Found some fun new strings..

I run up on a guy on Ebay that has his strings custom made, and he started having them made for resale. He is in England, and been playing the Uke most all his life. He now teaches, and had these strings made at first to aid in teaching kids to play the Uke, because many kids would get confused with the string numbers. He found it easier to teach them "index finger on the green string" type of teaching. Anyway, I thought I would give his strings a try, and ordered a few sets. I put them on my daughter's Uke as I am teaching her. She LOVES the strings because they are "pimp" as she calls it. At first impression, these strings aren't too bad. They seem thinner gauge than the Nylguts I usually use, and they actually feel really nice on the fingers. My daughters fingers aren't as tough, and I find she practices longer because her fingers don't hurt so bad with these. They sound pretty good, maybe not as loud as Nylguts, but, I kinda like these strings. They look good on the little soprano Uke, and adds to it's character. I still think I like the Nylguts sound better, but want to have more playing time on these before I make my decision for good. But, I will keep the Nylguts for now on my good Uke, and let my daughter use these. I think I am also going to put them on my Banjo Uke too... So, looking forward in some play time on these to see how they measure up long term. But, the color thing is cute and fun.. I like these strings... I will keep spares of these around too.

What is the seller's name on Ebay?

"Jasperhappy" really nice gent. I have emailed back and forth with him quite a bit over the past couple weeks. He sells them in packages of two sets for about $5 US. They are listed in BP, but paypal does the conversion for ya. I bought two, (4 sets of strings) and it was around $15 including the shipping from England. Not bad for 4 sets of strings. They seem to be decent strings really.

Here is a link to the strings in his "store"

http://cgi.ebay.com/DOUBLE-SET-COLO...ruments_Sting_Instruments?hash=item27b09005cf

I want to buy them just because his photo on the package is so adorable.....

Yeah, his packaging is pretty cool. That little boy in the picture is him when he was a wee lad.. His dad was a banjo and Ukulele player in the 1920s, and he has been into it since he was a young boy..

These are l lot more expensive, but they are made in California and are excellent strings as well.

http://www.guadalupecustomstrings.com

strings available for many instruments and multicolors for ukuleles.

The biggest advantage I can feel with these strings is, he had played around with many gauges and "tones" to come up with what he has with these strings. Each string is VERY close in gauge to each other. From looking at them, they almost look the same with the exception of the color. Standard "C" strings has the "C" string much heavier gauge than the others. It is also slightly larger on his strings, but not as much. What that resulted in, is the tensions on the strings are very even to produce the note on the open string. Since all the strings are similar is gauge, and tension, I think this makes it "feel" much better, and easier to play. From what I gather from talking with him for the past few weeks, this is what he was trying to accomplish in designing these strings. I think he did a pretty good job with that, and a huge advantage of these strings. When I first put them on the daughters Uke, and tunes it up, I had to keep looking down to be sure the strings were still there, hahha..It almost felt like there were no strings at all, lol.. Again, they don't have the full volume the Nylguts have, but that may be a good thing, or bad thing, depending on your playing style, and sound you are looking for. I think the lower volume may be a good thing on my Banjo Uke...

They are cheap enough to give them a try IMHO. And no, I am not affiliated with this guy, nor benefit from pitching him here at all. I tried them, liked them, so wanted to share the find. And it would be cool to give the guy a shot because of his history and his dads history. He is in it, because it is his life, not to sell strings.. I like that too..

I just ordered a package (two sets). Thanks for the information!
--G

Have you seen these?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lucys-Ukulele-C...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item563b1f83fb

Tudorp-thanks for the info on these strings-gonna have to get me a pack!

I have a pack on their way to me now. I've heard of the Lucy pegs. At one time they also had colored strings, but I can't seem to find them anymore.

I don't live a million miles away from Jasper Happy and have never met him. However, my friend, who happens to be a great luthier, knows him and has done work for him. Apparently before it sadly closed down, Jasper had a shop on Hastings Pier. There was a hole in the wooden floor, through which he suspended a fishing line, so he could catch his dinner whilst working behind the counter!

