Two Metal Strings - Too much tension??

Hello All,

Yesterday I received a new Kala (flamed maple) from MGM. I'm a Low G guy and the uke came High G. I happen to have a Low G (wound nylgut aguila) string laying around, so I went ahead and threw that on. Now the uke has the wound Low G (not exactly metal) and a metal C string. It has a guitar-esque sound that I like.

My Questions:

Have any of you ever used a setup similar to this?

Do you know / think if this might be too much tension on the bridge?

T.

if that wound C string was part of an ukulele string set, then its not a metal string. the core should still by nylon or some other plastic. since most ukes dont have truss rods and the body construction is super thin, the stress from an actual wound metal string (like from a steel string guitar) would be pretty stressfull on the uke. its possible... ive done it. but something told me i shouldnt. and when i did some research on it, i took it off right away. fortunately nothing bad happened (it was on a cheap uke anyway).

if you like how it sounds, and none of your strings are actually steel, then i dont see nothing wrong with it. but im no expert. there could be something im missing out on.

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You should be ok, I'm fairly certain that the tension of the wound strings aren't that much higher (if at all) than the un-wound strings.

I've used two wounds on my low-g ukes in the past, but as a personal preference I'd rather use only one, just because a lot of wound strings tend to have a "metallic" sound to them. Also, wound strings tend to be louder and resonate longer, so they can kinda overpower the rest of the strings (which gets really noticable on an upstrum)

aquila nylgut wounds dont have very high tension if it was a ghs wound then that might be a different story. Also, baritone ukes sometimes utilize the double wounds so you don't have anything to worry about.

I have a tenor that came with two metal and two nylon strings. I haven't had any problems with it and I really get that "guitar" sound. It sounds great for hammer-ons and pull-offs. If I could, I'd put on four metal strings though...
(8^)+-(

I think the most important factor is the build of the instrument. I have seen ukes with nylon uke strings pull bridges, but I doubt it was the strings, more likely the build. Many players use two wound strings in their tunning without any problems. You may want to check on whether Lanikai will warranty if you change the original string configuration.

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Travis said:

thanks guys for the re-assurance, I feel much more at ease now.

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Travis,

Thank you for asking the exact question I had, (btw the exact uke too). Did you have any problems with buzzing from the different diameters on the nut? I bought the wound strings too, but can't decide on ruining a perfect set of high g strings to chance'm.