Strings with strong fundamentals and strings with polished/ground/flat basses

2xbass

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In the double bass world we often talk about strings with strong fundamentals. I've never thought about it much with uke strings but my wife put Mahanas on one of her ukes last night and they are awesome. Really strong fundamental but still very clear. Electronic tuner locks right in on them even while they are decaying.

I'm wondering if others can recommend low G tenor sets with similarly strong fundamentals.

Separately, I have Southcoast HML-RWs on one uke and ML-WBs on another and love the polished windings. Are there other low G tenor sets that have similar polished/ground/flat wound basses?

Thanks,

Adrian
 
Try the Thomastik-Infeld CF30 (G) and CF27. Flatwound polished chrome over nylon. Extremely well balanced with Oasis fluorocarbons and as quiet to finger noise as I've seen. These are the best linear strings I've seen. As it is now you still have to piece the sets together though and they aren't cheap.
 
In general I find that fluro-carbon strings have a strong fundamental tone with a strong mid-range tone which sounds sweet but after a while a bit boring to me. I like Aquila Nylguts which are weaker in the fundamental tone but have stronger harmonics. Not as sweet but I find they sound bigger and more interesting to me.

Anthony
 
I agree on the tone for the Nylguts but I find them too plucky for me with not enough sustain.
 
How would one define "strong fundamentals"? I haven't heard the term before in regard to strings.
 
How would one define "strong fundamentals"? I haven't heard the term before in regard to strings.

When a note rings at a given pitch, you hear the nominal pitch, plus harmonics. Harmonics such as 4ths and 5ths sound "warm" and harmonics such as 3rds, 6ths and 7ths can sound "cold".

Strong fundamentals would be the nominal note plus some 4ths and 5ths. I haven't analysed the sound but Nylguts would be weaker on the nominal tone compared to fluro-carbon strings and strong on the harmonics including the 3rds and 6ths.

Anthony
 
I agree on the tone for the Nylguts but I find them too plucky for me with not enough sustain.

I always detune my tenor ukuleles 2 or 3 semitones which provides MORE sustain and mellows the sound a little. I like to detune concerts 1 semitone.

Anthony
 
Try the Thomastik-Infeld CF30 (G) and CF27. Flatwound polished chrome over nylon. Extremely well balanced with Oasis fluorocarbons and as quiet to finger noise as I've seen. These are the best linear strings I've seen. As it is now you still have to piece the sets together though and they aren't cheap.

I installed these on my LFDM and these are like the holy grail for me. Absolutely awesome tone and feel. As Chuck said, extremely well balanced. These absolutely trounce the South Coast strings that came on my uke. I honestly couldn't imagine anything better. Thanks for the awesome tip, Chuck!
 
I installed these on my LFDM and these are like the holy grail for me. Absolutely awesome tone and feel. As Chuck said, extremely well balanced. These absolutely trounce the South Coast strings that came on my uke. I honestly couldn't imagine anything better. Thanks for the awesome tip, Chuck!
I ordered a few pairs of these based on Chucks recommendations as well. I have an LfdM with HML-RW on it..........I feel a string experimentation coming on.

Thanks for your feed back and sharing
 
Please do share your thoughts when you try them. I may have lost a tiny bit of volume on the bottom end between this setup and the HML-RWs but it is totally worth it and I do appreciate the new bass strings being slightly lower tension. The entire set is, as Chuck said, very balanced. The sound is more open and sweeter.
 
Please do share your thoughts when you try them. I may have lost a tiny bit of volume on the bottom end between this setup and the HML-RWs but it is totally worth it and I do appreciate the new bass strings being slightly lower tension. The entire set is, as Chuck said, very balanced. The sound is more open and sweeter.

I was talking to Andrew at HMS and he also mentioned about loosing a bit on bass when switching to the Thomstik pair. My LfdM is a spruce top and while it has decent bass I certainly don't want to loose any of it. I guess there is only one way to find out. It won't happen for a while as I am very happy with the sound and I just changed strings on it about two months ago. But you DO have me curious
 
I'm still super happy with the Thomastik strings on the bottom and definitely prefer them over the HML-RW. I still have plenty of low end on the LFDM. I'm loving the Thomastiks so much I am using them on two other ukes and ordered a whole bunch of spares.

Separately I did swap out the Oasis strings just this morning for Mahanas on the top and I think I am preferring that. They also have pretty strong fundamentals like the Thomastik strings and are a good match with a fatter tone. There is a bit less sustain than the Oasis strings but they sing as much as the Thomastiks do so it's a good match. I have actually wondered what it would be like to use the top two nylon strings from that Thomastik Classic N set that the CF27 and CF30 come from.
 
