Tried a wound third on a soprano...

Hey all, with my last string order I ordered some Thomastik-Infeld CF27 Chromium flat wound guitar strings because I intended to try a wound third with the wound 4th on a tenor.

Well...I replaced the strings on one of my sopranos (I'm going to try to convince myself that I can let one of my sopranos go to the marketplace since I've been playing tenor almost exclusively). Anyway, I've been playing geared tenors so much that I promptly over-tightened the third (up almost a full octave above normal before I put the tuner on it).

Apparently that stretched it enough to ruin it (poor tone and lousy intonation up the neck and I've used these strings before on this uke with no problem).

Anyway, since I had to replace the 3rd anyway I figured what the heck, I'll try one of those new CF27 strings. After all, Ko'Olau makes some reentrant sets with just a wound third...

I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. Intonation up the neck is good. Finger rolls still sound good. Slightly less tendency for the C to sound "snappish" when picked. Nice blend strummed.

Is it a magic bullet - no, but I like it well enough to leave it until the next string change, at least.

BTW, the string set was Ko'Olau Gold concert and this is on my Mainland mango soprano.

John

Yup.

I have a wound third on my Timms. It can stand out a bit when strummed hard, but for picking a bass line I think it works well.

I have a wound third on a concert. I like the sound. More sustain on the third and less of that this you can often hear with a thick fluorocarbon or nylon.