Jasper's descriptions on eBay are always great fun and I would think especially so for all North American forumites, because of their quaint and charming English eccentricity. As I said, I've never met him, but would like to one day as he sounds like a great bloke - well he plays the ukulele for a start.

I just bought a double set. They look fun!

CountryMouse

I finally got new tuners on my 1930s Banjo Uke, and just put a set of Jasper's strings on it. I really like them on the Banjo Uke allot. I might keep them on it. We'll see once they settle in, I am still in the stretching stage. Jasper told me his strings aren't pre-stretched, so there is a few days of constant tuning you will need to deal with until they stretch and settle down..

But so far, I really like em..

I just ordered a package of the multi-colored tuners. I'm hoping they match up pretty well with the multi-colored strings.
--G

Tudorp said:

I run up on a guy on Ebay that has his strings custom made, and he started having them made for resale. He is in England, and been playing the Uke most all his life. He now teaches, and had these strings made at first to aid in teaching kids to play the Uke, because many kids would get confused with the string numbers. He found it easier to teach them "index finger on the green string" type of teaching. Anyway, I thought I would give his strings a try, and ordered a few sets. I put them on my daughter's Uke as I am teaching her. She LOVES the strings because they are "pimp" as she calls it. At first impression, these strings aren't too bad. They seem thinner gauge than the Nylguts I usually use, and they actually feel really nice on the fingers. My daughters fingers aren't as tough, and I find she practices longer because her fingers don't hurt so bad with these. They sound pretty good, maybe not as loud as Nylguts, but, I kinda like these strings. They look good on the little soprano Uke, and adds to it's character. I still think I like the Nylguts sound better, but want to have more playing time on these before I make my decision for good. But, I will keep the Nylguts for now on my good Uke, and let my daughter use these. I think I am also going to put them on my Banjo Uke too... So, looking forward in some play time on these to see how they measure up long term. But, the color thing is cute and fun.. I like these strings... I will keep spares of these around too.

Click to expand...

It's crazy that i just stumbled upon your thread. I met the man who's strings you're talking about the other day. He owns a shop in Hastings not for from where i live and gave me a pack of these strings for letting him borrow my uke. I was wondering if they were any good, so was nice to see this

Tudorp said:

"Jasperhappy" really nice gent. I have emailed back and forth with him quite a bit over the past couple weeks. He sells them in packages of two sets for about $5 US. They are listed in BP, but paypal does the conversion for ya. I bought two, (4 sets of strings) and it was around $15 including the shipping from England. Not bad for 4 sets of strings. They seem to be decent strings really.

Here is a link to the strings in his "store"

http://cgi.ebay.com/DOUBLE-SET-COLO...ruments_Sting_Instruments?hash=item27b09005cf

Click to expand...

Oh yes! Jasperhappy! He always sells really cute vintage banjo ukuleles in great conditions. Fierce bidding competition though, I've never managed to buy one from him, someone is always quicker than me!

His strings are great for teaching kids. they seem to relate better to "the green string, and the yellow string" than they do the #2 and #4 string. It's much more visual for them. As far as how good the strings are, they're alright, but they are much brighter tone, but the best thing about them is they are smaller diameter than your average strings so they are pretty comfortable playing them. I use them on my Aphid builds because them being smaller diameter are more to scale for my mini ukes. I don't use them on full sized ukes tho. I had some on a banjole and they sounded pretty good on it, but it is already a bright tone to begin with.
Jasper is a really cool guy.. Very pleasant to talk to.

i have tried many times to win one of his banjo ukes on e bay but they sell for way more than I can afford, the man is a very talented luthier his banjo ukes are really stunning and very well set up

salukulady said:

I want to buy them just because his photo on the package is so adorable.....

Click to expand...

In that case, here's a Heffalump playing a Ukulele.