I abandoned the Mahanas. I found they (and the Oasis) tended to crap out too easily if I really dig in with my thumb (not even strumming but mostly single finger soloing). Now trying Worth Browns with the CF27 and CF30. The second string is a reasonable match but the first is still a little too bright. Worth Brown Fats might work. I've also ordered the matching nylon strings from that Thomastik set plus various D'Addario fat nylons to try (from the EJ65T and EJ53T sets). Coming from double bass where I'm used to much fatter strings and about 8x the tension I'm quite happy to play much heavier gauge if it gives me more tone.
 
Fremont Soloist is a nice smooth wound low G string with some good thump. Pairs well with both Living Waters and PHD C, E & A strings .
 
So I now have three ukes with the CF27 and CF30 strings on the bottom. On the top of the LFDM I have the CN27 and CN31 strings. These are the matching nylon strings from that Thomastik-Infeld set. You can get all these strings in the Classic N CF128 set. Just use the top four strings from the set. So far I'm liking it. Sounds more like guitar than uke but that's fine with me.

On my Pono TE I have the top two strings from the D'Addario EJ53T set. These are black nylon. Needed these super dark strings on that uke. Sounds great amplified. They are a bit high-tension but fine for me. On a Córdoba 30T-CE I have the two top strings from the D'Addario EJ65T. These are clear nylon. I believe these are actually the Mahana strings (or something close) as made by D'Addario for Ko'ohlau. Not sure if I'll stay with these or just put the CN27 and CN31. I wanted something a bit darker for that particular uke which is a pretty bright instrument.
 
Still loving these strings and delving more into classical guitar strings. So many more options available. I took delivery of a Pono Pro Classic baritone cutaway slothead today with Cedar top and Macassar Ebony back and sides and pretty quickly replaced the bottom two strings of the Alohi set with the Thomastik CF30 and CF35 strings from the same set we've been discussing. These are what would normally be the A and D strings on guitar, tuned to D and G on baritone. Tension seems pretty spot on.
 
Thanks very much for the continual updates, keep them coming. This is really valuable stuff for those of us that like to experiment with different string combos, especially the wound third and fourth strings.

How are you liking the Pono Pro Classic baritone, I like the wood set that you picked. I have the very same in a Pono Pro Classic tenor, great pairing of top and back woods to bring out sustain and projection.
 
Another example of how good these strings Thomastik strings are: I was having a lot of trouble getting the new Pono baritone to sing between the 7th and 12th frets. Enough that I was thinking I might even have to send the uke back. It was sounding really choked up there. Even though I had the CF30 and CF35 on the bottom, I had tried various other strings on the top including the Alohi that it came with, some Worth Browns (bottom two from tenor set as top two on baritone), and clear (EJ65B) and black nylon (EJ53B) D'Addario baritone strings. I finally put on the CF27 and CN30 from the Thomastik set - so now the uke has the middle four strings from that guitar set (as opposed to the top four which are on my LFDM tenor) and it is just a complete world of difference. Really sings up there now.

I had initially avoided putting the Thomastiks on the top because it meant having three metal strings. Thomastik does provide other options for that string - either a CN39 (pretty thick) or a CP33 (a hybrid high density fiber string) which can be obtained in sets with roundwounds but can also be ordered separately from Strings by Mail (special order for the CP33) but I have not ordered any. As it turns out I'm totally fine with the metal 2nd string especially as these flatwounds are so nice under the fingers and it really helps fill in the sound for the Cedar/Macassar which has a bit of a natural EQ scoop (lots of bottom and top but less in the mids).

By the way, I found the D'Addario baritone nylon strings pretty crappy. The clears especially sound and feel very much like typical cheap, plasticky, hollow sounding strings.
 
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So I now have three ukes with the CF27 and CF30 strings on the bottom. On the top of the LFDM I have the CN27 and CN31 strings. These are the matching nylon strings from that Thomastik-Infeld set. You can get all these strings in the Classic N CF128 set. Just use the top four strings from the set. So far I'm liking it. Sounds more like guitar than uke but that's fine with me.

What's the tension like in comparison to the Ko'olau strings that your Pono baritone came with? I'm still happy with the Aquila Red Series set on mine, but you seem to have a much better ear for nuances, and experience, than I do, so I'm curious now. The CF128 set is easy to get over here (costs 12 euros or so).
 
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