OldePhart
Well-known member
So, a few of you have been following my recent purchase and the string "experiments" I"ve been running on it.
I thought the Aquilla strings that were on it were okay but the D was a little "woofy" - then it broke (I mention that because it may have been woofy because it was defective; I don't want to unfairly characterize the strings based on one possibly bad example).
Next I tried a set of Martin M630 baritone strings. These I detested and there is no mincing words. It's strange because I love the M600 soprano/concert strings. The unwound fluorocarbon strings were way too soft, the G string was just terrible any way I measured it. It had a rattly tone (not contact with frets, the string itself rattled). I think it may have been the aluminum outer winding - I've never had an aluminum wound string before - it weren't pretty. The only string out of this whole set that was decent was the D - it might have made a good mix with the Aquila set! LOL
At the same time that I bought the Martin strings I bought some classical guitar strings - thinking I'd try them out, too. Well, when the Martins turned out to be a complete dud I replaced the four strings with the 3rd through 6th strings from a set of D'Addario Pro Arte Extra Hard Tension Strings (set EJ44) - tuned an octave down from linear GCEA - i.e. if you've heard a low-g tenor think down an octave from that. This was actually pretty interesting. It sounded good picked, but not so good strummed.
However, I found that I really liked the three treble strings. So, I pulled the G string from the set of Augustine strings that I'd also purchased to use for the G string on the baritone. This works, and sounds good enough to let me know that this tuning ("octave ukulele"?) is what I'm looking for. However, the Augustine string is quite a bit softer than the string from the Pro-Arte set that is in the A position. I've tried tuning that string down to G just to see how I like it and that one is much better.
So...my "perfect" set for this uke in reentrant "octave GCEA" is:
1 - A - Pro Arte J4403
2 - E - Pro Arte J4404
3 - C - Pro Arte J4405
4 - G - Pro Arte J4403
The really amazing thing about this is not only do these strings sound good open and in the first position - the intonation is very nearly spot on all the way across at the 12th fret. In fact, the J4403 intonates fine at the 12th whether tuned to A or G (I guess a long scale like the baritone is much more forgiving than shorter scales, because the intonation even on my tenors changes pretty radically with tuning).
So, this tuning may not be everyone's cup of tea but on the mahogany Mainland (19.5" scale, BTW) I'll drink this tuning and these strings all day...
Update - several weeks later - I found that I really wanted an even harder G string. I ordered a spool of Seaguar Premium Fluorocarbon 130lb leader and it works better. The G string has less tendency to be "snappy."
John
I thought the Aquilla strings that were on it were okay but the D was a little "woofy" - then it broke (I mention that because it may have been woofy because it was defective; I don't want to unfairly characterize the strings based on one possibly bad example).
Next I tried a set of Martin M630 baritone strings. These I detested and there is no mincing words. It's strange because I love the M600 soprano/concert strings. The unwound fluorocarbon strings were way too soft, the G string was just terrible any way I measured it. It had a rattly tone (not contact with frets, the string itself rattled). I think it may have been the aluminum outer winding - I've never had an aluminum wound string before - it weren't pretty. The only string out of this whole set that was decent was the D - it might have made a good mix with the Aquila set! LOL
At the same time that I bought the Martin strings I bought some classical guitar strings - thinking I'd try them out, too. Well, when the Martins turned out to be a complete dud I replaced the four strings with the 3rd through 6th strings from a set of D'Addario Pro Arte Extra Hard Tension Strings (set EJ44) - tuned an octave down from linear GCEA - i.e. if you've heard a low-g tenor think down an octave from that. This was actually pretty interesting. It sounded good picked, but not so good strummed.
However, I found that I really liked the three treble strings. So, I pulled the G string from the set of Augustine strings that I'd also purchased to use for the G string on the baritone. This works, and sounds good enough to let me know that this tuning ("octave ukulele"?) is what I'm looking for. However, the Augustine string is quite a bit softer than the string from the Pro-Arte set that is in the A position. I've tried tuning that string down to G just to see how I like it and that one is much better.
So...my "perfect" set for this uke in reentrant "octave GCEA" is:
1 - A - Pro Arte J4403
2 - E - Pro Arte J4404
3 - C - Pro Arte J4405
4 - G - Pro Arte J4403
The really amazing thing about this is not only do these strings sound good open and in the first position - the intonation is very nearly spot on all the way across at the 12th fret. In fact, the J4403 intonates fine at the 12th whether tuned to A or G (I guess a long scale like the baritone is much more forgiving than shorter scales, because the intonation even on my tenors changes pretty radically with tuning).
So, this tuning may not be everyone's cup of tea but on the mahogany Mainland (19.5" scale, BTW) I'll drink this tuning and these strings all day...
Update - several weeks later - I found that I really wanted an even harder G string. I ordered a spool of Seaguar Premium Fluorocarbon 130lb leader and it works better. The G string has less tendency to be "snappy."
John
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