Aquilas on an unbraced soprano?

Hey all, after strumming around on a few ukes at Sam Ash Music last weekend, I played a couple tenors and concerts that had Aquila strings on them, and I fell in love with them. IN fact, I purchased a set of them for my Oscar Schmidt OU-2 concert, and the opened that instrument right up.

I have one question though. I am currently rebuilding an antique Harmony uke, probably from the 1930's or 1940's, and there is no bracing whatsoever on that instrument. It is constructed with solid birch, which is a hard wood, so maybe they felt there was no reason to. Well, I am going to glue the top back onto the instrument hopefully this weekend, but now I want to put Aquilas on it. Since the Aquilas are so much stiffer and seem to add more pulling force to the bridge, will this be an issue on my unbraced soprano? If so, I may add a brace under the bridge area to add strength, but I really don't want to if I don't have to so I can keep that instrument pretty much unmolested.

Thanks,
Dan

A lot of soprano ukes are unbraced. Aquila strings on sopranos don't really exert much tension anyway.
Personally I wouldn't worry about it.

Though since it is an old instrument, I leave it to your discretion.

I have Aquilas on my 50's Harmony (in D tuning) with no problems. As kissing said there isn't that much tension. If you're worried you may want to try Worth light strings, I use them on my old Koa ukes to help keep the "potato chipping" of their soundboards to a minimum.

So I have a Harmony "Roy Smeck" uke - it is mahogany instead of birch, but it isn't braced either. I opted for Martin 600's on it & there is NO discernable problem & I don't think Aquila's would be substantially higher tension.

Two of my sopranos are unbraced and have
Aquilas on,and not only that but Aquila CONCERT
strings as I prefer the extra clout they give!
No harm done and a much better sound!