Hard or Medium Strings?

I like to learn something every day, and I just learned that uke strings come in hard or medium.

Echoing a post made by khairijamian, I would like to know what is meant by hard and medium strings. I'm guessing its either the feel of the strings on the fingers or the tension.

As far as I know it refers to the tension. There are also "light" strings.

Answers here, I would imagine: http://southcoastukes.com/ti-unimportanceofgauge.htm.

Jerry, I have two identical soprano ukes, both being the "Flight" travel model (one in orange and one in black). One is strung with Martin M-600's and the other with Fremont Blackline Hard Tensions. Both are tuned to the common gCEA tuning. Feel-wise, the Blacklines seem a little more "taut" and provide just a little more resistance when played, whereas the M-600's, by comparison, offer slightly less resistance and thus may be a little easier on the fingers. Sound-wise, the Blacklines seem a little bit mellower, whereas the M-600's offer a distinctive "edge" to the tone, which I find desirable. But, both sound very nice in their own way. The difference isn't huge, but it's discernible. And by the way, I don't mean to sound like a commercial for the Flight folks, but that little travel soprano (TUS-35), at around $60.00, is astoundingly good, and the tone it gives you, to my ear, doesn't sound "plastic-y" at all, even though the composition is primarily plastic (the soundboard is wood). The build quality is very neat and precise and consistent, and it features both a compensated saddle and a zero fret (which allows the nut to serve more as a "spacer" for the strings than as the actual "point of contact" for the strings; in other words, concerns about the precision of the depth and angle of the nut slots are pretty much eliminated with the presence of the zero fret).

Hard = harder tension, usually thicker.

Light = lighter tension, usually thinner.

Medium = medium


It's entirely up to preference

Thanks, all. I ordered two sets of medium. Given the choice, I would prefer less tension on the strings. As I make them more and more tense, I'm concerned about breakage and the bridge lifting.

Sounds good, Jerry! And, just to re-assure you for future purposes, I would say that with the Blackline "hard tension" set, that extra tension is actually kind of subtle, and that I've never had a problem with string-breakage or bridge-lifting when using them in the gCEA tuning. Now, if I were planning to tune upward to aDF#B, I'd probably go with the lighter tension set.