Low G?

I knew that would get everybody's attention, a low G thread. My friend bought a ukulele three or four years ago because evidently she thought that I looked like I was having so much fun. She played it a little, forgot about it, got it out a couple of times, put it back, she hasn't played it much. Now she has decided that the re-entrant tuning is what is keeping her from playing. She just can not come to terms with tuning that doesn't go lowest to highest. Evidently if she had those two extra notes at the bottom the stars would align for her. I am not going to argue. I told her that I would figure it out for her. I am not a linear person. I can change strings really well. I just want a low G string or string set that I don't have to do any filing or piddling with it. I want to do this fast and easy. First one that shoots me a valid option wins, because I'm not going to spend any time sorting out strings. I'm quite sure that is not what is holding her back anyway, I just want to get it done. Thanks all.

Freemont wound low g.
I've switched ukes back and forth from reentrant to low g, and the Freemont has worked without doing anything other than just changing the string. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I'd recommend giving it a try.

Another vote for Fremont "soloist" wound low G. I also like a worth brown low G but Fremont as a rule hasn't needed me to do any extra work with fitting

Treat her to some fluorocarbon strings - Living Water are what I use.

(But in case of emergency, an Aquila Red low G single string might just work for her.)

I recommend the Pepe Romero Jr./LaBella set with a low g string. They‘re available for soprano/concert ukes or tenor ukes.

The three higher strings are fluorocarbon and they are indeed really nice. But the low g string is the special treat: it‘s a wound low g, but a flatwound. It‘s not as fat as the fluorocarbon low-g strings and you don’t get the annoying noises when your fingers slide over the strings as with regular wound strings, e.g. Aquilas. The three FC strings and the single flatwound string sound very homogenous together. Plus the flatwound string is much more durable than the regular wound ones. I don‘t like the regular ones, as Aquila, for they were off quite fast. But this one doesn‘t. I have it on two ukes for about a year now, and there aren‘t any signs of too much use (although they were used quite a bit, indeed).
Even on a concert uke it works perfectly well. And it‘s tight enough. Sometimes the FC low g strings can be a little wobbly. But this one isn‘t. It‘s simply perfect. For my needs, that is.

Thank you all and sorry to everyone else, but Freemont it will be. I hope that she is happy with it. I don't know what she is doing that re-entrant is not working. Maybe she is trying to pick individual notes to songs, and she is quite regimented, so I doubt that she is playing around with it to see what she can do. But she won't play in front of anyone until she is "good", so no one knows. Anyway, I'll order one somewhere and get her going. She wants to play Christmas songs. I hope that will get her going. Thanks again.

Rllink said:

Thank you all and sorry to everyone else, but Freemont it will be. I hope that she is happy with it. I don't know what she is doing that re-entrant is not working. Maybe she is trying to pick individual notes to songs, and she is quite regimented, so I doubt that she is playing around with it to see what she can do. But she won't play in front of anyone until she is "good", so no one knows. Anyway, I'll order one somewhere and get her going. She wants to play Christmas songs. I hope that will get her going. Thanks again.

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I’m rather pleased with the regular Fremont Strings that I have on one of my Ukes. If you’re looking for a supplier then Lucy’s have given me good service, they list on Reverb and eBay.com.

Any low G string, including Fremont, or any D string of a classical guitar will usually work, without any modification to the instrument.

I am on the same boat as your friend. I play low G 90% of the time. I keep one uke tuned re entrant, but dont play it as much

kissing said:

Any low G string, including Fremont, or any D string of a classical guitar will usually work, without any modification to the instrument.

I am on the same boat as your friend. I play low G 90% of the time. I keep one uke tuned re entrant, but dont play it as much

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I don't know if she is on the same boat or not. I will reserve judgement and see what happens. I gave her a link to Elderly and told her to order one and that I would put it on. The first test will be to see if it gets ordered.

If you don't want to file, a wound is probably better, and then you can go back if you don't like it.

Freemont's are nice because they are smooth, but a TI is also pretty smooth and I think they are less boomy than soloist.

Esp when you move from high G to low g, if the low g is boomy... it really sticks out to your ear. The boomy-ness is what had me flip flopping between re-entrant and low g. Doing TI wounds on both g and c is even better for blending.

Sorry to bother you with my ignorance... but may I kindly as what a „TI“ is...? Sorry for taking over this thread, but it seems to be done anyway.

Thomastik Infeld strings. CF30 for low g, and CF27 for c string if desired. Strings By Mail has them in stock.

spookelele said:

If you don't want to file, a wound is probably better, and then you can go back if you don't like it.

Freemont's are nice because they are smooth, but a TI is also pretty smooth and I think they are less boomy than soloist.



Esp when you move from high G to low g, if the low g is boomy... it really sticks out to your ear. The boomy-ness is what had me flip flopping between re-entrant and low g. Doing TI wounds on both g and c is even better for blending.

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I agree wholeheartedly with spookelele. You will not be disappointed with the TI Wounds. I have paired them with various fluorocarbon trebles and am thrilled with the results.
I source them from Strings By Mail. They ship rapidly, have great customer service and quite reasonable shipping costs.

Thanks a lot, seesar and Spicysteve, I know them, just didn‘t think of them as ukulele strings in the first place. That’s why I didn’t get the abbreviation. Although a ffriend did indeed put them on his Maurice Dupont Maccaferri style tenor uke.

As I‘m in Germany, however, I rather buy them from here. There are a couple of stores where to get them from. Thanks again.