What strings for Guilele? Also... bone nut and saddle swap?

Hi all, I recently picked-up a Cordoba Guilele CE and have just really been enjoying this little gem. I've had a Yamaha Guitalele for several years (that I rarely play any more), but the Cordoba just seems to have a livelier, more natural, woody, sustaining tone.

I plan to order a non-bleached bone nut and saddle blank for it from Stew-Mac and replace the cheap, poorly-cut nut and the saddle that came on the instrument. I've experienced good tone improvements doing that on nylon string guitars in the past. Has this been your experience with ukes?

At that time, I might as well put a new set of strings on her as well. What strings do you recommend for the Guilele? I have a handful of nice classical nylon sets for my flamenco/classical nylon string guitars. But these strings seem to be less "beefy" and more suited to the instruments smaller size. Maybe they're just soft/low tension classical strings?

I like bone for its durability. As far as the sound goes, sometimes it might improve a little to my ears and other times not. I'm speaking mainly of the saddle. If you think about it, the nut is only in play when you are playing open strings so it doesn't have much of an impact on tone. As soon as you fret a note, you're taking the nut out of play tone-wise.

I think my ideal setup is a bone saddle and a Tusq XL nut. The Tusq XL has some built in lubrication. I also like the original Tusq for saddles, it's just not as durable as bone. It dents easily.

That's my 4 cents.

I've got this big bag of plastic saddles I got for pretty cheap on evilbay, or amazon? anyway, it was alot of them for cheap.
When I want to try something with a saddle, I'll do it in cheap plastic, and if I don't like it, I can always go back to stock.
Long story short.. I don't hear a difference between the bone and plastic.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!

I'm going for a bone nut mostly because the one that came on the instrument isn't all that well-done. The high A string slot is cut too deep, and the rest of the cuts aren't all that well-done. Plus, I prefer the look of a well-made, polished bone nut. I'm going for a nut saddle because 1) it won't get grooves worn in it (like the TUSQ style ones seem to get), and 2) because in my experience with acoustic guitars, the bone saddle will make some difference in tone. I like the tone of this little guy just the way it is... but I figured that if I'm going to be shaping a new nut, then I might as well do a (much easier) saddle out of bone as well.

Regarding strings, does anyone have any suggestions for good quality, appropriately-sized strings for a Guilele?

Red_Label said:

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!

I'm going for a bone nut mostly because the one that came on the instrument isn't all that well-done. The high A string slot is cut too deep, and the rest of the cuts aren't all that well-done. Plus, I prefer the look of a well-made, polished bone nut. I'm going for a nut saddle because 1) it won't get grooves worn in it (like the TUSQ style ones seem to get), and 2) because in my experience with acoustic guitars, the bone saddle will make some difference in tone. I like the tone of this little guy just the way it is... but I figured that if I'm going to be shaping a new nut, then I might as well do a (much easier) saddle out of bone as well.

Regarding strings, does anyone have any suggestions for good quality, appropriately-sized strings for a Guilele?

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I've been happy with GHS La Classique 2390 Smoothwound on my Cordoba Guilele: https://www.stringsbymail.com/ghs-l...nd-basses-med-high-tension-full-set-1934.html