(Sorry it's so long and ramble-y.)
It's odd, but with my smaller ukuleles I never really thought much about strings. They mostly came with Worth and Martins, and those worked fine for me. I got a soprano that had Living Water strings on it, and I really liked those, too. And on another uke, I have Aquila Nylguts, which sound good on that particular instrument.
I figured the impact of strings was exaggerated, but then the baritone entered the picture.
It came with linear Ko'olau 50/50 strings, and while I liked the sound, the open D was booming (almost like a buzz, but not quite, just as if it wanted to buzz but didn't dare to). I also didn't quite like the gauge/tension and the feel of the rather thick wound D string that did buzz when not perfectly fretted in the second fret. I suspected the boom might be because of the linear tuning (which I didn't like on my tenor). So, I got a set of re-entrant Living Water strings from Ken.
I liked the feel of the strings, but I didn't like the sound of my Pono when strung with them. Now, I doubt it's the strings. I think it's the material and the tuning. The G string was unimpressive, kind of thuddy, no chime. Overall, the re-entrant dGBE tuning took the life out of my baritone. It's hard to describe. It didn't sound bad, it sounded unremarkable. There was no "Wow!" effect. It sounded a bit muted, in a way, or really, just like an average, lower voiced uke, but nothing about it stood out. No comparison to how it had sounded before (boom and all).
I didn't like that outcome, because I wanted to like it in re-entrant tuning, but well, I don't think that's where this particular instrument's voice is (maybe if it was a vintage baritone with a thin finish and a dried out mahogany top, but this is a high gloss spruce baritone). The linear Ko'olau wound strings hadn't worked for me, either, so what to do?
I had two packs of other baritone strings sitting around, the Aquila Reds and the D'Addario EJ88B. I had read that a few people had liked those, so I started with them. And that was a good call! The two wound strings are noticeably thinner than the wounds the Pono came originally with, and, what's really awesome: The booming is gone! I also feel they squeak less.
They need to settle more, but preliminary impressions are favorable. The G string chimes really nicely, as does the low-D one. The two plain NylTech strings (B and E) are thicker than the fluorocarbon LW ones, but surprisingly (to me) the rather fat B string (.0362/0.92) doesn't sound dull at all.
I'll see how I feel about these in a couple days. I would have liked to avoid the wound strings (mostly because they will need more frequent changing), but I can't deny that they sound more vibrant. Gauge-wise, the D'Addario EJ88B feel great to me, with the tension just the way I like it. And the chime of the instrument is awesome. The open D and G strings audibly resonate for ten plus seconds.
I guess I'll keep the baritone in linear tuning for now. It's not what I would have ideally liked, but I can't deny that it sounds (on this instrument) miles better. I do plan to try re-entrant baritone strings from Southcoast eventually, too, but for now I'm glad I found something that seems to work and that is readily available locally.
Amazing how much strings affect the tone. That wound G string from the D'Addario EJ88B set is miles ahead of the fluorocarbon one ... OK, I'll stop gushing now, but really, it's like night and day. I'll deal with the squeak for a better tone.
Update: Currently exploring the Aquila Red Series for baritone! (See further down in this thread.)
It's odd, but with my smaller ukuleles I never really thought much about strings. They mostly came with Worth and Martins, and those worked fine for me. I got a soprano that had Living Water strings on it, and I really liked those, too. And on another uke, I have Aquila Nylguts, which sound good on that particular instrument.
I figured the impact of strings was exaggerated, but then the baritone entered the picture.
It came with linear Ko'olau 50/50 strings, and while I liked the sound, the open D was booming (almost like a buzz, but not quite, just as if it wanted to buzz but didn't dare to). I also didn't quite like the gauge/tension and the feel of the rather thick wound D string that did buzz when not perfectly fretted in the second fret. I suspected the boom might be because of the linear tuning (which I didn't like on my tenor). So, I got a set of re-entrant Living Water strings from Ken.
I liked the feel of the strings, but I didn't like the sound of my Pono when strung with them. Now, I doubt it's the strings. I think it's the material and the tuning. The G string was unimpressive, kind of thuddy, no chime. Overall, the re-entrant dGBE tuning took the life out of my baritone. It's hard to describe. It didn't sound bad, it sounded unremarkable. There was no "Wow!" effect. It sounded a bit muted, in a way, or really, just like an average, lower voiced uke, but nothing about it stood out. No comparison to how it had sounded before (boom and all).
I didn't like that outcome, because I wanted to like it in re-entrant tuning, but well, I don't think that's where this particular instrument's voice is (maybe if it was a vintage baritone with a thin finish and a dried out mahogany top, but this is a high gloss spruce baritone). The linear Ko'olau wound strings hadn't worked for me, either, so what to do?
I had two packs of other baritone strings sitting around, the Aquila Reds and the D'Addario EJ88B. I had read that a few people had liked those, so I started with them. And that was a good call! The two wound strings are noticeably thinner than the wounds the Pono came originally with, and, what's really awesome: The booming is gone! I also feel they squeak less.
They need to settle more, but preliminary impressions are favorable. The G string chimes really nicely, as does the low-D one. The two plain NylTech strings (B and E) are thicker than the fluorocarbon LW ones, but surprisingly (to me) the rather fat B string (.0362/0.92) doesn't sound dull at all.
I'll see how I feel about these in a couple days. I would have liked to avoid the wound strings (mostly because they will need more frequent changing), but I can't deny that they sound more vibrant. Gauge-wise, the D'Addario EJ88B feel great to me, with the tension just the way I like it. And the chime of the instrument is awesome. The open D and G strings audibly resonate for ten plus seconds.
I guess I'll keep the baritone in linear tuning for now. It's not what I would have ideally liked, but I can't deny that it sounds (on this instrument) miles better. I do plan to try re-entrant baritone strings from Southcoast eventually, too, but for now I'm glad I found something that seems to work and that is readily available locally.
Amazing how much strings affect the tone. That wound G string from the D'Addario EJ88B set is miles ahead of the fluorocarbon one ... OK, I'll stop gushing now, but really, it's like night and day. I'll deal with the squeak for a better tone.
Update: Currently exploring the Aquila Red Series for baritone! (See further down in this thread.)
Last edited: