Share my experience with the strings choice for Collings UC1 and UC1K

smellofstrings

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Hi guys,

Wanna share with you my experience with the strings for Collings uke. I got my Collings UC1 (mahogany, satin finish) in Dec 2011 and the UC1K (koa, satin finish) in Feb 2012.

The UC1 comes with Aquila strings (as stated in Collings' website) and I really love its sound. Some may think that Aquila is too bright. But as I usually do chord solo on my ukes, brighter sound somehow helps clarify the melody and reduce the muddiness while chords are played simultaneously.

On the other hand, the UC1K was a NAMM 2012 display model and surprisingly it came with Worth Clear strings. After strumming and picking a few chords, I found that the sound was too "thin" to my ears. I like the "bolder" sound of Aquila. Of course, this difference may be partly due to the different woods (Koa vs. Mahogany). But I assumed that changing the Worth to Aquila should bring me back the sound that I like. So I did it.

After stringing the UC1K with Aquila, the thickness of the sound did improve. Yet... it was muddy!!! At first, I thought that muddiness was "warmness" or "mellowness". But no no. That's negative to me. When I play chord solo on it, higher notes just don't come out nicely.

Tonight, I finally decided to switch back to Worth strings! I put Worth Brown strings on my UC1K and it looks so damn cool! Back to the sound, Worth strings do give this uke more clarity! This makes me understand why Collings strung this uke with Worth! I think they had experienced the same muddiness with Aquila on this uke!

Any Collings uke owners can share your thoughts? What strings do you guys use?

Thanks!
 
Thanks for starting this thread. No thoughts yet as my new to me UC1 should arrive today, so I'll following this with interest. Have you tried the worths on the UC1?
 
I went in the opposite direction with my Kanilea. I had Worths for the Low G, which of course is too boomy because the G string is too floppy, but I hate wounds so what can ya do? But now that I have a the Risa solid tenor, I can just low G that and back off the G string and it still comes through balanced on the amp. So, I got some Aquilas, this time the New Nylgut formula, and the Kanilea is just sublime. Notes wring clearly with the right amount of sustain, it's a uke sound, the strings aren't as rough, but still catch the fingers... it's really great. Try the New Nylguts some time. They can be gotten direct from Aquila if no one has them, or from Mercantino - which is also Aquila's online uke store.

I was thinking I might hate the new formula, because the last three ukes I bought came with something that was said to be Aquila, but awful in all three cases. Maybe there's a difference between the concert and tenor scale, or maybe what the OEMs get is different, or maybe they were still tweaking the formula. I don't know. All I know is that what's in the package works.

Or maybe the Collings is more like a Koaloha concert in that it wants fluorocarbons all day long and twice on Sunday. :)

My ears do the opposite of you. I tend to stereotype koa into the Aquila camp and mahogany into the fluoro camp, with exceptions for Koaloha. I say whatever feels right to your fingers, and sounds right to your ears, is the best choice. No matter what all the cool kids tell you about their titanium this and pro arte that.
 
Thanks for starting this thread. No thoughts yet as my new to me UC1 should arrive today, so I'll following this with interest. Have you tried the worths on the UC1?

No I haven't. But I will try a a few months later!
 
I went in the opposite direction with my Kanilea. I had Worths for the Low G, which of course is too boomy because the G string is too floppy, but I hate wounds so what can ya do? But now that I have a the Risa solid tenor, I can just low G that and back off the G string and it still comes through balanced on the amp. So, I got some Aquilas, this time the New Nylgut formula, and the Kanilea is just sublime. Notes wring clearly with the right amount of sustain, it's a uke sound, the strings aren't as rough, but still catch the fingers... it's really great. Try the New Nylguts some time. They can be gotten direct from Aquila if no one has them, or from Mercantino - which is also Aquila's online uke store.

I was thinking I might hate the new formula, because the last three ukes I bought came with something that was said to be Aquila, but awful in all three cases. Maybe there's a difference between the concert and tenor scale, or maybe what the OEMs get is different, or maybe they were still tweaking the formula. I don't know. All I know is that what's in the package works.

Or maybe the Collings is more like a Koaloha concert in that it wants fluorocarbons all day long and twice on Sunday. :)

My ears do the opposite of you. I tend to stereotype koa into the Aquila camp and mahogany into the fluoro camp, with exceptions for Koaloha. I say whatever feels right to your fingers, and sounds right to your ears, is the best choice. No matter what all the cool kids tell you about their titanium this and pro arte that.

I don't stereotype any wood into any camp. Like I have mentioned, Worth goes well with "this uke" only. I don't care if it is koa/mahogany/mango/whatever. I totally agree with you that the "strings" are those which sound good to one's ears!
 
I usually put Worth on all my ukes as I find I like Worth better on almost every uke. I did slap on a set Worth strings when I first got my UC1, and it did sound very good, but there is a slight buzz at the first fret area on mine and in the dryer months it becomes more evident. So I put the Aquilas back and the buzz mostly goes away because Aquilas are stiffer strings. I find the Aquilas on the UC1 to sound very good also, so I'm fine with sticking with them. Maybe one day I'll try to eradicate the buzz on the UC1 so I can experiment with more strings again.
 
For a Collings Tenor?

Hey Collings Buddies!

I'm a new Collings owner myself -- my new UT1 arrived on Friday! Just a great little uke, I'm thrilled!

I think it has Aquilas on it right now and they feel a little stiff to me. It's almost as if there is more tone in there but the stiffness of the strings is holding it back.

I was thinking about trying Worth clears. Any thoughts? What should I order?

Thanks.
 
How has the restringing gone with the short length of peghead stub allowed on the string changeout. That is something I've wondered would be a problem.
 
Im thinking about putting Daddario T2's on my UT3 Custom maple but I'm worried that the C-string will buzz because its thicker than aquilas. On my Breedlove MC koa and American series tenors both have worth browns and they are a perfect match.
 
How has the restringing gone with the short length of peghead stub allowed on the string changeout. That is something I've wondered would be a problem.

Yeah I wonder that too. My Sailor soprano came with Aquilas, but I didn't like the sound, so changed them out before they had a chance to stretch to their full stretchiness. I wonder how well that would have worked. I should add my Sailor has pegheads.
 
Its almost like you need to practice the length required. Me?? I'd rather they put more stub to get a nice long braid to hold those strings tight; but, it seems somebody at Collins was a sailor before and thinks you only need 3 or 4 wraps.
 
Hey Collings Buddies!

I'm a new Collings owner myself -- my new UT1 arrived on Friday! Just a great little uke, I'm thrilled!

I think it has Aquilas on it right now and they feel a little stiff to me. It's almost as if there is more tone in there but the stiffness of the strings is holding it back.

I was thinking about trying Worth clears. Any thoughts? What should I order?

Thanks.

I have my UT-1 strung low G with Worth CHLGHD. It is a marriage made in heaven. The perfect combination IMO. I changed out the rentrant Aquillas that came with it and have never looked back. They are available at Elderly Instruments.
 
dkcrown, I assume that you had to widen the string slot on the G string, right? Did it mess up the intonation?

Also, thoughts on the tension for Worth clears?

My current inclination is to keep it in rentrant, but I do want to try other strings. Aquillas have a very pronounced sound.
 
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