Ukecaster
Well-known member
Tried a set of Pepe Romero by LaBella UT2 low G strings on a string-thru tenor. They are still settling, but initial impressions are:
These are loud! Tone is great, sweet and deep on a solid spruce/hog tenor
The A string seems very stiff, but also loud. I'll live with the stiffness to get a sweet loud A string, I hate wimpy sounding strings there.
The low G string is a gold colored wound string, squeakless, sounds great. The other 3 strings are flouro.
All in all, I like the sound alot so far. My only criticism is the beads, which are supplied with the strings, assumably an option for those with string-thru bridges. They are square beads, numbered 1-4. The thing is, the holes in the beads are huge, must be at least 2-3 mm. That precludes running the string through the bead, then tying a knot to hold it, as I couldn't easily tie one big enough to prevent it from slipping through the bead at tension. Maybe there's some mongo knot I don't know about. So, I needed to tie a couple of knots onto one side of each bead, to secure it. Thing is, I assume the bead then does not sit squarely on the top under the bridge, and those knots I tied are either in the holes, or trying to get in there.
The issue is a PIA buzzing that wasn't there before. It sounds like it's coming from the headstock, but I've checked everything up there for tightness, and placed my fingers touching everywhere up there, while playing, to ID the source of the buzz. I'm thinking it may have something to do with the beads, and just sounds like it's coming from the headstock. If I can't figure it out, I guess I'll unstring, and use some much smaller beads I have, or just big knots, with no beads when I reuse the strings. Arrrghhh!
These are loud! Tone is great, sweet and deep on a solid spruce/hog tenor
The A string seems very stiff, but also loud. I'll live with the stiffness to get a sweet loud A string, I hate wimpy sounding strings there.
The low G string is a gold colored wound string, squeakless, sounds great. The other 3 strings are flouro.
All in all, I like the sound alot so far. My only criticism is the beads, which are supplied with the strings, assumably an option for those with string-thru bridges. They are square beads, numbered 1-4. The thing is, the holes in the beads are huge, must be at least 2-3 mm. That precludes running the string through the bead, then tying a knot to hold it, as I couldn't easily tie one big enough to prevent it from slipping through the bead at tension. Maybe there's some mongo knot I don't know about. So, I needed to tie a couple of knots onto one side of each bead, to secure it. Thing is, I assume the bead then does not sit squarely on the top under the bridge, and those knots I tied are either in the holes, or trying to get in there.
The issue is a PIA buzzing that wasn't there before. It sounds like it's coming from the headstock, but I've checked everything up there for tightness, and placed my fingers touching everywhere up there, while playing, to ID the source of the buzz. I'm thinking it may have something to do with the beads, and just sounds like it's coming from the headstock. If I can't figure it out, I guess I'll unstring, and use some much smaller beads I have, or just big knots, with no beads when I reuse the strings. Arrrghhh!