Worth-while Strings

I have been trying out different types of strings on my ukulele and this time around, it's worth strings. It is already about 2 months since I changed to these strings and I noticed that the worth strings are constantly going out of tune. Is this something others have noticed as well or did I just get a dud?

Also, I'd love to hear your opinion of Worth strings. To me, they are a bit too plinky. They are most similar to Aquila strings, though better than Aquilas because they are softer on your fingers. To me that is important, because I don't have soft fleshy fingers. My fingers are dry and on the harder strings (like Worths or Aquilas) I can hear my fingers brush across the strings (like a finger going over the rim of a wine glass, but not so loud). Overall, I feel the the sound that comes out is a bit less sustained than I would like. Granted a lot has to do with the ukulele and they way one is playing. I play a Martin C1K. I play mostly instrumental (fingerpicking with some strumming).

To me the best set of strings so far on the C1K are Jason Arimoto's PhD strings and then Martin's own signature set of strings. I've tried D'Adario and GHS and they do not work as well either on my ukulele. Still have other strings to go through in my search for the perfect string for my uke. What are your opinions about different types of strings for your uke and playing style?

I have a number of different ukes and a box of strings, lots of different strings. I enjoy searching for the best tone on each of my ukes. Best tone and playability are all personal of course. I have never had trouble with Worth strings going out of tune, been on 4 different ukuleles. I do like the Phd you mentioned, great musical tone to them, medium tension and a soft feel under your finger tips. You will have a hard time beating those for your Martin.

I am a big fan of South Coast strings, huge selection and you can talk directly to the owner and developer of the strings, Dirk. I am a tenor guy mostly and his low G sets with the wound 3 & 4 strings are brilliant. Have a look at the website if you are not familiar with the company or their products

Worths used to be the "go to" fluorocarbon strings if you didnt like Aquila Nylguts. But string choices have really grown in the last couple years. As I tend to prefer more local sourcing, I switched to Oasis fluorocarbon strings. South Coast are also great strings but a little more expensive. Nothing wrong with Savarez, Martin, Fremont, GHS, or Living Water fluorocarbon strings, either.

Worths do take a long time to stretch out. But that's why we got tuners.

Doc_J said:

Worths used to be the "go to" fluorocarbon strings if you didnt like Aquila Nylguts. But string choices have really grown in the last couple years. As I tend to prefer more local sourcing, I switched to Oasis fluorocarbon strings. South Coast are also great strings but a little more expensive. Nothing wrong with Savarez, Martin, Fremont, GHS, or Living Water fluorocarbon strings, either.

Worths do take a long time to stretch out. But that's why we got tuners.

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Hey Doc, good call on the Oasis. I don't know why I forgot to mention those as I have 4 sets on hand and really like them as well.

ShibaUke said:

I have been trying out different types of strings on my ukulele and this time around, it's worth strings. It is already about 2 months since I changed to these strings and I noticed that the worth strings are constantly going out of tune. Is this something others have noticed as well or did I just get a dud?

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Since a similar question was asked last month, I'll kindly refer you to my reply on that thread here.

Also, which exact Worth string set arey ou using? Did you know that they have 2 lines (Brown and Clear) and each line has around a dozen different sets?

see their web site here. (<----you need to SCROLL DOWN)

I've never had such a problem as you've described and found Worth strings to settle to pitch MUCH quicker than other brands on over a dozen ukes, where I've had them installed.

ShibaUke said:

Also, I'd love to hear your opinion of Worth strings.

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I know a lot of people love them, but - I'm not a fan. They always sound dull to me compared to the Martin M600s that I use (at this point, I don't use anything else).

janeray1940 said:

I know a lot of people love them, but - I'm not a fan. They always sound dull to me compared to the Martin M600s that I use (at this point, I don't use anything else).

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those are the martins i use too! they are nice on the fingers.

I've found that the Worth's seem to really stay in-tune for long periods of time, once they're stretched out and in place. I do like the Martin fluorocarbons too. Those are cheaper/easier to find.

I liked the worth, but they didn't seem to last very long.
I liked the lower tension and thinner strings, and they held tune fine.
But their sound kinda decayed faster than I expected, especially the A and to some extent the E which both became noticibly duller, and mute after a little over a month of moderate play. So... I dunno. I guess it's a double set.. but they"re also double priced. I'm going to try d'addario carbon's next, as they come in an unwound low G.

For high G, I think I get better mileage from martins, and they're louder than worths. I don't really care about loud though, as they're all loud enough for me. But it felt like martins stayed more balanced across the strings than the worth did.

I think this is an interesting take on Worths.

