tuning to another.
All this makes life, and ukuleles, FUN!!!
 
Magic touch

One thing I don’t recall reading in the interminable and ancient debate about which strings are best is the issue of touch. How a player touches the string can make a string sound beautiful or nothing special. Try it yourself. Experiment with how you approach the string. You are part of the sound. I learned this long ago by hearing a famous songwriter friend of mine play a Silvertone guitar. Why did it sound so much better when he played it? He was very loving in his touch of the strings.
 
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