advice - strings on a concert solid wood uke

brucemoffatt

brucemoffatt

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Hi all,

I know that the best answer is 'it depends' but here goes anyway. I'm a bit of a newbie, been strumming for 10 months, not anywhere near a good player. I have bought a concert size Cordoba 25CK with all solid wood top sides and back, the 'wood that dares not speak its name' i.e. acacia koa grown in Portugal.

It is currently strung with Aquila Nylgut strings, and I'm curious to try different strings to see the difference in sound. The Aquilas do sound good to me, more than adequate volume, sustain is good. I'm curious as to what else the uke might sound like with different strings on it. I mostly strum, mostly jazz standards and older, and in the next few months I want to start picking more.

Can anyone throw a suggestion or two for strings that I should try on this uke? I'd be very grateful. Some time ago I read about a 'string sampler' pack, but I can't find any info on that anywhere.

Cheers
 
I'd try Ko'olau Alohi low g's
 
Worth Browns. They were the first strings I ever tried that weren't Aquilas. They're well respected, and VERY different from Aquilas. Less volume. Less brashness. A bit more of a "bell-tone". A bit sweeter. I'm currently using Worth Clear Hards (I play a longneck soprano, so same scale as you), and find they're great for fingerpicking. For strumming, they more bark than sing, but I like that.
 
Aloha Bruce,
how's the ukulele sound..is it on the bright side or warm and rich... and what is your sound preferences....and Volume??
 
Hi Stan,

The uke is currently a little on the bright side, but not too far that way. It's also more than loud enough for what/how I play.
 
Thanks for asking this question Bruce. Hope you don't mind my jumping into the discussion. I have a solid mahogany concert uke with Aquila nylgut strings too and I've thought about changing them. I've also thought about Worth Browns myself. What is best, light, or medium weight strings? I'm hoping for warm and rich myself rather than bright.
 
brucemoffatt said:
Hi all,

...... Some time ago I read about a 'string sampler' pack, but I can't find any info on that anywhere.
Click to expand...

MusicGuyMic used to have sampler string packs when he had an ebay store.
Send him an email (I think he is still musicguymic@@aol.com ) and see if he still has those.
 
I like Worth Clears. They have a rep as being bright, but I would say more harp-like. I've tried browns a few times, but they seem too flat to me. I guess they are warmer, but it just seems like they just cut off the highs... giving the illusion of warmth.
 
I think it depends on the individual instrument and the technique, but for my Mainland mahogany concert, I've settled on the Aquila Nylguts. In all, I've had both the old and new Nylguts, Worth Clears, and Martin m600s on it. Clears sounded great at first but seemed to dull after settling in, and I didn't like how the m600s felt under my fingers.

The Nylguts are maybe a bit more percussive than I'd prefer, but I can control that with technique. They're warm, but still uke-ish, whereas the fluorocarbon strings sound more like a guitar if that's what you're going for.

Now one my Ohana mahogany soprano, the Worth Clears sound amazing.
 
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I still feel like a newbie but I do have my string preferences. This is a crazy question because everyone has a different preference and may confuse you more than enlighten you. I love the worth clears medium tension on everything I have put them on. Currently I have Fremont Blackline on two ukus and love them. The Fremonts are warmer but maybe slightly duller, it is hard to describe. The Worths sing/ring and are not too bright. Not as bright as the Aquila in my opinion.
 
I like the worth browns on my Kiwaya, and am also fond of Southcoast, they have so many options for different tunings. while in my local music store, one of the salesman, a uke player, said he uses Aquilla gut on his vintage Martin. anybody use their real gut ?
 
After being disappointed with the sound the Nylguts on my solid mahogany Lanikai LSM-C concert were producing, I installed Worth Clear Mediums. The tone and sound really came alive and am enjoying the playability and sound more each day.
 
Ko'olau Golds might give you some of what you want, nice sweet tone that works for the jazz pallette.
 
Thanks to all.