I currently have Seaguar lines on a few of my ukes - they play GREAT!

http://typelink.net/wolfewithane/Fishing+for+Ukulele+String

MGM have hard to find ones here:
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?18975-fishing-line-ukulele-string-recipe

This one has links to oldephart's recipe's
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?86812-Seaguar-flurocarbon-current-status

Im considering buying a roll of 100LB for low G and just buying high g sets with odd low G's but I'm worried about the tone not matching, or the tension being so different that it feels wierd. It would have been nice to just replace the e and A when they went dull....

Hi Folks,
We have an Ohana tenor Uke, came with GHS Strings,and a high g.
We got some Martin 620's to replace the ghs when one string broke, we wanted to try a low g , so we took the C string (.35mm) from the ghs and used it for a low g, worked great, we can't get a low G set of martins , so, we came up with this,, get the martin 620 set and use the C string (3rd) for the Low G and use the gauges in this order,,, 21,25, 28 & 34, we haven't tried this yet , but thought we'd see what you all thought , it seems like it would be ok and less tension on the neck please let us know what ya think! thanks J&C (jack n cindy)

uke-a-little said:

Hi Folks,
We have an Ohana tenor Uke, came with GHS Strings,and a high g.
We got some Martin 620's to replace the ghs when one string broke, we wanted to try a low g , so we took the C string (.35mm) from the ghs and used it for a low g, worked great, we can't get a low G set of martins , so, we came up with this,, get the martin 620 set and use the C string (3rd) for the Low G and use the gauges in this order,,, 21,25, 28 & 34, we haven't tried this yet , but thought we'd see what you all thought , it seems like it would be ok and less tension on the neck please let us know what ya think! thanks J&C (jack n cindy)

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You can BUY a single low-G string from nearly a dozen different brands, I know this for a fact because I've done it and use them all the time when the rest of the set is fine, but the string maker only offers a re-entrant set.

Check elderly.com and stringsbymail.com, they BOTH have single low-G strings for MANY of the string sets that you can buy for ~$1-$2 each. (if you go on stringsbymail.com, go into Uke Strings, and then by company, and then by string series, and then you see both full sets and singles, on elderly.com go to uke strings, an then select the option to SORT BY PRICE:LOW-TO-HIGH, and the single strings will be listed first)

MANY folks that I know who like the Martin M620 or M600 sets and want a low-G will buy those sets and then a single PhD-brand low-g (clear PVDF fluorocarbon and 0.0358" diameter) from the Merchandise store here on UU. When I've done this myself, the strings magically arrive in about 4 days to NJ from Hawaii.

Also to note, for the Martin M620 tenor set the C string is 0.0340" in diameter, whereas many of Worths and Fremont C strings are 0.0319" diameter, and in either case seem pretty floppy with a dub-tub sound to me in C6 tuning, and to remedy that I will use either the aforementioned single PhD 0.0358" 'G' string for a C string to get more tension, or a wound C string, using the CF27 single chrome flatwound classical guitar string from Thomastik-Infeld, which has the lowest finger-squeak noise of the 12 different wound C strings I've tried so far. stringsbymail.com sells them under the classical guitar section in the Thomastik Superlona Nylon series.

It's been said that there is not much difference betw uke strings and those of other 'nylon' stringed instruments other than that they are cut shorter at the factory and put into different fancy packages that say 'UKULELE' instead of guitar, oud, or bozuki, and are followed with the 'marketing' for ukulele instead of the other instruments.

Thanks Booli,
we appreciate the input , we like the martins, and will look into getting some single low g's , and may try the 620 set and do the C string as a low G,
will let ya'll know what happens, wont hurt to try!!! J&C

uke-a-little said:

Thanks Booli,
we appreciate the input , we like the martins, and will look into getting some single low g's , and may try the 620 set and do the C string as a low G,
will let ya'll know what happens, wont hurt to try!!! J&C

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Glad to be of help, but I am not sure you understand exactly what I'm saying here...

Part of my reason in telling you the above in my previous post, is that if you planned to use the 'C' string which is typically 0.0340" or 0.0319" as a 'G' string, you will find that this string will probably not even have enough tension to register a single pitch on an electronic tuner (once in the area of that G3 note), and if somehow, you get it tuned, it will be so floppy and loose, that simply fretting the string a tiny bit too hard will kill your intonation on that string, as well has having what I call the 'dub dub tubby' sound, which is not unlike the sound of rubberbands on a tissue box.

The above situation is especially relevant for a string that has already be used under tension for more than a few mins. IMHO and thorough experience, once stretched past a certain point, no (nylon, fluorocarbon, or similar) string will hold tension for a pitch lower or higher than a minor 3rd (if you are lucky), and if you plan to tune a string (much) lower (going from C4 down to G3 is a FIFTH lower in pitch), your chances of success are greatly improved by using a fresh string (i.e., one that's brand new and never been installed or under tension)...