John Pearse Ukulele Weissenborn® Soprano Strings

Found it on this site;

http://www.juststrings.com/jps-5100.html

Can't find any extra infos on this strings except those online music shops. Anyone got experience with John Pearse ukulele strings?

Thanks!

John Pearse makes some excellent guitar strings. How he claims copyright on the Weissenborn name I'm not sure (maybe no one else ever bothered), but he uses it on a lot of different items, and I don't think it has any particular meaning in relation to these strings.

I beleive these are a wound nylon set. It is a very interesting concept. I have never used the JP strings, but Savarez also makes these. Wound nylon means that nylon is actually wound around nylon. It gives the strings more volume. I almost suspected that the Aquila process was to somehow wind their material and then polish it smooth. That would expalin the somewhat rough texture. I thought this because at least the Savarez wound nylons have a very similar sound to Nylgut.

I actually liked the sound very much. There were two problems I saw with them. First, if you got too thick with the diameters, the sound would go dead. That shouldn't be a problem with ukulele gauges - the sound should be bright and strong.

Second, however, is the squeaking. The texture from the winding is somewhat rough, and they all squeak to a certain extent. Like with metal wound, the thicker you go, the worse it gets. On larger diameters, believe it or not, they're actually noisier than metal wound. On a ukulele set, I would guess that the thinner strings would not bother anyone, but some would find the second, and more likely third strings to be somewhat annoying in that regard.

Bear in mind, this is all somewhat speculative on my part - as mentioned, I haven't tried this particular set. At any rate, if you decide to give them a try, let us know how you find them.

not at that price. I would have to know they are head and shoulders above the rest.

Interesting to see John spoken of as though he were still alive! He's not, more's the pity. And he never actually made strings in his own facility; he specified string formulae to winders and then packaged them. Thomastik-Infeld made or may still make some of the Pearse strings.

I now use the top four strings from a Savarez guitar set with a nylon on nylon "C" string which I really like; the "G" is a silver plated copper on nylon. I find unwound (low) G and C strings to sound tubby, and the nylon on nylon C makes for a very smooth tonal voicing transition from the metal wound G to the unwound E and A strings. I do not find the squeak to be a problem, besides which, you can always very lightly sand the tops of wound strings with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper to get rid of noise.

Rick Turner said:

Interesting to see John spoken of as though he were still alive! He's not, more's the pity. And he never actually made strings in his own facility; he specified string formulae to winders and then packaged them. Thomastik-Infeld made or may still make some of the Pearse strings.

Click to expand...

I think the Thomastik-Infeld set is a special case. Everything JP said on RMMGA back when he was alive and when I frequented there indicated that his strings weren't made in some other factory (I think the most persistent rumour was that they were made by D'Addario - which is not true).

From johnpearse@aol.com Mon May 7 08:01:00 2001
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From: johnpearse@aol.com (JOHNPEARSE)
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Date: 08 May 2001 06:00:16 GMT
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Sorry if I was a bit abrupt, David. I get a little steamed at times when I see
posts saying that company X or company Y makes my strings.
Actually I don't, personally, make the strings anymore. That's done by the
great guys and gals in the workshop. I do, however, make all the prototype
string sets...in my little workshop overlooking the gorgeous vineyards of the
Pyrenees Orientales, here in southern France. I set up my prototyping rig and
other machinery here about three years ago and I come over here every three
months or so to work free from the constant interruptions that I had to put up
with, back in PA.
Now I think I'll just open another bottle of Banyuls and.........
John Pearse.

Click to expand...

-Tor

Rick Turner said:

I now use the top four strings from a Savarez guitar set with a nylon on nylon "C" string which I really like; the "G" is a silver plated copper on nylon. I find unwound (low) G and C strings to sound tubby, and the nylon on nylon C makes for a very smooth tonal voicing transition from the metal wound G to the unwound E and A strings. I do not find the squeak to be a problem, besides which, you can always very lightly sand the tops of wound strings with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper to get rid of noise.

Click to expand...

Does anyone know the exact set of Savarez strings Rick is referring to here? The Savarez website is kind of goofy and I spent some time trying to figure it out. I THINK it's the 520 P3 set, but I just wanted to be sure before I ordered them. Any help would be appreciated...

http://www.juststrings.com/sav-520p3.html

soupking said:

Does anyone know the exact set of Savarez strings Rick is referring to here? The Savarez website is kind of goofy and I spent some time trying to figure it out. I THINK it's the 520 P3 set, but I just wanted to be sure before I ordered them. Any help would be appreciated...

http://www.juststrings.com/sav-520p3.html

Click to expand...

Savarez Alliance Red Card


This is the combo most frequently used
Savarez 541R (E)
Savarez 542R (B)
Savarez 543R (G)
D'Addario 4304 (D) Low G or you can use another 541R for High G

The 540 treble set includes 41, 42 and 43 strings. The D'Addario 4303 (from the EJ43 Pro Arte Set) can be ordered as a single string. These can be ordered from Strings By Mail or Just Strings.

Kanaka916 said:

Savarez Alliance Red Card

This is the combo most frequently used
Savarez 541R (E)
Savarez 542R (B)
Savarez 543R (G)
D'Addario 4304 (D) Low G or you can use another 541R for High G

The 540 treble set includes 41, 42 and 43 strings. The D'Addario 4303 (from the EJ43 Pro Arte Set) can be ordered as a single string. These can be ordered from Strings By Mail or Just Strings.

Click to expand...

Nice. Thanks for the info!