Which strings do you prefer for your U Bass

Pindip

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Do you use the proprietary strings or do you prefer Aquila Thundergut or even Aquila Reds? The store I have used to buy my ukuleles in the past has a solid mahogany electroacoustic for sale with either proprietary strings or Aquila Reds as a special at the same price. It is too far away to go and try them so wondered if anyone had an opinion.

Cheers
Jason
 
Silver Rumblers! or just buy a Kala Rumbler with the new electronics...
 
Maybe you've already made a decision, but here's my opinion:

The factory pahoehoe strings and the Aquila reds are different like apples and oranges.
Both styles are perfectly playable, sound good, and have strong supporters and detractors.

Personally, I prefer Aquila reds.
The factory strings are extremely elastic, and in my experience need to be tuned up from flatness every time you play. They stretch to half their original diameter and tend to not fill the nut slots.

The reds are less stretchy, more dense, and more stable in tuning.
To me, they represent an evolution in technology over the factory strings. They are also more expensive, so would represent greater "value" if that is a factor in your decision.

The knock on all Aquila strings is that to many folks, they feel "sticky" compared to the very slick and slippery feel of the factory strings. A light dusting of billiard talc powder solves that issue for me.

If you are buying a U-Bass without ever having touched one, it's difficult know which you would prefer, but trying different strings is part of the fun of owning one.
 
Maybe you've already made a decision, but here's my opinion:

The factory pahoehoe strings and the Aquila reds are different like apples and oranges.
Both styles are perfectly playable, sound good, and have strong supporters and detractors.

Personally, I prefer Aquila reds.
The factory strings are extremely elastic, and in my experience need to be tuned up from flatness every time you play. They stretch to half their original diameter and tend to not fill the nut slots.

The reds are less stretchy, more dense, and more stable in tuning.
To me, they represent an evolution in technology over the factory strings. They are also more expensive, so would represent greater "value" if that is a factor in your decision.

The knock on all Aquila strings is that to many folks, they feel "sticky" compared to the very slick and slippery feel of the factory strings. A light dusting of billiard talc powder solves that issue for me.

If you are buying a U-Bass without ever having touched one, it's difficult know which you would prefer, but trying different strings is part of the fun of owning one.

Thanks for replying Dave. The music store has finished its special offer on the Aquila Reds so I'm going to get it with the factory strings. I'll see how I get on but will probably try the Reds when they need changing.

Cheers

Jason
 
The knock on all Aquila strings is that to many folks, they feel "sticky" compared to the very slick and slippery feel of the factory strings. A light dusting of billiard talc powder solves that issue for me.

Anytime I hear that you have to add something to a set of strings to make them usable immediately removes them as an option for me.

I tried the Thundergut strings when they first came out, and they were okay. Better tuning stability than the OEM ones, but the stickiness was a definite knock against them. And then, when playing a gig with them and having the drummer compare the tone to Noel Redding's bass with Jimi, I pulled them off as I really didn't want that sound at all.
 
I tried the Aquila Thunderguts a few years ago. The tuning stability was nice, but the sticky feel really bothered me. I also felt they gave the bass an more "electric" sound. I'm sticking with the stock pahoehoe strings for now. BTW my U-Bass has the older passive pickup. It's not not having to worry about batteries.

- Steve
 
Anybody try the Pyramid wound U Bass strings?
 
I bought a Gold Tone GT MicroBass a couple of weeks ago with Thunderguts. Since I've never played bass before, I have nothing to compare to, but I'm not having problems playing them and I really like the almost bass fiddle sound they have. I'm also having a custom bass uke made that will use Thuderguts.

I'm about to convert an electric solid body Epiphone Les Paul Express 3/4 guitar into a bass and because it uses magnetic pickups, I'm going to use Rotosound RS88S flat wound steel strings with a black nylon wrapper, which also are supposed to sound like a double bass.

LP Bass mockup.jpg
 
kohanmike...those flatwounds are for 30" scale. you'll end up having to tune this almost picollo to not have super floppies. Maybe if your low 'e' string was .130

I would suggest taking the low 4 strings of a 5 string ibanez mikro for your short scale if you can find some that wont unravel when cut short.
 
I haven't seen any strings with E .130, but the Rotosound have the nylon cover that's supposed to make them deeper. Since they're on their way, I'll give them a try and see what happens.

I did just read on Talk Bass a suggestion to add a length of tubing between the barrel and the bridge plate to get more length. I'll look at that possibility too. Hey, that got me thinking, maybe I should add a tailpiece to get more length from the strings, I have about 5" of space from the saddle to the tail of the guitar, which would make it 27".

tailpiece installed.png
 
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After taking almost 1 1/2 years to settle in, I'm staying with the Pahoehoe strings on my U-Bass.

I given an Ohana OBU-22 for a birthday present. It comes with stock round wound metal strings that I really, really dislike so I'm having them changed to Rotosound 77S Jazz Bass flatwounds.
 
Yesterday I put thunderguts on my ashbory bass. Today I tuned them up and redid the 'G' string, I made a confusing mess the first time around. I must admit, as much as the stock silicone strings sucked (and I mean seriously sucked, the bass only had 2 of the silicone left when I got it), I think I liked their sound a bit more.

The thunderguts are spectacularly stable, I think they are almost as stable as steel strings which probably makes them worth it.

kohanmike: screwing with a tailpiece isn't going to do jack. The string vibration happens between the nut and saddle point. Extending the strings may make it easier to use short scale or ibanez mikro strings but will have zero impact on the sound.

