Well, I finally did it. I restrung my soprano. I've been meaning to do this for months, but for whatever reason, I found it to be intimidating. I worried that I would screw it up somehow; maybe even damage the uke. It went well, if I must say so myself.
The original strings were black GHS, and I disliked them right from the beginning. They seemed to have very low tension, the string guages seemed almost identical across the instrument and the strings felt like plastic. That being said, I did like one thing about them (on this instrument)....the color. I really liked the black strings with the ebony fretboard, based purely on looks.
Both of my other ukes, both concerts, have Aquilla Nylguts installed; one high G and one low G with a wound G. I really like them in both cases, so I purchased a set for the soprano.
My biggest question once I got started on the job was how to determine how tight to pull each string through the tuner before beginning winding. This uke has friction tuners, unlike my other two. I had read enough about the process to know how to orient each string to it's tuner, and to allow the first wrap to go over the free end of the string before making the remaining wraps go down toward the peghead. But how do you determine how much slack to allow starting out to avoid having the wraps double-up on themselves? So far it looks okay, but who knows how much they'll eventually stretch? The G, E & A strings are wound down the tuner posts almost to the bases, while the C string only took about one wrap to come up to pitch.
Should I loosen the C string and allow for more wraps around the tuner post?
My knots at the bridge came out good (actually better than the originals), although I did pull the first knot in the A string through the hole in the bridge....I thought I had broken the string!
I wish I had taken the time to inspect the installation of the nut and saddle, although thinking back on it, I never had all of the strings loose at once. My hope is that these new strings will have a positive impact on the intonation of the uke; it was never right up until now. I've read that a string change can improve intonation....I'm guessing in this case it can't make it any worse. Already I think the strings have improved the uke's volume, so that's a plus.
Anyone else hesitant to do their first string change, or was it just me? Now to tune, and re-tune, and re-tune....
The original strings were black GHS, and I disliked them right from the beginning. They seemed to have very low tension, the string guages seemed almost identical across the instrument and the strings felt like plastic. That being said, I did like one thing about them (on this instrument)....the color. I really liked the black strings with the ebony fretboard, based purely on looks.
Both of my other ukes, both concerts, have Aquilla Nylguts installed; one high G and one low G with a wound G. I really like them in both cases, so I purchased a set for the soprano.
My biggest question once I got started on the job was how to determine how tight to pull each string through the tuner before beginning winding. This uke has friction tuners, unlike my other two. I had read enough about the process to know how to orient each string to it's tuner, and to allow the first wrap to go over the free end of the string before making the remaining wraps go down toward the peghead. But how do you determine how much slack to allow starting out to avoid having the wraps double-up on themselves? So far it looks okay, but who knows how much they'll eventually stretch? The G, E & A strings are wound down the tuner posts almost to the bases, while the C string only took about one wrap to come up to pitch.
Should I loosen the C string and allow for more wraps around the tuner post?
My knots at the bridge came out good (actually better than the originals), although I did pull the first knot in the A string through the hole in the bridge....I thought I had broken the string!
I wish I had taken the time to inspect the installation of the nut and saddle, although thinking back on it, I never had all of the strings loose at once. My hope is that these new strings will have a positive impact on the intonation of the uke; it was never right up until now. I've read that a string change can improve intonation....I'm guessing in this case it can't make it any worse. Already I think the strings have improved the uke's volume, so that's a plus.
Anyone else hesitant to do their first string change, or was it just me? Now to tune, and re-tune, and re-tune....
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