Worth Brown Baritone Strings and Wedgie Pick

bradley10

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Just bought some new strings and thought I would give a quick review.

Ukulele: Beltone mahogany baritone (I think from the 1960s)
Strings: Worth BB Baritone(Brown) tuned DGBE(low D)
Material: All strings are fluorocarbon
Price: $15.00 (strings are long enough to cut each string and make two sets)

Ratings:
Worth BB: 8 of 10
Wedgie pick: 9 of 10
Wedgie and worth BBs together:10 of 10(should be higher)

Other strings I have played with are Martins(baritone), Worth Clears(tenor), Ko'olau Gold(soprano) and crappy old whatever came on ukes made a long time ago.

These are the only baritone strings, to my knowledge, that do not have any wound strings. They have a great feel to them. Very easy to fret. They do not seem to put as much pressure on my fingers as most other strings I have played with. I've only had them on for 3 days so I can't say how they hold a tune(still to early to tell).

The sound is mostly great. They are not as bright as other strings I have played, but I don't want the baritone to be overly bright. Very mellow tone, which is what I was hoping for. They have by far and away the best sustain of any string I have played(worth clears on my tenor don't come close). It makes pull-offs and hammers sound so much better when the string is still doing it's job. The D string in this set sounds bassier(the mellowness makes it have a better feel to the sound). The other great thing about the nonwound D string is slides. When you do slides on the D and G strings there isn't any scrape noise to be heard as with most other baritone sets.

The Con: The D string is very low tension. It moves further than wound D strings. This causes it to catch the fret wires sometimes and make a rattle or buzz. I can't strongly knock it for this because the action on this ukulele is pretty low, so it could be a result of the action. If you have a little bit shaky technique like me, it is easy to accidently bend the note on the D string and be a hair off pitch. Hopefully this will make me improve my technique long range.

Now for the Wedgie:
Neoprene or rubber pick that costs me exactly $1.00
The one I got is a 3.1mm medium.
It has an indention for your thumb to grip. Much easier to hold than other picks.
Played it on the soprano with Ko'olau strings and the tenor with worth clears and it sounds better than other picks. Still doesn't sound as using your on fingers.
The main knock on this pick is it is pretty thick, still a good pick though.
Played it on the new Worth browns. Holy crap. This is what I wish all my fingers sounded like. Completely changes the tone of the worth browns. It gives it an almost amplified bluesy sound. Doesn't exactly sound like reverb, but it does flirt with that sound. When I play the D string the rattle is less noticeable with the pick(once again, could be a technique issue).

Just for reference, I suck at playing with a pick. I played some songs very slowly to hear the tone. The wedgie combined with Worth Browns is one of the best tones I've ever heard; and this is coming from and old beltone ukulele.

Hope this helps anyone considering a good pick or some worth browns.
 
Wedgie Pick, won't go there.
The biggest complaint with them is the dust leave behind, like eraser dust.
 
Didn't know about the dust. Just got the pick, so I'll keep an eye out for that.

I forgot one con on the worth brown strings. Once again this could be poor technique, but I have trouble getting harmonics to sound as good with these strings.

I would still recommend the strings to anyone.
And I would still recommend the wedgie pick to anyone with worth browns(at least baritone). The pick doesn't do anything that special for the other ukes I used it on today, but the worth BBs and the wedgie are in love.
 
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