Aquila strings VS Worth browns

Please forgive if this topic has been ridden hard and put up wet already, but I don't know where else to place my question.
I have watched two videos of a comparison between Worth Brown and Aquila strings. I can't tell any difference. My hearing is fine, but just not trained musically.
Can someone explain the difference to me.

I find Aquilas brighter and prefer their physical texture...
...unless the uke is already too bright (most spruce ukes), then I go with the Worth Browns.

YouTube isn't the best place to hear string differences but sometimes it's all we have. To my older ears, Aquilas are louder but lose clarity and get muddy as they age, Worths are a little cleaner and brighter even in the browns to me, with more sustain and they seem to hang in a long time. Some of my ukes insist on only one or the other. They feel very different under your fingers; the Worths are thinner and softer, the Aquilas fatter and a with a little bit of texture, and a bit harder to bend. They have a little more tension too is why. Both are nice but you may develop a preference. Aquilas are not the be all end all last word in strings.

My own spruce and cedar tops like the Aquilas actually. Except for the vintage spuce top, as it's older it has Worth brown lights. Worth browns are on all my mahogany ukes and one koa soprano. I have clears on a koa tenor.

I find the aquilas bright to the point of being harsh to my ear. Agree with the sustain and ability to bend the strings. After having compared aquilas with browns on my tenor 4, 6 string and baritone, in decided to just stick with the browns. A matter of preference, I'm sure.

I agree with what has been said thus far. Which are better? It depends on the ukulele. Like Teek, I find that I prefer Aquilas on ukes with soundboards of typical guitar woods like cedar and spruce. In all other instances, but particularly with sopranos, I prefer Worth strings.

countrybumpkin said:

I find the aquilas bright to the point of being harsh to my ear. Agree with the sustain and ability to bend the strings. After having compared aquilas with browns on my tenor 4, 6 string and baritone, in decided to just stick with the browns. A matter of preference, I'm sure.

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This is why I recently took the Aquilas off my Ohana SK-35 and put Martins Flourocarbons (basically the same as Worth) on it. It definitely takes the edge off it. It is not as loud with the Martins, so when I am playing with a group of loud ukers, I reach for the spruce-topped tenor strung with a low-G set of Aquilas. Works for me.

If you like one, you probably won't like the other. I love Aquilas, and I also like Worth Clears very much. But Worth Browns seemed so dull and dead, I took them off after just a few minutes. To me they sound like the cheap, dead-sounding black strings that come on many low-budget ukes. That said, there's plenty of people who love the Browns and think Aquilas are annoying.

But one thing is clear - the two brands do sound VERY different, so I guess you'll need to try them on your uke to hear the difference.

I've tried every set of strings known to man but just made the discovery of my uke lifetime. Was tired of wound strings on my Low Gs. MGM hooked me up with a Low G set of Fremont Blacklines.... all flourocarbon... no wound! Such a great sound and feel! I LOVE 'EM! Tried their High G set too... Fantastic Strings! Thanks MGM!

I think nothing improves a crap ukulele like Aquilas. They can actually make a poor instrument sound decent. They work OK on some high-quality, lightly-built instruments too, but 9 times out of 10 I prefer fluoros (Worth being my favorite). I never prefer fluoros on laminates or other low-end ukes. Aquilas win every time on these due to the volume and punch they can add.

Thumper said:

If you like one, you probably won't like the other..

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I have Aquila on Lilo, Astird and Rhea and love them, but I also have Worth Brown's on Hoa and love the sound they give her, they're good for laminate ukes, but as Hoa is a solid, she sounds better with the WB..

WestPhillyUke said:

I think nothing improves a crap ukulele like Aquilas. They can actually make a poor instrument sound decent. They work OK on some high-quality, lightly-built instruments too, but 9 times out of 10 I prefer fluoros (Worth bring my favorite). I never prefer fluoros on laminates or other low-end ukes. Aquilas win every time on these due to the volume and punch they can add.

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:agree:

To my ear the Aquilas can sound harsh on some instruments. The Worths (for me) have a nicer ring, clarity and better balance of overtones which I prefer.

I like them both. On my Kala Baritone, the Worth Browns have given me more flexibility with the sound, and its a sound I really like. As all strings are similar in diameter, what with no wound strings in the set, it is easy to perform tricky chords and finger pick....... but having less tension, they do not have the loudness of aquilas, which is noticeable when playing with others. My other Korala Baritone has aquilas, and is much louder. I like having two instruments with different string sets. Neither has the edge, as it depends on what, where, and when you play.

Just to add my two penny worth...I use both but on different ukes. I have Worth Browns on my two concerts one set of high G and one with a low G ( unwound ) one of these has a spruce top and it rings like a bell. I use Aquilas on my Dolphins again one high G one Low G ( wound ). My preference really lies with the Worths as I find that the Aquilas can squeak a little when fingerpicking. It's personal preference all the way really, Aquilas brighten up the dolphins but sound dead on my Kala and Makala MKC.

I prefer Worths, especially the browns. Aquilas just feel and sound harsher and clunkier to me. Then again, I also play classical guitar and have used fluorocarbon trebles for a long time. They just feel more fluid under my fingertips and produce what I'd call a "sweeter" tone than Aquilas.

I didn't like the Aquila low-G at all, there's something about having one wound string out of four that just throws the whole tonal balance (and "finger feel") off. Worth makes low-G sets that are all plain (no wound strings).

I just got a set of Southcoast linear strings (non-wound, low fourth) but haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Nylgut is brighter?

Probably should stay out of this, since neither of these are Southcoast Strings, but I have always found it interesting how many people describe Nylguts as bright or harsh. Just goes to show, I think, the kind of tones your ear picks up.

I always listen to the strings individually, then to how they transition, and only at last as to how they sound together. What you find that way is that Nylgut comes as close as any string ever formulated to the sound of gut. Not surprising, as this was their goal.

The strongest characteristic of both gut and nylgut is how quickly the tone changes
from thin diameters to thick. Thin guages can be as bright as the brightest flourocarbons, but as the diameters increase, the tone softens very quickly. You can use this like Cliff Edwards, for example, putting on a heavy gauge set, then slapping the 3rd string like a bass and playing the others for melody. It will give the effect of two different instruments altogether.

If you have one of the lighter nygut sets, your outsides will be very bright - get one of their heavier sets, however and things calm down in a hurry.

Flourocarbons, go to the other extreme. All single material sets will have softer tones on the thicker diamenters, but with flouros, the difference is much less. The bass strings, in other words are brighter in relation to the trebles. Heavy and light sets maintain a close tonal imprint as well.

I am guessing all the remarks about bright Nylguts are mainly because higher registers are more prominent to the ear and their lighter sets must be the most popular.

After all I've heard about Fremont Blacklines I bought several sets and tried them on a few ukes. Didn't care for them at all. They sound OK but my first impressions is that the tension is very high and the strings very thin and very smooth making it uncomfortable for me to play. For flourocarbons I prefer the Worth CH on tenors, Martin flouros on concerts and sopranos. Brown Worths and CLs don't do anything for me. And Aquilas are hard to beat on anything. I love the texture of the string.

For $20 you can decide for yourself. Go for it.

I'll join in on this worth brown love fest going on. They are sweet to my ears. But as olgoat sez, pay the man for sets of each and play 'em. You may have to switch 'em out a time or two but you'll soon know. Enjoy the journey. Then you'll start wondering about Fremonts...