Need Recommendation on strings for Solid Ovangkol Uke

Howdy all,

I have a Cordoba 23T-CE with Aquila 10U New Gut strings. It is very low volume and it doesn't have much sustain. It is a Solid Ovangkol tenor uke (at least the Cordoba website says it does). Can anyone recommend some strings that would give me some more sustain and more volume ?

One another note, the Uke is Electric Acoustic out of the box and I notice that it doesnt sound good at all when plugged into an amp. It sounds very choppy and has 0 sustain. Is that a byproduct of the strings or are the electronics on the Uke just plain old crappy and I need to get a third party hookup installed ?

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated !

Thanks,
UkeTruck

With regard to plugging in, maybe you need a new battery. I'm not a great fan of Aquila strings, so I would try flourocarbons on it.

In my limited experience with an all solid rosewood soprano and an all solid mahogany concert, Worth strings (clear) give more sustain than Aquilas, and Living Water more than Worth. It's difficult to compare volume as both the Worth and the LW are brighter and clearer which makes them SEEM louder.

greatone88 said:

Howdy all,

I have a Cordoba 23T-CE with Aquila 10U New Gut strings. It is very low volume and it doesn't have much sustain. It is a Solid Ovangkol tenor uke (at least the Cordoba website says it does). Can anyone recommend some strings that would give me some more sustain and more volume ?

One another note, the Uke is Electric Acoustic out of the box and I notice that it doesnt sound good at all when plugged into an amp. It sounds very choppy and has 0 sustain. Is that a byproduct of the strings or are the electronics on the Uke just plain old crappy and I need to get a third party hookup installed ?

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated !

Thanks,
UkeTruck

Click to expand...

Are these the strings that came on the instrument when you bought it?

If so they could be ripe for replacement since over time strings lose their tone and volume, maybe it's time for you to change them? How long have they been on?

Also, nearly EVERY/ANY flurocarbon string will have at least double the sustain of Aquila Nylgut, SuperNylgut, or LAVA strings, as well as a brighter and louder tone, with seemingly less tension under the fingers...

Worth CM, Oasis Brights, D'Addario EJ99SC, Martin M600, Living Water, PhD's are all easily available worldwide and are flurocarbon strings you can try.

Worth makes about 15 different gauges of strings, each in CLEAR and BROWN fluorocarbon. The BROWN strings have a slightly warmer tone, and like the OASIS strings, you get a double-length of string in the pack, which you are meant to cut in half prior to installation, hence the price being a little higher than the single-length sets...

See the Worth strings here (scroll down):

http://worthc.to/english/w_strings.html

Also, if you are buying strings off Amazon, you are usually paying too much, some other good choices, with a nice selection of uke strings (some exclusive to each site) are:

https://stringsbymail.com

https://stringsandbeyond.com

https://juststrings.com

https://cargo.ukerepublic.com (sole USA seller of Living Water strings)

https://theukulelesite.com

https://allstringsnylon.com

https://elderly.com

Hope this helps!

Thanks everyone for all your words of advice !!

Booli, I changed out the strings to another set of 10U's about 2 months ago and have the same sound. I did purchase my Uke from allstringsnylon.com, so I will give them a shot. Lots of folks recommend the Worth's, now to figure out what gauge I need I believe I like warmer tones, so I will go with the brown. I might just get one of each and then use the one I like the best.

Since I have a Tenor Uke, I should get the Worth CT instead of the CM, right ?

Thanks,
JIm

greatone88 said:

Thanks everyone for all your words of advice !!

Booli, I changed out the strings to another set of 10U's about 2 months ago and have the same sound. I did purchase my Uke from allstringsnylon.com, so I will give them a shot. Lots of folks recommend the Worth's, now to figure out what gauge I need I believe I like warmer tones, so I will go with the brown. I might just get one of each and then use the one I like the best.

Since I have a Tenor Uke, I should get the Worth CT instead of the CM, right ?

Thanks,
JIm

Click to expand...

