DAP Uke, I just watched your youtube and it was very good. I imagine you could use that same technique for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"--and the singing... . I saw that in a lesson on youtube with Mike. Yes the uke sounds sonorous with those strings. The fluorocarbons are at least as bright I believe. I guess I will know when I finally put the aquilas on an instrument to see how they compare to the Martins. I sent my new dolphin back and should get a replacement for it soon. I had bought two of them, one for my son and one for me just before Christmas. I got him a white and I got a black. His sounds wonderful--sonorous and round. Mine sounds sort of like a cheap ukulele--plinky. So, I sent mine back. Plus after two days of playing the pain started chipping off. So I expect I will get a new one. Am hoping it is a better one. Little did I realize theres a shop in town that sells Kalas and Makalas and they are no more expensive than online and are all set up! Boy I was dumb not to check that place out. Anyways, when I get the dolphin back I will put aquilas on it and compare it to my son's dolphin. Maybe I shoulda got a white one. If the paint chips on a white one you don't notice it--they are white under the paint chips.
Well the Guitar Store, Riks Music in Knoxville has the dolphins. He also has a Kala concert traveller with a spruce top and has three of those Kala Mahogany concerts. They all are on the wall, tuned with aquilas and sound perfect. I believe the mahogany's are 89.99 set up. (they are nice) He says he will set up any he sells however you want. It took all my energy not to buy one of those mahogany ukes I liked them so much but I know my wife would freak out seen as my MK-T came the same day. She might could not tell the diff between my tenor and a new concert so maybe I can be a sneaky guy and (geez am I a ukaholic?)..... ninety bucks is not bad for such a beautiful instrument that plays that well...
Well I only paid 70 bucks for this MK-T and dang I didn't know any better back when I got the cheap first ukes I got. I mean 70 bucks is cheap but this uke is awesome compared to those cheap little sopranos I got.... if I could find the box I would return that Kohala I got from Guitar Center and use the money to get something else. I guess theres a learning curve.
I put the wound G String which is a D'addario Pro Arte as the Low G with the Martin Fluorocarbons on the MK-T. You know my right hand fingernails are not grown out that much and my fingers and thumb are getting a bit raw. In fact, my fretting hand (Left) nearly has blisters. So today I pulled out a medium Dunlop nylon pick and dang if that doesn't work. Oh I know I am cheating (hey, my thumb is almost bleeding as the nail is not grown out like when I used to played classical). but the thing is I did a search on Youtube and lo and behold John Mcglaughlin, Pat Metheny, Geo Harrison etc... used pics on nylons so I don't care... sounds awesome in fact..... but then I returned to my index as it has idk about 1/16 nail on it and I can get some sound out of it...... my thumb is another matter.
I like I can do a little base run lead in now on the MK-T with that Low G.