DIfficult to handle d'addario pro arte strings

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Sonic

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As I just played uke for almost 1 year.

I tried Aquila, Martin M600, D'addario T2 and finally come to D'addario pro-arte j92

I chose this classical guitar strings because I love the sound colour of it. But I found I cannot holding chords clear enough on these thick strings as I tried to adopt it for 1 month already :(


Any experienced player can give me some recommendation for it. :D
 
Sonic said:
As I just played uke for almost 1 year.

I tried Aquila, Martin M600, D'addario T2 and finally come to D'addario pro-arte j92

I chose this classical guitar strings because I love the sound colour of it. But I found I cannot holding chords clear enough on these thick strings as I tried to adopt it for 1 month already :(


Any experienced player can give me some recommendation for it. :D
Click to expand...

Either stick with it or change them out. I didn't like the pro-arte strings. I felt they were to hard.
 
Aquila is comfortable to handle but the sound colour is a bit darker.
T2 is too shinny and my hands almost can't handle it.

When i do a E chord (4442) with pointing finder(2) and barre ring finger (444) are difficult in j92 for holding over 10 seconds :(
And it's easy to have noise in chord switching for me.

May be I'll try one more month and decide to switch back to Aquila or not.:(
 
Sonic said:
As I just played uke for almost 1 year.

I tried Aquila, Martin M600, D'addario T2 and finally come to D'addario pro-arte j92

I chose this classical guitar strings because I love the sound colour of it. But I found I cannot holding chords clear enough on these thick strings as I tried to adopt it for 1 month already :(


Any experienced player can give me some recommendation for it. :D
Click to expand...

I am NOT really experienced, but thought I'd answer anyway. I've been playing since August 2009, but am still "just a strummer". I do have Aquilas on a lot of my ukuleles. But they sound too "bright" for my taste on my two Flukes. I have D'Addario Pro-Arte J92 strings on one of my Flukes and plan to put them on my other one also (I have Hilo Black Nylon strings on it at the moment). I don't really have a problem with the D'Addarios. They are "fat", like Aquilas. I have trouble with Worth strings because they are too thin and hurt my fingers.

Did you have problems making chords sound okay on this same ukulele when you had other strings before the D'Addarios? I'm wondering if it's the action...

I had a solid-wood koa ukulele for a while, and I just could not play it precisely enough to avoid buzzing when I made chord changes. There were Aquilas on it. The action was probably too low for me, and I was just not technically proficient enough to play it well.

I don't know if this helps, but I love the Pro-Artes. I like the darker colour of the sound.

CountryMouse
 
no doubt they feel different, I liked them for "shredding", ie fast picking of single notes, for standard arpeggios/strumming they were not my favourite, I do understand how they are suited to Jake's style, also, they have great tuning stability.
 
I just started playing uke 60 days ago... Ya 2 months in exact! Lol... I m not experienced much with the strings and I have just strung my new Kala acacia Tenor with D'addario Pro Arte extra hard tension classical guitar strings 2 weeks ago and it feels better than Aquila strings. Probably it has to deal with I used to play classical guitar. Tone wise, I found it is not as bright as I thought so I am tempted to try the T2 strings, wonder if I would prefer the bright tone of T2.
 
You can always try Worth "FATs",eg the CFs for tenor.

CountryMouse said:
I am NOT really experienced, but thought I'd answer anyway. I've been playing since August 2009, but am still "just a strummer". I do have Aquilas on a lot of my ukuleles. But they sound too "bright" for my taste on my two Flukes. I have D'Addario Pro-Arte J92 strings on one of my Flukes and plan to put them on my other one also (I have Hilo Black Nylon strings on it at the moment). I don't really have a problem with the D'Addarios. They are "fat", like Aquilas. I have trouble with Worth strings because they are too thin and hurt my fingers.

Did you have problems making chords sound okay on this same ukulele when you had other strings before the D'Addarios? I'm wondering if it's the action...

I had a solid-wood koa ukulele for a while, and I just could not play it precisely enough to avoid buzzing when I made chord changes. There were Aquilas on it. The action was probably too low for me, and I was just not technically proficient enough to play it well.

I don't know if this helps, but I love the Pro-Artes. I like the darker colour of the sound.

CountryMouse
Click to expand...
 
chrimess said:
You can always try Worth "FATs",eg the CFs for tenor.
Click to expand...

I don't know that putting tenor strings on a soprano or concert would be a good idea (tension). I just don't like fluorocarbons. Okay, I do like Martin M600 strings on my TV Pal plastic uke. :)

CountryMouse
 
Sonic, give the D'Addario Nyltech strings a try. They are made by Aquila but are quite different in sound although similar looking but for their creamy appearance. They are also softer to fret so you might like them. There is no perfect string for all occasions so you've got to try different strings. That's part of the fun.
 
For me...tuning down to A# or A with these strings made a pleasing difference in tension and tone.
 
Thank you for yours comments.

I'll try to tackle pro-arte first. I agreed that fluorocarbon string are higher tension to hurt the finger, pro-arte is just 'fat' in strings but it's not really high tension as fluorocarbon.

Actually I really love the "Classical Guitar" tone style uke in the combination of J92+all solid mahogany concert = Punchy and Warm tones with longer note vibration, the sound is so beautiful for single note / broken Chord arpeggio. :D
 
Last edited:
My dos centavos on strings; try different sets and the one you like the most will have the sound and playability you like. What someone likes may not necessarily be your cup of tea.
 
I really like the PhD (low G) strings on my solid mahogany tenor ukulele. Perfect to get a classical guitar sound.
 
I have tried a lot of different string sets,and always go back to Worth strings. I like the clear sound, and they stand up to fingerpicking.
 
Bill Mc said:
Sonic, give the D'Addario Nyltech strings a try. They are made by Aquila but are quite different in sound although similar looking but for their creamy appearance. They are also softer to fret so you might like them. There is no perfect string for all occasions so you've got to try different strings. That's part of the fun.
Click to expand...

They are GREAT !!!

After changing them, I feel they project a little more tone and sharper than normal Aquila Nylgut. And they still keep the comfortable playing of Aquila.:cool:
 
Sonic said:
They are GREAT !!!

After changing them, I feel they project a little more tone and sharper than normal Aquila Nylgut. And they still keep the comfortable playing of Aquila.:cool:
Click to expand...

Do the D'Addario Nyltech strings sound treble-y like the Aquilas? Or a little rounder and fuller? Sometimes I don't like that bright treble sound of the Aquilas. Thinking of trying the Nyltechs out myself.

CountryMouse
 
CountryMouse said:
Do the D'Addario Nyltech strings sound treble-y like the Aquilas? Or a little rounder and fuller? Sometimes I don't like that bright treble sound of the Aquilas. Thinking of trying the Nyltechs out myself.

CountryMouse
Click to expand...

In my soild mahogany concert Aquila already ring quite soft sound as follow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbeCtTai3Ck


The Nyltech did turn a little fuller(just a little) but the volumn is still the same. The projection of fingerpicking notes is clearier in Nyltech.

Which size and wood is your uke?
If you don't like the bright Aquilas with your bright tone oriented uke. Your choose maybe those normal black nylon / Pro arte (very warm and punchy tone)

Maybe I'll take another video of Nyltech sound demo for it :)
 
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