CT/BT strings are thicker and will be louder, with MORE tension, and less sustain than the CM/BM strings, which will be a little more jangly in tone, have longer sustain due to the slightly lower tension, but will also have slightly less volume than the CT/BT, when using the CM/BM on the tenor.

Also, even though the CM/BM strings are only 46" in length, if you cut them exactly in half, and tie your knots very close to the ends with very little excess you can get them on a tenor, otherwise the D'Addario EJ99SC are the SAME gauges as the Worth CM/BM and have more than enough length for the tenor scale, and the D'Addario EJ99T (which are specified for tenor) are in fact the SAME string gauges as the EJ99SC, it is just the EJ99t-LG that has a low-G as an 0.0410" unwound fluoro string instead of the thinner string used for the high-G.

Additionally the Living Water 'soprano' strings are the same gauges as the Worth CM/BM and D'Addario EJ99SC/T strings.

There are differences in tension between strings of different thicknesses (but really it is LINEAR DENSITY that is the difference, and that is what you see as the end result in the actual string diameter) and as strings specified for different scale lengths that are in the labels or string packs more a 'guide' or suggestion than an absolute rule. I have experimented with over 100 different sets of uke and classical guitar strings over the past 3 years and I tell you all of this from my own hands-on practical experience.

Nearly all Fluoro uke strings are going to be significantly thinner gauge (diameter) than the Aquila Nylgut, SuperNylgut or ANY actual real 'nylon' strings to achieve the tuning at concert pitch with proper tension and good intonation. This is because fluorocarbon has a higher LINEAR DENSITY than Nylon, Nylgut, etc....

The Aquila REDS, for example are an attempt by Mimmo of Aquila to increase the linear density of Nylgut by impregnating a copper powder into the resin used for the Nylgut compound before it gets extruded as a string, and thus having succeeded in doing that, the Aquila REDS strings are thinner than the Nylgut (similar in diameter to fluorocarbon), but as a result have a sort of parchment-paper texture initially and are not as smooth as regular Nylgut. After about 100 hrs of play time the parchment texture wears down and the strings feel much smoother, but if unexpected, this texture can be off-putting the first time. Also, the Aquila REDS require great care to be taken during installation as well as during any tuning so as to avoid string breakage, which is still quite common.

I loved the sound and feel of the REDS, but had more than 10 sets suffer at least one string breakage (usually the G or A string, eventually ended up with about 10 sets of only C and E strings - AAARRRGGGG!!!), on at least 5 different ukes, no matter how carefully I followed the video and written instructions from Mimmo by Aquila, so I gave up on them and it's quite frustrating to have strings break all the time and then have to buy a whole new set to replace a single string, and then it happens all over again.

These issues are well documented here on UU if you search for the problem of 'Aquila REDS break' or something along those lines, so for now, I do not recommend Aquila REDS to anyone until they can reformulate them to not break so easily.

Hope this helps!

You may find this helpful - technical details of the full range of Worth strings:

http://worthc.to/english/w_strings.html#link02

ukatee said:

You may find this helpful - technical details of the full range of Worth strings:

http://worthc.to/english/w_strings.html#link02

Click to expand...

FYI: that page is already present in the link offered above in my post here

Not saying this is what happened with you, but all to often folks see a 'wall of text' and just scroll past without actually reading it, and then in their own comment below, repeat what had already been said by someone else. Seems that this happens a lot lately.

Oh well. I tried. :wallbash:

Thanks Booli ! I read and re-read what you wrote and have decided to try out the Living Water Concert and D'Addario EJ99T strings. I have a Lanikai CKCGC Concert that I will also try out the strings as I have Aquila Super Nygut Low G on that uke and I am not liking the sound at all.

All I need to do is learn how to sing in tune and I will be set I am currently on Week 1 of the Ukulele Aerobics book and I can see a difference already ! I practice with a metronome now and am starting to get a feel for timing.

Thanks,
UkeTruck