Favorite Tonewood & Strings Combo for Finger Style

I'm interested in hearing your favorite tonewood and string combos for finger style playing, and what about that particular combo do you like?

This question has come about for me because I've noticed that, for some songs that I play finger style, I don't necessarily want the all the sustain that my ukulele gives me. I have a cedar top with mahogany sides/back and it's strung with Worth Browns. But I do love the volume and the tone it gives. I realize that I can work on my technique to dampen the sustain, but maybe I "need" to buy another uke in the meantime.

Anyways, I'm just curious to hear what type of sound you value with finger picking, and what tonewood/strings gives you that.

Thanks!

Whatever I'm playing. Really though, there are so many flavors. I like my spruce top with Worth clears. But is that because they're "better for fingerpicking" than anything else or just what I'm used to? I can pick up any decent uke and appreciate it for its own unique quality.

I'm most used to playing my own setup, but does that mean I wouldn't sound like ME after a week of getting used to a different uke? Probably not. Style and technique has a lot more to do with it than the uke/string combo, IMHO.

My "go-to" tonewoods are cedar first and koa. I like the warmth of the cedar, compared to the spruce. No offence to spruce, it's just that I have not played a spruce uke or guitar that I liked. I am open to the back and sides though. To me, rosewood back is too much, ringy. I do like koa because I am a sucker for the wood. Will look into similar acacia though.

Usually there is some strumming along with the fingerpicking and you have to take that into consideration. I love the Kamaka strings (groan to many), with reduced tension. The thinner Oasis strings are not pleasant to my fingers; the thicker Kamaka nylons are a blast, and really encourages me to do more sliding, bending, tremolos.

My favorite is my concert with claro walnut sides and back, with cedar top. But maybe that has to do with the luthier, too. I play that low g with Living Water strings.

My favorite reentrant concert is makore with a redwood top. Less sustain that the walnut/cedar concert, but great sound. That has Worth clears on it.

I suspect a lot has to do with the builder, too.

So many great ukuleles out there, and so many options that can sound fantastic.

You might like the Moon Bird. That might have less sustain than your hog/cedar ukulele, (you can check HMS sound samples to compare), and they've got great intonation, and are fun ukuleles.

I urge caution until you have more experience playing and do not make conclusions on your initial impression that less sustain is better for fingerpicking. For example, you might want to try campanella style (book 6 in The Ukulele Way lessons) where you want maximum sustain. Generally a longer sustain is valued in an ukulele. I also suspect that the sustain is less influenced by the wood selection than by the build qualities.

In fingerpicking, I value intonation first -- the note has to sound in tune to be pleasing. If you jump at purchasing another uke now based on your early experience, I suspect you will become dissatisfied with other aspects of it quickly.

For fingerpicking my favorite wood combos are a very tight grained spruce top and rosewood back and sides.......excellent, but controllable pitches. Re-entrant tuning with TI 3 and 4's with Oasis or PHD 1 and 2's. And a 1 1/2" nut makes it all that much smoother.

It may not suit anyone else, but I most enjoy solid cocobolo wood with Worth Browns for this.

Nickie said:

It may not suit anyone else, but I most enjoy solid cocobolo wood with Worth Browns for this.

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Same here, worth browns do really well with denser woods.

I play fingerstyle melodies and like sustain. Cedar and koa work well for me. I find spruce a little too bright. If you are looking for more of a punchy sound, you may want to try mahogany. To me it is not as mellow as cedar and not as bright as spruce.

I use Seaguar fluorocarbon line which is equivalent to Oasis and Worth Clear. To be honest, I just got tired of having partial sets left over or missing a particular size string when I needed it. Nothing is worse at 9:00pm than opening a string package and discovering no more “C” strings are in there.

John