Living Water Strings

this thread is to share my thoughts on living water strings.

I’ll start by saying that in my opinion they’re the best strings…at least on my Kanile’a K3 Tenor.
The kanile’a is a superb instrument with a very deep and warm tone but it lacks a little bit of volume. I don’t consider it to be a great issue though, because I find that the richness of the sound is the first thing on an instrument.

I own my uke from more or less one year and before trying living water strings, I’ve tried lots of strings: aquila nylgut and nyltech, worth ct and bt, d’addario j71, fremont blacklines and maybe also some other brands that now don’t come to my mind.
by the way…I play only unplugged and almost only instrumental music.
between these strings the best for me were worth ct and d’addario j71, but…there is a but. d’addario were the best in producing the warm, crystal clear I tone I was looking for, but they didn’t add that little bit of volume I wanted; worth ct gave me that little bit of volume but sometimes I found that, especially when strummed, they were a tad too harsh and bright. don’t get me wrong though, both are great strings.

then I decided to try Living Water Strings and found the sound i had in my mind. they play like butter, produce the deep, almost piano like tone I was looking for and they gave me the right volume. they are equally good, both strummed and picked, making each note of a chord perfectly resonate and with a great sustain. I am now using them from about three months and i can consider the string trials over.

last but not least, Ken Middleton is a very kind person and his customer service is flawless.

I’ll upload a video as soon as I find the time, feel free to ask any question you like.

I agree with you whole heartedly. I put them on my Collings UT3K and the string search was over. Use the low G Tenor set. When I first strum the uke in a group of musician/friends they invariably say they have never heard a uke sound that beautiful. That said, the whole string thing is so personal that it's sort of like pointing to the moon and saying your finger is the moon and you're sure of it. The bottom line is that the sound makes me happy and that's why I play the ukulele.

Agreed. Living Water Strings are great. Similar to Worth Clears but not exactly. Plus Ken is a regular here on the forum so it's good to support a fellow UU member. Also, he can also customize a set of tenor banjo DGBE strings if you ask him (they're longer in length / can make then re-entrant too!).
Great customer service from Ken/Living Water and fairly fast shipping to the US/AZ from the UK.
Definitely recommended.

Agree, great strings. I have them on several of my ukes. Nice tension and good clarity on my instruments.

Yes I agree with all above I think they are brilliant, and also living in the uk mine arrived within two days.
Thank you Ken.

I was wondering if they are soft like aquilas as I am too "pake" to install them as my existing strings are still good and sound good. My dad is complaining about the default Pono strings on his new MTD. I think they are Ko'olaus...

Are the Living Waters softer than Worths...Aquilas? I did buy my dad some Living Waters but have yet to give them to him.

What are the softest, most durable strings that are great?

thx...

I put Living Water strings on my concert and it totally changed the sound. I've been into the tenor scale for a while, but now I can't put my concert down. I guess it's true, the right strings can make or break your uke.

Loving my living water strings on my oscar schmidt bell uke. Great sound for fingerpicking

Kamanaaloha said:

I was wondering if they are soft like aquilas as I am too "pake" to install them as my existing strings are still good and sound good. My dad is complaining about the default Pono strings on his new MTD. I think they are Ko'olaus...

Are the Living Waters softer than Worths...Aquilas? I did buy my dad some Living Waters but have yet to give them to him.

What are the softest, most durable strings that are great?

thx...

Click to expand...

The answer to your last question is pretty subjective so I don't have an answer to that. But I have switched from Worth's to Living Waters on a couple of instruments and my impression is that the LW's do have a similar but softer feel and sound a little rounder, less bite you might say. They're something in between Worths and Savarez. I like them.

I had Worth CT's on my Kanile'a T-2, they sounded very good. After I changed out the high g for a PHD low g the balance was off as the low g was boomy. I just put on a low g set of LW on it. So far it sounds balanced, although they are still stretching so it's kind of hard to tell. So far so good.

Kamanaaloha said:

I was wondering if they are soft like aquilas as I am too "pake" to install them as my existing strings are still good and sound good. My dad is complaining about the default Pono strings on his new MTD. I think they are Ko'olaus...

Are the Living Waters softer than Worths...Aquilas? I did buy my dad some Living Waters but have yet to give them to him.

What are the softest, most durable strings that are great?

thx...

Click to expand...

in my opinion they are softer than worths. they have the same gauge but with a little less tension i guess.
and l agree with wendellfiddler that says that they have a little rounder sound.

try them and see if they're good for you too.

wendellfiddler said:

The answer to your last question is pretty subjective so I don't have an answer to that. But I have switched from Worth's to Living Waters on a couple of instruments and my impression is that the LW's do have a similar but softer feel and sound a little rounder, less bite you might say. They're something in between Worths and Savarez. I like them.

Click to expand...

thank you for your thoughtful response!

I put Living Waters on my KoAlana concert, not to my taste. Followed up with Worth CM, again not to my taste. This ukulele sounds best with Worth CL. Turns out that KoAloha (KoAlana's parent company) knows their products well.

wendellfiddler said:

The answer to your last question is pretty subjective so I don't have an answer to that. But I have switched from Worth's to Living Waters on a couple of instruments and my impression is that the LW's do have a similar but softer feel and sound a little rounder, less bite you might say. They're something in between Worths and Savarez. I like them.

Click to expand...

I definitely agree with you about softer sound and feel of Living Water strings. But I prefer Martin M600 strings on my Moore Bettah soprano for a brighter, crisper sound.