Got the Fremont Blacklines and am very happy with them from both an aesthetic and sound standpoint. Plus they feel good on the fingers. The sound is what I think a Fluke should be - bright but with some warmth.
Trying to remember why I took these off the Pono but I like the Browns on there if they ever settle.
The Blacklines will stay on the Fluke for a long time. I think they are rugged like the Fluke. They settle quickly and stay in tune.
Today, I too just put a set on my Koa tenor Fluke. I got the medium tension sets.
I just thought I'd share a few observations:
1.They are much higher tension than the Worth Browns BT tenor strings I had on previously, and about the same tension as the Aquila REDS. I was afraid the A string was going to snap while tuning, but some gentle stretching helped it get there.
2. Once I was able to tune up a whole step to A3-D4-F#4-B4, after about only 2 hrs of play time (on and off), both strumming and plucking, and constantly tweaking the tuning every 5 mins or so, I let the strings relax and now it is holding G3-C4-E4-A4 with only a few cents off and I have to say
WOW OMFG and
Holy MOLY!@#$%! - this is the fastest I have seen strings settle to pitch - even faster than any of the 8 different sets of Worth Browns, and I thought they were fast to settle after about 4 hrs of play time...WOW
3. I find the tone a tiny bit brighter than the Worth Browns, and a bit darker than the Worth Clears or Martin M620s with less scratchiness when flamenco-style strumming with the fingernails, which is all good, but it seems there are very
subtle overtones present with the Worth Browns that are
not present with the Fremont Blacklines - the Worths are a bit more 'complex' than the Fremonts to my ear (and I find it kind of annoying)
, but the tone is both bright and sweet at the same time.
4. Intonation all the way up to the 12th fret is dead on for the G, E and A strings and it gets incrementally about 4 cents sharp for the C string, but I can live with that.
5. I've also noticed that the higher tension of the A string helps a lot with finger-picking for those notes to ring out during arpeggios and rolls.
6. Sustain is very long (which I prefer), and similar to the Worth Browns.
7. Like you've said, the strings have a very silky feeling to them, seemingly more so than the Worths...
All
good in my book.
I also put the Soprano/Concert Fremont Blacklines medium set on a soprano Flea, and there is a lot less tension, and the C string seems almost slack - so I might pull them off and save these for a concert scale uke, and get the higher tension Soprano/Concert Fremont Blacklines for use on the short scale of a soprano, and put them on this Flea.
The tone on the soprano Flea is similar to that of the tenor Fluke, but keep in mind that the Flea sounds different from the Fluke any way. So far, and prior to these strings, my fave strings for the Flea were the Worth Clear light (CL) strings...
So, I too am quite happy with them, and I have to make a recording and A/B the sound with the recordings I have of the Worth Browns (BT) tenor strings.
-Booli :shaka:
