Aquila String Tension / Pulled Bridge

Last week, I opened the case on my Mainland Red Cedar Tenor, only to find the bridge had popped off. It had only been a couple of weeks since I had had it out. It pulled off clean and brought a layer of the wood with it, so looks like the glue held good, only a couple of small spots that showed lack of glue.

Anyway, "told you that to tell you this".....

I packed it up and took it to my favorite luthier / Uke builder and questioned him about what his best guess was that caused this to happen.....First thing out of his mouth was...Aquila strings. Says they have more tension than most on the market and you sacrifice tension for volume. Dang...I was really liking the Aquila's, but now I may go searching for string with a little less tension. Until than, I have, at least, loosen the strings on the Uke's that I'm not playing regularly.

Feedback on strings and tension appreicated.

wooville

High-G aquila nylgut?

Actually, I'm using Aquila Nylgut with a low G wound.

Aquilas do have higher tension, but I doubt it is the sole issue.
Too many folks use them on all types of ukuleles, there would be flying bridges everywhere.
Most likely it is either an issue with the ukulele or how/where you stored it.
My girl friend has a cedar topped Ohana with Aquilas with no problem. I had the same ukulele with PHD's before I sold it.

Agree, a few pounds of tension here and there should not cause this.

Red cedar is a soft wood so if a top was going to rip (which is what it sounds like actually happened ) that is the wood it would happen on. I've never thought of Aquilas as particularly high tension though. I use Seaguar leaders in the same gages as a Worth CH (heavy) set on my Mainland mahogany soprano and Mainland mahogany tenor - they are way higher tension than Aquilas and I've not had any problem yet (it's been almost a year on the soprano).

If the wood tore cleanly I think I'd glue it back down, then drill small holes down through the bridge and bridge plate (the part inside the uke) and string it "through top" - pretty much a guarantee it's never going to pull the bridge free again!

John

A quick UU search about Mainland and bridge will show this to be a known issue with some Mainland ukuleles.