String help!

electrauke

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Hey guys, I recently picked up my Low-G uke and just got sick of it (no offence low-G lovers) so I finally just decided to take it off. I left all the strings (which are Aquilas) except the Low-G and took the High-G from another Aquila set and restrung the one string. What I am trying to get at is, will the High-G string from the one set match up and sound fine with the C, E, and A strings from the Low-G set?

Thanks,
Electrauke
 
There shouldn't be a problem. Aquila Nylguts are pretty consistent.
 
As one who is about to venture into the tenor and low G realm, I'd be interested in knowing what you didn't like about the low G? The sound? The relative string tension? I'm giving it a try because the big boys seem to like it- some "Jake" guy, a "James" dude....
 
For me, the music I know and love is in re-entrant tuning. There is much more tab and instruction available for re-entrant too. Mostly though, I feel that the alternating finger picking and strum patterns made possible by re-entrant tuning are a lot of what I enjoy in my playing. Low-g just feels like I am playing the bottom four on a guitar. I like it for classical pieces, but that's about it.

Also, Jake plays re-entrant, not low-g. So does Kalei Gamiao.

-Steve
 
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Hi Andre,

It will be no problem unless of course the other strings were old enough to need changing anyway. Glad to see you came to your senses about the low-G :biglaugh:

John
 
Wow. What a bunch of haters! :) Haha! To each his own...

Should be no problem to mix those strings. I think I've had every string mismatched at one point or another with no big dilemmas. The worst case of "non-matching" strings always seems to come from the wound C or low-G. But I was using them in an era when the only strings you could buy at the music store was Hilo, Martin, and GHS. Hopefully things have changed!
 
As one who is about to venture into the tenor and low G realm, I'd be interested in knowing what you didn't like about the low G? The sound? The relative string tension? I'm giving it a try because the big boys seem to like it- some "Jake" guy, a "James" dude....

Well two reasons: 1st I found that the only songs that sound good with it are Johnny Cash type songs and 2nd my Uke is set up so that the front board moves up and down according to the humidity and is causing a vibration from the metal string hitting some parts of the sound board, And also Ukeeku, who actually helped build the Uke, told me that it will sound better with a high g.
 
Well that's kind of a big generalization. ...Unless James and Brittni and Uncle Herb don't "sound good" to you (which is fine too).

You could try an unwound low-g. It's a huge improvement over the wound metal ones. Like, huge. It wouldn't rattle, buzz, hum, or squeak even close to as much.

Did he say why it would sound better with a high-g? Just curious. There is a big difference between "will" and "can." As long as you get it set up right I thought any uke would work for both. Unless your builder was referring to the overall tone of the uke leaning towards a brighter sound, which in his opinion might lend itself to high-g tuning.

Don't want to be a pain, just trying to keep your mind open. Not too long ago I was a young gun uker like yourself!
 
As one who is about to venture into the tenor and low G realm, I'd be interested in knowing what you didn't like about the low G? The sound? The relative string tension? I'm giving it a try because the big boys seem to like it- some "Jake" guy, a "James" dude....

I switched my concert to a low G for a little while. I liked the sound of it, jazzy and deep. But I happen to like that uke better with reentrant tuning; it's koa, and the high G just sounds perfect for the size and the wood. I plan to get a tenor (probably mahogany, maybe cedar top) and string that one low G. I like the idea of having one of each.
 
Well that's kind of a big generalization. ...Unless James and Brittni and Uncle Herb don't "sound good" to you (which is fine too).

You could try an unwound low-g. It's a huge improvement over the wound metal ones. Like, huge. It wouldn't rattle, buzz, hum, or squeak even close to as much.

Did he say why it would sound better with a high-g? Just curious. There is a big difference between "will" and "can." As long as you get it set up right I thought any uke would work for both. Unless your builder was referring to the overall tone of the uke leaning towards a brighter sound, which in his opinion might lend itself to high-g tuning.

Don't want to be a pain, just trying to keep your mind open. Not too long ago I was a young gun uker like yourself!

No Ukeeku did not say why it sounds better, he just said it did, and I figured I would try it. I will try that unwound Low-G though.
 
To be honest, I like low-G better than re-entrant.
It still sounds like a ukulele to my ears, just a shade darker.

The main reason I like it is that the low-G really helps out in playing instrumental solos.
There are certain songs I cannot play on a re-entrant tuned uke in the way I want to (vice versa too, but I know very few songs that require re-entrant to be played).


That being said, per my experience, low-G can sound really good or really bad/muddy depending on the ukulele.
You gotta try it and see if low-G sounds good on that particular ukulele.
 
To be honest, I like low-G better than re-entrant.
It still sounds like a ukulele to my ears, just a shade darker.

The main reason I like it is that the low-G really helps out in playing instrumental solos.
There are certain songs I cannot play on a re-entrant tuned uke in the way I want to (vice versa too, but I know very few songs that require re-entrant to be played).


That being said, per my experience, low-G can sound really good or really bad/muddy depending on the ukulele.
You gotta try it and see if low-G sounds good on that particular ukulele.

What I am going to do is get an unwound Low-G, the metal is what is causing the vibration.
 
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