Aquila Barfatones Rant

Ukuleleblues

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I went to restring my Bari with Aquilias (I've used that brand on my bari for at least 4 years). While putting the new set on the B and E appeared to be identical.

I tried to tune up the E and it was too tight and too fat. I looked at another set of the same 21U I had on hand and and the same thing.

I compared the E to the set I took off and the old E was as least 3/4 - 1/2 the thickness of the new E. On both sets the E was identical to the B. I used a caliper to do the comparison.

It was bad enough that the old Aquilias wound D and G wore out in Days (I never used them and used to have to buy D'Addario J68's or GHS 100s and use their wound D and G).

I guess now you have to buy the D, G and E to use these strings.

Luckily I had a set of D'Addario EJ88B Nyltech on hand (bought on a whim) they seemed identical to the old Aquilias (I hope the wound are better than those POS 21U strings).

Anyone had the same experience?

I am so glad I had the D'Addarios on hand, as we are performing tomorrow.

Anyone want 2 sets of the new crummy Aquilias Baris? PM me and I'll send my address you can send a SASE to.

I was going to say the following but that would have not been in the Aloha Spirit. So just ignore it.

"Oh Yeah THANKS AQUILIA! Like my Grandmother used to tell Grandpa when she got PO'ed: "vaffanculo!"

You should have given them another model # to alert us you were changing them.

Something about this just pisses me off (as your strings are sold at a premium)."
 
I forgot to add, on top of it the G is Aluminum and is appears to be thicker than the D. They should have just shipped a fake dog turd, at least I could have had some fun playing jokes with it. I guess the joke is on me as I got a real turd.

I bought these as spares awhile ago so I don't know when or from who so I can't return them. I vaguely remember getting shafted like this before on a different set of Aquilias, (wound string on an all nylgut set) but all the shaftings blur together at my age :)
 
Did you test them to see if the new strings intonated correctly?

Who knows what changes Aquila is making. The test is do they work.

EDIT: I've had baritone sets of Aquila's on, on various baritone ukuleles for long periods of time. They may not always look pretty but they don't fail.

Anthony
 
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Did you test them to see if the new strings intonated correctly?

Who knows what changes Aquila is making. The test is do they work.

EDIT: I've had baritone sets of Aquila's on, on various baritone ukuleles for long periods of time. They may not always look pretty but they don't fail.

Anthony
yes I did, it was a B STRING they packaged for an an E, I finally remembered the last time it happened the G was a low G For a tenor. I had to waste my time taking Photos and scans of the strings and package to get the correct stuff sent. Crappy QC. If can find their address I'll see if I can get my hard earned money back. Buyer BEWARE
 
Did you test them to see if the new strings intonated correctly?

Who knows what changes Aquila is making. The test is do they work.

EDIT: I've had baritone sets of Aquila's on, on various baritone ukuleles for long periods of time. They may not always look pretty but they don't fail.

Anthony
I've had their wound strings break in less than a week. Same uke, GHS & DAdarrio last MONTHS
 
Did you try contacting Aquila before ranting here?

That's usually more polite and more effective if you want to get service from a supplier...
 
I forgot to add, on top of it the G is Aluminum and is appears to be thicker than the D. They should have just shipped a fake dog turd, at least I could have had some fun playing jokes with it. I guess the joke is on me as I got a real turd.

That pretty much summed up my experience with bari Aquilas - not with the wrong sized E string but that aluminum G string was the pits. Just FYI - the Martin M630 bari strings use that same crappy aluminum G string - in fact the wound strings in a Martin m630 set and the Aquilas could be the same strings from any difference I could tell.

Edit to add: Oh, and one of the wound strings broke within a week in both sets of Aquilas I tried on my Mainland bari - I don't recall if it was the same string both times but I switched that uke to D'Addario Pro-Arte guitar strings (actually, just the D - the G is a fluorocarbon unwound) and haven't had a problem since. In fact, the best thing about the Aquilas was that they broke quickly because it prompted me to quickly try other strings. LOL

Now for the big secret: Thomastik-Infeld makes chrome steel flat wound guitar strings that are beautiful on a bari uke - very, very quiet. You can get them individually through some of the string sellers. The .035 CF35, intended for the A string on a guitar, makes a perfect D string on bari. I suspect that the .031, intended for D string on guitar, will make a perfect G string but I haven't tried it yet as I'm still evaluating a fluorocarbon unwound string in that position. So far, for picking I prefer that unwound fluorocarbon string but I suspect for strumming the .031 Thomastik-Infeld might be the better choice.

John
 
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This is one of the reasons I choose Southcoast and Living Waters. I know they'll be correct and if not it's easy to contact the owners. I wish they made linear wound strings (G) for a bari but they don't so I'm now looking for a set other than Martin 630's. I like the fluros of the bari L/W's but miss the higher tension of a wound 3&4.

