New uke, new strings

steelarts

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Okay, I've just got my first uke, a Tanglewood TU4 which I'm quite pleased with for the money. The strings were a little disappointing and coming from a guitar background having a high G seemed very strange. So reading about strings I got some Aquilas with a low G. I don't know if this is the right brand at the moment but they are a definite improvement on what was fitted before, but....

Now I don't know if I'm playing incorrectly or what, but the low G seems so much more powerful than the other strings. If I finger pick it's not too bad but when strumming it seems out of balance with the rest of the strings. Is this normal with Aquilas or is it my technique that need improving. Should I maybe consider going back to a high G or try a different make of strings? I bought a leather plectrum but I'm not sure about this bit of kit at all! :confused:
 
Your experience is very common with the Low-G string sets.
I found Worth clear strings to be more balanced in the Low-G sets.
Bob
 
Is the low G on your set wound? I've found that wound strings tend to overwhelm the others.

Along with the Worth clears I'd also strongly suggest you look in to Worth Browns, Fremont Blacklines, Orcas, and Southcoast for Low G sets. They are all very balanced, and from that group I am certain you'll find a really good set.
 
Thanks for your replies guys. Yes, the low G is wound PoiDog, I'll definitely look into one of the sets you suggested. mm stan, I had a horrible feeling someone would say that! I tried using a really soft Dunlop pick that I have (can you use guitar picks on nylon strings) and that actually seems to settle it a bit but that wound string just seems so much louder if I don't play with care.
 
I second what someone said about sticking with reentrant (high-g) strings for a while. The chords are still the same, but it is the reentrant sound that sets the uke apart from simply being a small guitar. You should at least get familiar with that sound before branching out to other stuff. A low-g tuning isn't "sacrilege" - but if you aren't familiar with the "jumping flea" sound of reentrant tuning it's really hard to evaluate when to use low-g vs. high-g. You are in danger of missing the fact that the uke is an instrument in its own right and not simply a small guitar tuned higher.

That said, it can be very hard to find a low-g set that intonates well and sounds good - and often it can be a matter of the uke rather than the strings. I'd never found a low-g set of strings I liked until I recently got a new (well, new to me) uke - a Mainland cutaway mahogany tenor. On that uke a low-G (wound low g, at that) sounds simply amazing. On my other tenors (a red cedar/rosewood Mainland and a Mainland mango) I hadn't been able to find a low-G set, wound or unwound, that I liked at all.

So, what I'm saying is that it may simply be the case that your current uke is not a good fit for low-g - in which case you should enjoy it fully with high-g, then, if low g still appeals to you (keep in mind that you can capo one of your many guitars at the fifth fret and play the four treble strings and achieve simlar results as a low-g uke) you can keep your eye open for a uke that works well strung that way.

John
 
John, thanks for the advice. I've just ordered another set of Aquilas because they don't seem to do a single unwound high G; single wound low G yes, not high. I wish i'd figured that out and bought a standard set and then added the single low G to it! Duh!!!! Still we live and learn.
 
I have a friend who has a very extensive guitar background and when I was first looking into a uke for myself and we found out about the low G tuning he thought that he would like that the best, and that if he ever got a uke he'd want low G tuning. Now that mine has arrived and he's been playing it a bit he's decided that he really likes the traditional high G tuning, as it can do a lot of things he can't do readily on the guitar.

So when he ordered his custom Ko-olau tenor yesterday didn't get the low G after all!
 
I played guitar for a long time before recently starting uke. I agree with the idea of learning the charm of the high g first because its just so essential to the recognizable ukulele sound.
 
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