I'm overwhelmed by the breadth of the good advice. It really does depend.

I'm getting a set of Martin M600s plus a sampler pack that includes Koolau, Kala red, Fremont and Hilo, and then I'll try Worth Browns. At a rough estimate I reckon that will be about 2 years worth of experimentation before I reply back with my results.

Thanks musicguymic for the quick response re the sampler pack and the great price, and sorry I rang you in the middle of the Festival just when Jake was coming on stage. My bad, I live in a sheltered world on the other side of the globe. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :)
 
for what it's worth, and in case anyone is interested, I have a whole ship load of strings to try out and I'll post my impressions of each set.

the original Aquilas were OK but seemed a little bit dead. Maybe they were on there a while before I bought the uke (used), I don't know. They were OK but not spectacular.

I tried a set of Martin M600s. They are thin gauge strings and had clear tone and excellent intonation, but a little bit buzzy (probably the nut slots cut for bigger strings). I did not like the volume, too soft, and the thinness of the strings physically was sort of matched by the thinness of the sound. I got the impression that they sere not passing enough energy into the top to make it really pump. disappointing, but others love them so I put this down to a bit of personal preference and a bit of unsuitability for this particular uke.

I've just put on a set of Ko'olau Golds. Big fat and chunky. They are not broken in yet so a better review later, but they make the uke body vibrate a lot in a sexy, 'let me play with your senses' kind of way. They feel like uke strings ought to feel in my opinion. More later...

Next in line are
Fremont Black Lines
Kala Red
Ko'olau 'Alohi
Hilo
Aquila

All are re-entrants. Many thanks must go to Mike at MGM for the sampler pack (how on earth does he do this for the price???) and Richard G (scorpex) for the new Aquilas.
 
The Ko'olau Golds are off the uke already. The stretching in and settling down happened pretty quickly, and the massive resonance remained. However the intonation was way off all the way up the fretboard, and with the massive body vibration came some buzzing.I couldn't find and fix the buzzing so I suspect it was string-on-fret.

I have just installed the Fremont Blacklines. Initial impression as they just begin to settle, intonation is good, tone seems clear and broad. Volume is quite high, much higher than the Martin M600s. At this stage it sounds like the Martin M600 strings did, but as if someone has turned up the gain and balanced the signal, except of course this is an acoustic instrument. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone but me. The feel under the fingers is thin and smooth, quite slippery but not too much. More info on the Fremonts as they settle in and stretch.
 
lately i've been trying a lot of string out on my two ukuleles, one is an Ohana CK-35, all solid mahogany, the other is a Koaloha concert, solid KOA. I've tried Martin M-600, Ko'olau, Aquila, Worth clears, and Worth browns. My favorites ended up being the Worth browns on the Ohana and Worth clears on the Koaloha. I just dont like Aquilas, the Martins just didnt do it for me and felt 'rubbery', the Ko'olaus were really, really thick strings and were very dull/lifeless, and i just thought the Worths has the best sound/tone/balance. The browns seem to fit better with the mellower mahogany and these have to be my absolute favorite strings as far as how they feel under your fingers (medium gauge), and the Worth clears (medium gauge) seem like they were just made for the bright, loud Koaloha.
 
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brucemoffatt said:
I have just installed the Fremont Blacklines. Initial impression as they just begin to settle, intonation is good, tone seems clear and broad. Volume is quite high, much higher than the Martin M600s. At this stage it sounds like the Martin M600 strings did, but as if someone has turned up the gain and balanced the signal, except of course this is an acoustic instrument. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone but me. The feel under the fingers is thin and smooth, quite slippery but not too much. More info on the Fremonts as they settle in and stretch.
Click to expand...

Yea how do you describe "feel" for strings but I totally agree they are unique. My Honu is in the shop as we type getting a set af low g fremonts set up on it. I have them on my OU6 already and at one time they were on my 240 till it went to OS for repair and they returned it with stock strings on it and I been too lazy to change it back lol.
 
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