What strings do you use?

Hello!

I have been playing the uke for about 2 months now. I just changed my strings recently. I just bought some clear martins that I found at guitar center. They sound good but I was just wondering what else is out there! What do you use? and why? :]

<3 Yomahra

Most everyone here have their favs; Aquila, Worths, D'Addario, Fremonts, Kala Reds, GHS and so on. The most popular seem to be the first three mentioned. Use the search tool in the tool bar with key words such as strings or the name of the string and you'll come up with numerous threads.

I'm liking Koohlau Gold's these days, I got tired of the flourocarbon sound, too sharp. I never liked Aquilas.

KG's sound pretty sweet, but on one uke I have Black Diamond. They're also nylon, but a little lighter gauge and sound kind of bluesy.

Does anybody use real gut strings? I see they are available for banjo, and violin, why not ukulele?

Worth BT-LG on my Kamaka Tenor.

I use all of 'em.

I like Worth the best. Although Daddario has some great strings too... but those are called "classical guitar strings".

Edit:

OP asked "why?" Uggh. That's tough. My Grandfather was a great philosopher. My Grandmother would always say, "Why don't you go get a job?" And he'd say, "Why"

I like Worth because they have a clear tone. They're smooth and don;t produce a lot of the extraneous noise like Aquila. Although extraneous noise isn't necessarily a fault of Aquila, more a fault with my fingering. Aquila are such high quality strings that any extra movement is sounded. That quality combined with my sloppy playing yields annoying results. Worth seem more forgiving. This same logic is one reason low tension strings are recommended for beginners and for those who suck.

Aquila for me - nice price, nice strings. In fact they lift something like GHS that you sometimes get on new instruments, massively. Very nice, and last a long time too.

I have aquilas on my laminates, it really makes them sing. I put Worth Browns on my Tenor solid top and my solid concert for a nice mellow sound.

I use Worths on all my ukuleles but I only really like them on my KoAloha. I'm going to try using Aquilas on my Lori's ukulele and see what happens.

I am really digging D'Addario T2's and Savarez strings right now.

thanks!

thanks for all your suggestions!

I will be ordering a couple of different strings soon :]

ill probably order some aquilas, black diamond and worth.

thanks again!

<3 yomahra

yomahra said:

thanks for all your suggestions!

I will be ordering a couple of different strings soon :]

ill probably order some aquilas, black diamond and worth.

thanks again!

<3 yomahra

Click to expand...

I gotta say, when I first saw this thread, i thought exactly what Kanaka posted. I also expected the typical responses with Aquila and Worth, and depending on this instrument you have, those recommendations would be spot on.

In any case, I'll give you this much - you actually took the recommendations. Not what I would've chosen, but again, you asked, people responded, and you responded in kind by applying suggestions. I know it drives Pete (and more than a few of us) nuts when the opposite happens.

The other thing I'll give you, that I've been waiting to see (it may have surfaced but I may have missed), is you're not limiting yourself to one set. Right away, you're ordering 3 different sets - good move. Not to promote MGM (well, actually, yes), I think he has a sampler set available that may suit you well. http://cgi.ebay.com/TENOR-Ukulele-S...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4cebc81f7c

Have fun - Aaron