Will be interested in how this turns out and if you find a string you like.

Also interested in the strings you're putting together John, they sound like what I'm looking for.
 
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Did you try contacting Aquila before ranting here?

That's usually more polite and more effective if you want to get service from a supplier...
I just wanted to warn you all to beware. I don't have to open and mic my other manufacturers strings. I bought these months ago. Face it, I got screwed . I'm with oldfart Best thing is I found a better product. I've wasted enough time doing aquilia's QC today...live and learn
 
My mom's favorite uke size is baritone, and her favorite strings are the Aquila strings. They last her 8 to 9 months before any of the wound strings break. I also have my baritone strung with Aquila strings and have not had any issues with them,. Mind you, I don't play my baritone as much as my mom does, but her ukes get played at least an hour a day, every day, both baritones.

Anyhow, just wanted to add my personal experience with Aquila. I don't have issues with their strings at all. They always perform as they should for me.

Dan
 
UU member Mimmo = Aquila. You coulda PM'd him. Not that I'm against posting problems, because that's how you find out others are having the same problem...but it's not any more difficult to get hold of him, as it is Ken or Southcoast.
 
UU member Mimmo = Aquila. You coulda PM'd him. Not that I'm against posting problems, because that's how you find out others are having the same problem...but it's not any more difficult to get hold of him, as it is Ken or Southcoast.
I appreciate that information, unless you know that, it is difficult to impossible to get in touch with them. I tried sending them a message from my tablet 5 times yesterday and kept getting this message "you are not logged in" I got on a PC where I could see better and the screen said Contact Us but it also said Complaints: contact the store that sold you the strings. Do not... "

Contact us.jpg

I ended up sending something to infor@aquilausa but that is probably a sales line. I'll send the same to Mimmo. Thanks again!
 
The guy/gal from Aquila USA responded quickly and said they are an Independent Distributor and suggested I contact Aquila at their web site. I e-mailed him back and told him the site doesn't let you send message. It's not his fault, very quick response.

I checked out Mimmo, I didn't see any indication of an Aquila affiliation, I sent a message anyway. So Mimmo if I sent that to you in error, I apologize for bothering you.

Thanks everyone for all the input and have a GREAT DAY!!! We are off to play for 4 hours at the park (Brrrrrrr)
 
Wow, that form contradicts itself. "Contact Us" - then, not if you're a retailer. Ok, how about if I'm a customer? No, you contact the store you got them from, where they won't know anything about uke strings. Ok.. Then if I can't contact you if I'm a customer or a retailer, can I buy the strings then? No, this is the wrong form. This is the contact us form that no one is supposed to use. Use the other form for buying...

Yeah, something got lost in translation there. If you contact them from mercatinodellukulele.it, they're very friendly. I'm sure they would be through Aquila too if you could get hold of them. :)
 
Wow that is some heavy ranting....always sweeter if you use sugar.....I'd contact Mimmo here, after all was said I am not sure how he'd respond....
Mimmo is a real nice guy though, he certainly does not deserve this....Personal Message here, he is a UU member and usually responds quickly if he see anything..
 
I disagree, in that it's human nature to get frustrated at something like this. And UU is the nicest of forums, but we have this forum culture of sweeping things under the rug and speaking of problems in hushed tones. I guess if it was a witch hunt, that's bad and wrong... But I read the OP's post in the spirit of frustration, which is different than a forum witch hunt. I may be wrong, but I don't think anyone's out for blood. Sure yeah, he coulda contacted Mimmo, but he also didn't know Mimmo was Aquila, and their email form needs work.

I don't think anyone was the bad guy here, not Mimmo and his email form, or ukuleleblues for being frustrated. It just.. Happens. Mimmo is good people. If there's a production problem, he'll sort it. :)
 
.... mimmo is sad to hear a such comments from people that actually knows nothing of sure in matter. I am a man ( and an uke player) before to be a businesman and a such illarious comments leave me bad. Right this.
That guy that complaint the bad baritone strings is in right: I am very happy to send him replaces and a few more sets.
regards
Mimmo
 
The guy/gal from Aquila USA responded quickly and said they are an Independent Distributor and suggested I contact Aquila at their web site. I e-mailed him back and told him the site doesn't let you send message. It's not his fault, very quick response.

Not sure about the laws in your country, but in my country the responsibilaty is with the seller. It's logical, you have an agreement with the seller to get a product in exchange for money. They should get their part of the deal fixed, instead of pointing you to the manufacturar they should contact them theirselves.
 
I disagree, in that it's human nature to get frustrated at something like this. And UU is the nicest of forums, but we have this forum culture of sweeping things under the rug and speaking of problems in hushed tones. QUOTE]

+1
To this day I get grief for pointing out some QC problems I had with my Mainland uke.
OTOH, I get a PM every-so-often from others with similar problems as mine, but aren't comfortable about posting about it.
 
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