First and Foremost, I would like to apologize to the Moderators if this message seems to be going far afield of the original topic of this thread, and please ask that you bear with me on this one - and feel free to move this thread to another section of the forum if you feel it will better serve the community.
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Hi Bill,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
I had debated if I should respond via PM to you, or here in the thread, and I decided to reply here in the thread.
Booli, please do not stop asking questions just because you don't know where they should be posted. Just trust the Moderators to move them if they should be moved.
Don't worry, I do not ever let anything intimidate me from asking questions.
While I rarely explain or justify myself as it's a futile exercise more often than not, I feel that in this case, and for the sake of absolute clarity that I provide some further information.
While I both appreciate and have a great deal of respect for 'history' and the way that 'things' are traditionally done, I have never felt compelled to 'conform' to a rigid and orthodox practice of traditional methods.
Don't get me wrong, I will typically not only learn but also
master the traditional methods, and then either eclipse them in application, or take what I have learned in a completely new direction. I am more driven and passionate to learn and to completely understand something down to the most fundamental level more so than most people that I know. The are only two limitations: which are my energy level and the amount of hours available in one day.
(DISCLAIMER: Who am I? I am not famous (nor do I desire to be). I am not a millionaire, nor am I a holder of thousands of patents. My pursuit of knowledge here is not motivated by financial gain, but instead for my own personal satisfaction. Thus I am a nobody, and live very simply. I strive for a stress-free life.)
This belief is supported by action, in all aspects of my life. Music being such a big part of my life is no different. I have realized both success and innovation by 'thinking outside the box' while I see that unfortunately, others are still often trapped inside of one.
I have encountered this experience time and again as part of my 25 yrs spent previously in an IT career, where troubleshooting is par for the course in every aspect of the performance of the work. Whether it be with people, hardware, software or something else, if one can not troubleshoot, and make (often frustrating and) repeated attempts, and be resolute in going where even '
Angels fear to tread', one simply can not find solutions, and one will end up trapped by the dogma of naysayers.
Having said that, sensing that there is lots of traditional 'culture' here on UU from other members who have been around here a lot longer than I have, and due to the fact that I still consider myself 'new around here' (despite having a long history with internet forums long before there ever was a graphical face to the internet) and I want to 'fit in' and 'play nice with others', and integrate myself as a beneficial contributor to the greater part of the UU culture as a whole that derives from member contributions, and members helping other members, I want to tread lightly with certain ideas that might be considered so unorthodox as to appear as blasphemy to the hardcore traditionalists.
It is
never my intent to stir up controversy or create discord, and that is why I posted this thread in the 'Uke Talk' area, hoping to get
some suggestions.
While I realize that what I say next might appear as assigning motivations where they do not exist, these observations are based upon my past experiences with my efforts to 'push the envelope' in other realms.
I felt that posting in the 'Luthiers Lounge' area that I might end up provoking a religious war, which I do NOT want to do. I would rather avoid, once again hearing someone say 'It can not be done.' In many areas of my life, I've heard 'you can't do that' too many times than I can count, and I have in fact proven this axiom to be false every single time. I will always find a way. There
must be a scientific or logical explanation that can demonstrate why it will fail, otherwise I will test it myself.
Similar for the Tech Support area.
However, I will not pre-judge the possibilities, and go forth with an open mind.
But Bill, your point is well taken that the member traffic in those areas might be more specific to my concerns. I will consider this carefully next time I have such an idea and related query.
I am not sure if anyone besides me has noticed that since Jan 1, 2014,
there have been at least 4 new (long-ish) threads in various subsections of the forum here specifically related to the guitalele/guitarlele, and lots of the conversation discusses the strings, the tuning, the sound, transposing, etc as this instrument is a cousin (or evil hybrid depending upon your viewpoint) of both the guitar and ukulele.
I got to thinking, as I often do, on the topic of making my experience (and then when shared with others, their experience) with this guitalele/guitarlele somehow BETTER. I am always thinking about ways to IMPROVE the items and 'tools' around me in my life. It's a sort of healthy obsession. To say the least, I am never bored, and I receive great satisfaction from the
process and always
learn something,
even if I fail to improve the item in question, it is the process, and in the learning that in fact I am able to repeatedly improve
myself. This is the lens through which I see the world and the blanket that keeps me warm at night.
Having recently discovered the Worth Brown Fluorocarbon strings, and realizing that it's not just hype here in the forums for all the praise that they have received, I want to explore the possibility of trying them on other stringed/fretted instruments where/ever possible.
I often type answers to questions, but don't send them for various reason. Just because 39 people read your post and did not reply does not mean that it did not generate a reaction.
I honestly had not thought of that. I fully admit that this was my failure to consider why nobody said anything. After all, I can not read minds
(not yet any way)
In a nutshell my answer to you post was to suggest that you go through the process of buying the strings and fitting them and using them for a month or so, and then post a report on the results. Worth sets come in lengths which will be enough for two sets of strings, so the length of the strings would not be a problem. I don't think the tension would be a problem, and anyway a problem with tension is usually easy to see in the top so you can stop before there is any damage.
Yes, this is the plan I was considering.
The only issue for me in the trial is the cost of the strings, two packets of worths strings (4 x sets) would cost me about $40 and a weeks waiting.
I concur, two packages of Worth Browns 63" are ~$32 + shipping from my short exploration of the various online vendors.
...you may have already tried the classical guitar strings
Yes, and they are fine, but I wanted to try something new and different., and OMG possibly 'better'
and you also don't want to spend $40 without knowing the result, which is why you made the post.
Yes, I wanted to see if anyone else had tried this before, or might have even thought about it before, and if there was anything I needed to learn from their experience.
But also now people are going to look at the Worths string sets differently, instead of two string sets for a short scale instrument, they could be a single set for a longer scale instrument. Possibly even, Mr Worths helpers will find this post and they might look at a business case for selling brown guitarlele/classical guitar strings.
Honestly, I had not figured what exactly would happen next if successful, but if the strings work well in the new application, then maybe there is opportunity for the Mr Worths company to create a new and discrete set of strings for the guitalele/guitarlele...
So having said all that. I am hoping to figure this out some time over the next couple of weeks in between recording sessions.
I will probably create a video to show the result, whether the experiment succeeds or fails, and hopefully others can learn from what I have discovered, either way.
-Booli
