Pocket Uke - best strings for GCEA tuning?

fretie · Sep 23, 2016

I finally snagged a sweet little pocket uke from Tyde Music down in Lake Tahoe. The instrument is a lovely understated build that I love the look of but how to get it to play well in my familiar GCEA tuning?

The clear nylon strings that came on it sounded so-so but the C string seemed to constantly be out of tune. So I switched to soecifically Kala pocket uke strings but again the C string misbehaves. The C string still seems too loose and constantly sounding out of tune. I tried heading up an octave with the C string but it felt I was going into dangerous tension territory.

I want to play this uke while traveling and plan to stay with the chord shapes and tuning I am familiar with. Can anyone recommend strings that work well in GCEA tuning on a pocket uke?

jimavery · Sep 23, 2016

These small ukes really aren't designed for your usual GCEA tuning. I would recommend at least tuning up to ADF#B, or preferably CFAD. You can play the same chord shapes, albeit you'll need to sing a bit higher!

I transposed a few songs to mark them up with chord diagrams for CFAD tuning. I've posted a link in the tabs and chords forum here:-
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...-chords-for-CFAD-tuning&p=1894971#post1894971

igorthebarbarian · Sep 23, 2016

I agree with Jimavery above. I had an Ohana sopranino tuned up to D (ADF#B) and an Ohana sopranissimo O'nino that I tuned up to Eb. I think you had to go up in tunings as you go smaller than the normal soprano GCEA.

There may be piccolo strings available too which are designed for GCEA but tuned an octave up. A little too music box-y from the videos I've seen of those though.

jimavery said:
These small ukes really aren't designed for your usual GCEA tuning. I would recommend at least tuning up to ADF#B, or preferably CFAD. You can play the same chord shapes, albeit you'll need to sing a bit higher!

I transposed a few songs to mark them up with chord diagrams for CFAD tuning. I've posted a link in the tabs and chords forum here:-
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...-chords-for-CFAD-tuning&p=1894971#post1894971

fretie · Sep 23, 2016

OI, now this is new territory for me...
so if I am understanding this correctly, I could tune the pocket uke to CFAD or ADF#B and still the chords shapes I'm used to would result in the same chord albeit an octave higher? Like 2210 woukd still be Dm or 0212 woukd still be G7?

kypfer · Sep 23, 2016

fretie said:
OI, now this is new territory for me...
so if I am understanding this correctly, I could tune the pocket uke to CFAD or ADF#B and still the chords shapes I'm used to would result in the same chord albeit an octave higher? Like 2210 woukd still be Dm or 0212 woukd still be G7?

No ... if you were a full octave higher the tuning would still be GCEA, but an octave higher than usual !!

Tuning up to ADF#B will make your G7 shape an A7, tuning to CFAD will make it a C7. Similarly your Dm shape would become Em or Gm respectively.

So you can still use your familiar chord shapes, but you'll have to call them different names.

If you're wanting to sing along in the same key as usual, C for instance, you'll need to transpose your chord shapes to suit

fowl · Sep 23, 2016

Try some Fremont blackline hard tension strings. I think you might like them foe gCEA tuning.

fretie · Sep 24, 2016

fowl said:
Try some Fremont blackline hard tension strings. I think you might like them foe gCEA tuning.

Thank you for this suggestion!

Have you had experience with these strings on a pocket uke?

fowl · Sep 24, 2016

I put the Fremont blacklines on a Tom pocket uke and the sound improved a lot. It is much brighter.

fretie · Sep 24, 2016

fowl said:
I put the Fremont blacklines on a Tom pocket uke and the sound improved a lot. It is much brighter.

Cool, I will try them out too then, thanx.

raqcoon · Oct 25, 2016

1A .030 Nylgut, 2E .023 Nylgut, 3C .027w, 4G .027w

This is a low G concoction that I contrived from Aquila 8u. The .027w is cut in half to serve as C & G.

The Pocket off-the-shelf is sonically stoic. With this configuration tone & tension are acceptable, subjectively speaking. The C seems to have proper tension, while the others are somewhat loose but adequate.

Hypothetically D'addario EJ66SC is also a decent choice, as evidenced on my ancient koa uke that was lifeless with other strings. D'addario should be OK on the Pocket for all-plain high-G, predictably somewhat loose.

I haven't put the EJ66SC on my Pocket because to my ears my 8u hack sounds pretty good. The wound strings will eventually fray, common for nylon core.

JackLuis · Oct 25, 2016

fowl said:
I put the Fremont blacklines on a Tom pocket uke and the sound improved a lot. It is much brighter.

I used these, in the Hard version, on my Rubin pocket uke and they worked really well on it's 11 1/4" scale. Tension is much better and they chime nicely.

Pocket Uke - best strings for GCEA tuning?

fretie

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