The reason I mentioned .130 is that is a common size for 'B' string. I was suggesting perhaps looking into using a shortend BEAD set of strings on your micro scale bass. You'll need the extra diameter to compensate for the scale.

And yeah I personally am liking flats over rounds. I have my gretsch g2202 with d'addario chrome flats, a squier bronco with GHS precision flats and I'm going to put some ghs brite flats (ground rounds) on my long scale squier protone 5er with dual soapbar passive pickups. Sadly I may have to dump the protone as my shoulder (rotator cuff) is disliking the weight of that bass, even with a 4 inch well padded strap.
 
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Here's an update to my wanting to put flatwounds on my new Ohana OBU-22 fretted bass ukulele...DON"T do it!

Upon Ohana's advice, I bought a set of Rotosound 77s flatwounds to replace the stock roundwound brass strings and had my luthier install them. The bass sounded awful...intonation off from the fourth fret on all strings as much as a full note off..all sharped. The E was the worst.

Called Ohana and was told I was given erroneous advice. The fretted OBU-22 should only have roundwounds on it. If you want flatwound strings, then you need the fretless model, with or without fretlines.

I am most impressed by the customer care at Ohana. I was given an apology and told they will replace the fretted model with the fretless (with lines) model. Having never played a fretless model, I was assured I would easily get used to it and being fretless, has lower action so playing should be even easier.

A big thumbs up to the folks at Ohana and Ukulele Source.
 
Here's an update to my wanting to put flatwounds on my new Ohana OBU-22 fretted bass ukulele...DON"T do it!

Upon Ohana's advice, I bought a set of Rotosound 77s flatwounds to replace the stock roundwound brass strings and had my luthier install them. The bass sounded awful...intonation off from the fourth fret on all strings as much as a full note off..all sharped. The E was the worst.

Called Ohana and was told I was given erroneous advice. The fretted OBU-22 should only have roundwounds on it. If you want flatwound strings, then you need the fretless model, with or without fretlines.

I am most impressed by the customer care at Ohana. I was given an apology and told they will replace the fretted model with the fretless (with lines) model. Having never played a fretless model, I was assured I would easily get used to it and being fretless, has lower action so playing should be even easier.

A big thumbs up to the folks at Ohana and Ukulele Source.

That sounds like a steaming pile of advice and excuses they gave you. Roundwounds and flatwounds aren't appreciably different. I can only guess what happened...the tension of the flatwound strings differed radically from the roundwounds causing your neck to radically bow (or unbow). I don't see a truss rod adjustment or saddle height/intonation adjustment on that bass ukulele so you MUST BE CAREFUL what strings you put on it. Likely you are stuck with whatever strings are stock for that instrument unless someone specifically makes strings compatible with your bass uke.

If ohana wanted to they could provide flats that would work just fine with your bass uke as is. They just decided not to offer that.

Whenever I change strings (electric bass) to a different type of string I've always noticed that the relief is different (whether or not I adjusted the truss rod is another story), I have to readjust the saddle height (again, if I really feel like it at that time) and most certainly have to adjust the intonation by moving the saddles.
 
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That sounds like a steaming pile of advice and excuses they gave you. Roundwounds and flatwounds aren't appreciably different. I can only guess what happened...the tension of the flatwound strings differed radically from the roundwounds causing your neck to radically bow (or unbow). I don't see a truss rod adjustment or saddle height/intonation adjustment on that bass ukulele so you MUST BE CAREFUL what strings you put on it. Likely you are stuck with whatever strings are stock for that instrument unless someone specifically makes strings compatible with your bass uke.

If ohana wanted to they could provide flats that would work just fine with your bass uke as is. They just decided not to offer that.

Whenever I change strings (electric bass) to a different type of string I've always noticed that the relief is different (whether or not I adjusted the truss rod is another story), I have to readjust the saddle height (again, if I really feel like it at that time) and most certainly have to adjust the intonation by moving the saddles.

Thanks for your insight. I also wondered about the different tensions between the two different string sets as being a cause and Ohana does provide an Allen wrench to adjust the trussrod. I was going to bring the bass uke back to the luthier but after speaking to Ohana, I thought, well, if that is their reason and they want to send me a replacement new bass uke with flatwounds, that's fine with me. They could have put the blame for the bad intonation back on the luthier but they didn't.

I just want my new bass uke in my arms, with flatwounds, sounding good, and rattle the rafters with my new Fender Rumble 500.
 
ahh good it has a truss rod. didn't see that on elderly. without an adjustable bridge your options are limited.
 
I can only guess what happened...the tension of the flatwound strings differed radically from the roundwounds causing your neck to radically bow (or unbow). I don't see a truss rod adjustment or saddle height/intonation adjustment on that bass ukulele so you MUST BE CAREFUL what strings you put on it.

That's it entirely. Flatwounds by and large will have more tension than roundwounds of the same gauge, sometimes by quite a bit.


Likely you are stuck with whatever strings are stock for that instrument unless someone specifically makes strings compatible with your bass uke.

And given that there's not a lot of demand (yet?) for the instrument, the idea of having a set of flats for it may not be feasible.


If ohana wanted to they could provide flats that would work just fine with your bass uke as is. They just decided not to offer that.

My thought is that Ohana went with the cheaper and more widely used option of strings, since flats are more expensive to make and aren't used by everyone as opposed to rounds.
 
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