New Lanikai strings

well first things first, I'm new to the forum. My name is Jarod and have been playing the uke for about a month maybe more. I have a Lanikai LU-21T and feel that the strings that it came with are kinda dull and dont project very well. I am looking for some tight strings that will play nice with slides and hammer-on and what not. The sound does not sound very crisp to me. i have been reading and really can seem to find a string that is a hands down choice for this uke. I have heard that the Aquila strings are used on the lanikai. so i thought i would see what every one thought. Thanks so much.

Your Lanikai most likely came with GHS strings, not Aquilas. If you put Aquila Nyl-guts on it, you will hear a big difference.

You can also try D'Addario J71 strings. I have them on my LU21T and the sound is great.

Pippin said:

Your Lanikai most likely came with GHS strings, not Aquilas. If you put Aquila Nyl-guts on it, you will hear a big difference.

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My bad, i ment i have heard of people using the aquila strings on the lanikai. now there is a bunch of aquila string types, what one do i need for this uke.

JTknives said:

My bad, i ment i have heard of people using the aquila strings on the lanikai. now there is a bunch of aquila string types, what one do i need for this uke.

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What do you want?

To my knowledge there is only 3 Aquila String sets for a standard tenor:

-All Nylgut

-All Nylgut/Wound C

-All Nylgut/Wound Low G

I am not a fan of the wound strings so I'd go with the simple all Nylgut strings.

I just called a music store just down the street and they have a bunch. thy recommended D'Addario and the told me thy have both J54 and J71. he said the J54 are more popular. what is the difference between these besides one being black and one being clear.

I just changed them out to D'Addario J71 and sofar so good. now to play here for a few hrs t see how she sounds

Strangely enough, I play and build tenor uke's with J71's in mind, but on a recent uke I built, I was out of J71's and I had some Hilo string close by. I strung it up with the Hilo's and found them very appealing in the "crisp" factor. IMO, more "woody" sounding than the J71's with better separation. However!.. there was a lack of mid-tones and a bit less volume.

Bottomline: The Hilo could work for you "crisp" wise, but you might miss the mid-tones and volume difference. As for me, by habit AND the almight peer pressure I get from knowing Jake plays J71's, I went and switched out the Hilo's for the J71's. But truth be known, the Hilo's "crisp" vibe and clean attack keeps calling my name!...e.lo..