A Living Water testimonial

Wooville

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 29, 2012
Messages
572
Reaction score
238
Location
Maysville, Kentucky "on the banks of the Ohio"
I promised over a year ago that I would review my take on the Living Water Baritone (low D) strings.

As the story goes....In late 2013, I purchased an Ohona Baritone Uke from fellow lister, MiM's. It came equipped with Aquila Strings, the ones with the wrapped G and D strings. Sounded great to start, but began to breakdown and unravel after a few weeks. So I replaced the wrapped strings with more Aquila, yet still was having same issue. I then tried the Martin wrapped strings....same issues. I ever tried the Aquila Reds, but found them to be too brittle and broke a couple pretty quick. I then wondered if there was an issue with the Uke itself. So I honed all the frets and any rough edges I could find, though couldn't really see any issues that would cause the string wear. I ever got to the point that I was honing the callouses on my fingers, thinking that may be causing the string issues. I was at wits end.

Told you all that to tell you this...

I sought direction from those on this forum and many suggested that I try the Living Water Strings. These sets have no wrapped strings, so nothing to unravel. So I ordered a couple of sets from Ken Middleton in England. That's the only place to get them, though UkeRepublic does carry some of the sets now. I waited patiently for the new strings to arrive. After 3 weeks, I contacted Ken and he assured me that my order went out on time. After a month they finally arrived from England via Australia. (bit of a routing problem).

I installed these strings on 3-25-2014 At the time and pretty much ever since, I've played this Uke exclusively. It has gotten played a couple of hours or more nearly everyday. It has went with me to no less than 6 Bluegrass Festivals during this time frame in which it had hours and hours of playing time and faced the elements everyday of going from Hot vehicle to cool evenings and everything in-between. I have been playing this Uke exclusively with my newest band, 3 Hits and A Miss. Finally the strings started breaking down and was hard to keep in tune and the intonation was noticeably off. Time to change strings! 15 months of HARD playing...I'll take that anytime. So I changed strings this week and today ordered more replacements. Hopefully they don't visit Australia again this time. Thanks Ken Middleton!

Wooville
 
I like the Living Water Strings too. I think they are especially good on my concert neck Flea and my super concert Kanile'a. I have ordered several times, and never had a shipping issue, so I am sure your order will come much faster this time. I haven't tried the Baritone Strings yet, so I will bear that in mind when I need new bari strings.

–Lori
 
I have a Lanikai O-8 on the way and it's strung with LW's. Never tried them before so I'm looking forward to checking them out since they seem to be universally loved.
 
+1 for Living Waters! They sound great on all the concert and tenor ukes I've tried them on, and they have a nice soft, silky feel to me as well.
 
I have used Ken's Living Water high-D/ re-entrant D baritone strings before and those are great too. Get the Low G in there, but the high D makes it more uke-like with the re-entrant tuning. They're smooth strings. Well worth the time to get here (though they were fairly quick to Arizona from the UK, maybe 10 days tops). Plus Ken's an active member here!
 
I find baritone string just wear faster than strings on the smaller size ukes, especially wound strings. Some I have used only lasted two weeks of playing every day.

I find that to be totally unacceptable for any string to last only a couple of weeks. That's why I'm now using Living Waters. I really don't have to get 15 months wear out of a set of strings, but I expect much more than a couple of weeks.

wooville
 
I like Living Waters; right now both my concerts are set up low G with a LW/Fremont Soloist combo, which sounds fantastic on both ukes. (Still deciding which one will be the dedicated low G ukulele.) I also have a set to try on my Kamaka pineapple, but right now the Worth Browns are great. My Kelii concert has had the LWs on for about 9 months or so, I think. They feel really nice under my fingers, not too thin, which is great compared to many other fluorocarbon sets.
 
I use Living Waters. Low g on my Tenor, glad to hear you like them on the baritone. I just bought a kala baritone at a second hand shop and ordered a couple of low d sets to try. Waiting patiently for their arrival.
 
So far every Uke I have tried LW's on sounds great.
I have a vintage Gibson soprano that came alive.
My DaSilva and Clara sound and feel better as well.
My significant other's Blackbird tenor responds to them too.
 
I think I'll try a set when I wear out the Aquilas I put on a couple of months ago. Good post, OP. Thanks
 
I don't like these strings. My point is that C string is really too weak. I tried these strings on several soprano and tenor ukes and I never got the expected results. I definately prefer the SAVAREZ KF.
 
I installed Living Waters on my Pono ATDC Tenor and have been very satisfied with them. Volume and sustain is very acceptable and they stay very much in tune all the time. They are the perfect match for this ukulele and my taste.
 
I like the Living Waters too. They feel really great, silky as someone said above, yet not slippery so they're hard to pick or anything. I have a low G set on my concert. Love 'em! Still seeking higher tension, but that's an ongoing thing and not related to these strings. They intonate very well, sound and sustain are beautiful, and I like the feel. So even though they're not as tight/resistant as I'd like, I'm keeping them on. I also like that they're not wound. If I have a bari again, LW's will be my first, and probably last strings to try. :)
 
Top Bottom