D'Addario EJ65S, GCEA tuning?

cpmusic

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I bought some D'Addario EJ65S strings (soprano, extruded nylon) to try out, not noticing that they're designed for ADF#B tuning. Has anyone used these strings with GCEA tuning? If so, what is your impression?

I know it won't hurt to try them since I have them since, if they're not right for it the tension will only be on the low side, but if this is something that others know not to work, I'd rather save myself the trouble and give them to someone who tunes higher and can make better use of them.
 
Hi, Chris, I read somewhere that one can use them for either C or D. I have a soprano Uke with C strings tuned to D and they sound all right to me. I also have a concert wth C strings (low G) tuned to Bb flat, and it sounds better than it did before. I think a tuning change of one step won't hurt anything.

Just try it and see if you like it. :eek:ld:
 
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That set is yuck... too thin and loose...

I highly recommend using the D'addario Pro-Arte Concert strings instead.
Better tension.

Concert strings work for both sopranos and tenors anyway, in my experience.
 
I'll resurrect this topic :D

after trying nylgut, super nylgut, fluorocarbon and black nylon (rectified), I'd like to try some clear nylon strings, but I have the exact same question about them: will they work tuned GCEA on a soprano?


I saw that even GHS labels it's clear nylon as better for ADF#B tuning, but they have a smaller gauge (22-28-32-22, instead of the 24-32-34-28 of D'Addario).

I'm really likeing the black nylons from D'Addario (EJ53s), due to their warm but bright tone, the slinky feeling and the "not-too-harsh" volume, that makes my Ohana sk38 sound sweet and woody.

however, I can't deal with the fact that I haven't tried cler nylons :D

from what I read on the web, clear nylons are the "purest" strings in terms of sound, the ones making your cheap uke sound cheap, and a good uke sound good, so I'm curious about it.

with Aquila, my two ukes (a 30€ laminate uke and a 200€ solid mahogany one) sound almost the same, just slightly more volume on the solid one, and with fluorocarbons they both sound loud and clear, and the laminated one became so powerful and sustained that it can be mistaken for an expensive one :D the only difference is that the solid one is a bit "fuller" on the basses, so it seem to have more volume.

Black Nylons were crappy on the laminated uke, but sweet and mellow on the solid one, so I'm curious to try the effect of clear nylon, but I don't want to find that they are too loose in C-tuning...
 
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that's interesting, for sure, but how does it help the topic? :p

nobody here said that fluorocarbon weren't good strings with long sustain and clarity, but maybe it's not the favourite sound of everyone :D personally, I like the short sustain and fast attack, and fluorocarbons don't give me this, and in fact I'm likeing black nylon strings, which are the muddiest and warmest of all, on a soprano :D

do you have any experience with this set of nylons in this particular scenario? (EJ65s on a soprano tuned in C)
 
I never did follow up on this thread, and I apologize for that.

I ran these strings on a couple of laminated ukes tuned to C, and I didn't care for them. However, I don't the EJ65S strings are fluorocarbon; they're advertised as clear nylon, and I don't think that's the same thing (experts, please weigh in). I really like Martin's fluorocarbon strings, which sound very different than the D'Addario clear nylons.
 
yes, "clear nylon" and "fluorocarbon" are totaly different materials, even if they are both plastic "nylon".

fluorocarbon has more density, so strings made of this material are thin but tight, and they sound brighter, clearer and with long sustain.

clear nylon is less dense, so strings made of this material are large but loose, they sound mellower and with shorter sustain. the clear nylon sound is the classical sound you hear from old recordings, after the advent of nylon strings over the gut.

here are a couple examples:

this is a soprano tuned in D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H865uHF3WLg

this is a tenor (I think it's actually a concert with a big body): https://youtu.be/K-8JCFDtEYE?t=98

fluorocarbon is rather recent, and it was "discovered" as a material for strings in the past few years. it's not produced by string companies, but it's produced by fishing companies, because it's the material used for fishing leaders (if you search on youtube and on the web, you'll find in depth topics about Seagur fishing leaders): it came out that with thinner strings there were a good amount of tension, plus a bright and modern tone, so guitarists and other stringed-musician started using them.

different brands made a selection of gauges and tensions, to create the sets we buy, and the differences are few: for example, the Worth Medium set is identical to the D'Addario EJ99 set, except for the C, which is bigger in the D'Addario set.
Martin M600 have smaller G, E and A, but an even bigger C than D'Addario's.

some users decided to buy bulk fishing leaders instead of buying sets of strings.

so, for a modern, bright clear and sustained sound, fluorocarbon is the best choice, bot for some users it's just too bright.

I like it, but I also like the short-sustained mellow tone of nylon strings, for a different purpose.

for example, Jake Shimabukuro uses D'Addario clear nylons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB3RbO7updc

with his style of playing, I think that fluorocarbon could be too harsh and thin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABf5Z84nQAo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0IFWSvMwc8

these two are the D'Addario EJ99T, for example.
 
I have to say I really like the sound of nylon on my baritone (had tried fluorocarbon too, it sounded comparatively thin), and had never tried the material on my other ukes. Then again, I always liked fluorocarbon on my smaller instruments, so I never felt the need to experiment like I did with the baritone (until recently when I got curious about alternative tunings for my tenors).

Hmm, is there a difference between the black and the clear nylon? I was looking at the D'Addario EJ53T set, since it has a wound C, but the G is high. Do they have a tenor nylon set for low-G? Didn't find one so far. (I find myself really liking wound strings right now.)
 
Hmm, is there a difference between the black and the clear nylon? I was looking at the D'Addario EJ53T set, since it has a wound C, but the G is high. Do they have a tenor nylon set for low-G? Didn't find one so far. (I find myself really liking wound strings right now.)

yes, black nylon is "rectified", it means that it's grounded from a bigger gauge, so the strings have a "texture", they are not smooth (and they make noise), and they are mellower.
imagine not to have any high frequency :D only bass and mids, so chords are a bit muddy, volume is low and fingerpicking is extremely mellow and "quiet".

here are some bad samples (recorded with the microphone of the Samsung S3, so nothing special, but you can understand). the uke is a Ohana SK38, soprano, solid mahogany:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kuv9a35ohk4qj7w/Ohana sk38 - D'Addario EJ53s - Il Pinguino.m4a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/neig0hq4zulj7bv/Ohana sk38 - D'Addario EJ53s - L'ambasciatore.m4a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w2gdp7hxtl92w8y/Ohana sk38 - D'Addario EJ53s - Super Mario Theme.m4a?dl=0

ah, they have an higer tension compared to fluorocarbons and clear nylons, so the first times it's not that easy to play them (the playing in these samples is crappy because of this :p I recorded them just as I strung the uke).
 
Awesome, thank you for the samples! Okay, so black nylons are out. Good thing I asked. :) Hmm, so perhaps I need to mix and match, like, grab the clear nylons set, and replace the high-G string with a wound G string, like the Fremont Soloist that everyone raves about.
 
Its a pleasure to help :) I'm a bog fan of samples, because they help much understanding some characteristics and differences.

However, anyone else tried the EJ65s tuned in C?
 
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