Aquila Old Nylguts v. New Nylguts

It would have been better to have done this test on a solid wood ukulele that already souded "good". The sound was pretty dead in both instances acoustically.

By the way,......who is currently carrying the newer strings? I'd like to pick up a few sets for my soprano Moore Bettah and give them a shot.
 
Thanks for the videos. What is your opinion on the differences between old and new?

I've got the New Nylguts on my cheapo Vintage, but I'm pretty sure my B&M Bowley is strung with the older ones.
 
What is your opinion on the differences between old and new?

Well, the biggest benefit of the new Nylguts is that they stretch a lot less and settle much faster. That makes string changes something that people will be willing to do a lot more frequently. They do make noise after you have played them a while, so there must be some smoothing of the finish in the area where I am strumming.

As for the tone... I just set up a Flip UltraHD and started shooting video. The lack of "tone" comes from the Flip, not the strings. I will be recording some tunes with my studio equipment and that will be done before the next issue of Ukulele Player.

The big issue is having to restring so many ukes. I did a couple more that are not in comparison videos, so, as you can imagine, it was an all-day job restringing ukes, stretching strings to the point where I could actually play the short segment that I did in order to be in tune. In the case of the BioNylons, I restrung those ukes with new Nylguts after the BioNylon video was made.
 
It would have been better to have done this test on a solid wood ukulele that already souded "good". The sound was pretty dead in both instances acoustically.

By the way,......who is currently carrying the newer strings? I'd like to pick up a few sets for my soprano Moore Bettah and give them a shot.

I haven't had a chance to watch the videos yet. However I will, Pippin thanks for the time you took to make them. As far as where to get them. I got mine from Dr Cluck on Ebay. He is inexpensive and ships FAST! He didn't show the new, just sent them so it was a great surprise to me. I am sure you could write him and make sure...
 
It would have been better to have done this test on a solid wood ukulele that already souded "good". The sound was pretty dead in both instances acoustically.

Funny... the Ohana CK-300G is a solid Hawaiian Koa uke. I used several laminated ukes with solid tops and also an all-laminated uke because all of those ship from the factory with Nylgut strings.

I have KoAloha ukes and other high-end ukes in my collection and I opted not to remove the Worth strings I have on them since I love their tone and don't want to have to replace perfectly good strings.

As for the flat tone... blame the Flip UltraHD camcorder. I had enough to do just changing strings for a day and a half. I did all the video segments independently and put it all together. I will record some tunes in my studio when I get a chance and you can hear excellent tone at that point, but I won't be fiddling with more string changes.
 
Thanks Mickey for the comparison. I guess I would have liked slightly longer takes and some picking to really get a good gauge of things. Also if the clips were played end on end. They ended up sounding pretty much the same to me. What is your own opinion of the aural differences between them, and which do you favour mate? Do they 'feel' any different? Thanks again.
 
What is your own opinion of the aural differences between them, and which do you favour mate? Do they 'feel' any different? Thanks again.

The new Nylguts feel better than the old formula. The tone is about the same, but the new Nylguts sound cleaner. The stretch-time is much shorter on the new strings. I prefer the new and will be happy with them. I can feel the difference in texture of the strings, I prefer the new ones.

The BioNylon strings have stiffer feel to them, much less sustain, and stretch very little so you have to plan for that when stringing them up.
 
Thanks Mickey! Are the new nylguts thinner in gauge than the old?

Craig, the new Nyguts are the same diameter as far as I can tell from just stringing them up and playing them. Note, I did not mic them.
 
The big issue is having to restring so many ukes. I did a couple more that are not in comparison videos, so, as you can imagine, it was an all-day job restringing ukes,
I watched all of your videos and never considered the tremendous amount of time and effort you put forth in such a short period of time. Whoa! What an unbelievably daunting task. I would have gone nuts. I'm interested in trying the new nylguts on my tenor fluke and concert flea. It's time for them to be restrung. Thank you for all of your hard work on this project and everything else you do for the ukulele community sir.
 
I agree: this effort shows a lot of care and work and we all really appreciate it.
 
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