The amazing Aquila.

Icelander53

Icelander53

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I'm just getting my feet wet with this whole string obsession and frankly I find it a little bothersome. I've tried several brands like Oasis, D'Addario, La Bella and of course Aquila. My results have been very hit or miss except for one string set. I was wondering myself why almost every uke I buy or look at seems to come stock with Aquilas. It's occurred to me that the reason is they usually make the uke sound good. That in effect has been my experience. I've never switched out an Aquila string and over time have come to feel it was a good thing to have done. In the end nothing sounds better to my ear or plays better than Aquila's. I've used them on at least a dozen ukes and it's been true every time.

Now I know saying all that is going to be controversial and of course taste is somewhat subjective but I have to put some stock in the fact that over and over most ukes I've seen come stock with Aquilas. There must be a good reason for that. I'm concluding that "in general" there are no better strings to be found.

I'm just going to buy them and use them and save myself the headache of trying to find a "perfect/better" string for each uke.

Discuss if you choose.
 
No doubt there will be many posts on this thread.
There are many similar string threads.
Aquila is definitely a good string and many a ukulele as been fitted with them and have performed well.
You don't say what kind of ukuleles you have Aquilas on, but once you move up to a premium uke you may find the subtle tones from a flouro carbon string may be to your liking.
Also ours ears change over time. I am finding as I play more I am hearing tones better.
Again, I am not saying Aquilas are not good, but most of the pros I know are playing some kind of flouro carbon.
 
Icelander53 said:
I'm just getting my feet wet with this whole string obsession and frankly I find it a little bothersome. I've tried several brands like Oasis, D'Addario, La Bella and of course Aquila. My results have been very hit or miss except for one string set. I was wondering myself why almost every uke I buy or look at seems to come stock with Aquilas. It's occurred to me that the reason is they usually make the uke sound good. That in effect has been my experience. I've never switched out an Aquila string and over time have come to feel it was a good thing to have done. In the end nothing sounds better to my ear or plays better than Aquila's. I've used them on at least a dozen ukes and it's been true every time.

Now I know saying all that is going to be controversial and of course taste is somewhat subjective but I have to put some stock in the fact that over and over most ukes I've seen come stock with Aquilas. There must be a good reason for that. I'm concluding that "in general" there are no better strings to be found.

I'm just going to buy them and use them and save myself the headache of trying to find a "perfect/better" string for each uke.

Discuss if you choose.
Click to expand...

I like aquila bu im in process of trying out new strings so i can't say for 100 % that aquilla is my favorite but their amazingly
good. So far worth seems to be up there too with me. Living waters is my next string to try waiting for my pack from ken
with the strings.
 
You sir are blessed. If you have found bliss there is no need to look any farther, nor listen to the opinions of others. Your ears are the most important critics.
 
SailingUke said:
No doubt there will be many posts on this thread.
There are many similar string threads.
Aquila is definitely a good string and many a ukulele as been fitted with them and have performed well.
You don't say what kind of ukuleles you have Aquilas on, but once you move up to a premium uke you may find the subtle tones from a flouro carbon string may be to your liking.
Also ours ears change over time. I am finding as I play more I am hearing tones better.
Again, I am not saying Aquilas are not good, but most of the pros I know are playing some kind of flouro carbon.
Click to expand...

You could be right of course. I don't have any upper end ukes so that's an unknown. The Oasis I have tried on some middle tier ukes didn't overwhelm me.

Does anyone have any other reasons that Aquilas end up as stock strings on so many ukes?
 
DownUpDave said:
You sir are blessed. If you have found bliss there is no need to look any farther, nor listen to the opinions of others. Your ears are the most important critics.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking you may be right. I know that having started in my 60s and with limited musical talent I'm not going to be hitting the celestial realms anytime soon. It might very likely be better for me to become and stay happy right where I find myself string wise. I certainly can hear some sweet notes from these Aquilas. Especially on my all wood instruments but also on my Fluke.
 
I wondered about that myself. Maybe Aquila is giving a great volume price on their strings.

As to getting ones moneys worth I'm not sure how one would tally that. If I really don't like the sound of the stock strings, after giving them a shot then it would hardly be worth it to me to keep them on until they wear out. I'd likely put it aside in favor of another uke and hope they just rotted off from neglect lol.

But I am in some agreement with you. I believe I know enough now not to think there is a magical string out there for my new uke that will sound a world better than the stock Aquila's it has. But when I bought my little Les Paul the string change made a lot of difference in that case. I have no idea why a company would put a stock string on a uke that most people aren't going to be somewhat happy with. Most people who buy that Gibson get rid of those stock strings post haste.
 
I imagine that fact that Aquilas ship as stock on so many ukes has more to do with good marketing on Aquila's part than anything else. But the most basic rule of music is, if it sounds good, it is good. If you like the sound you are getting from Aquilas, there is not reason to second-guess yourself. It doesn't matter a damn what someone else thinks when you like what you're hearing.

For what it's worth, I own a wide range of ukes from economical to high-end, and tried most brands of strings out there. Aquila remains my string of choice.
 
Icelander53 said:
Does anyone have any other reasons that Aquilas end up as stock strings on so many ukes?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing it's because for a long time, there weren't a lot of string choices, and both wholesale companies and music stores are just sticking with what they know. I remember when it seemed the only easily-available choices were Aquila and black nylon GHS - and of those two, Aquila is far better! I used them on all of my Kamakas until I discovered Martin M600s, and really haven't looked back since. Aquilas on solid koa ukes tend to sound a little bit harsh sometimes, in my experience. So many of the brands kicked around in discussions here - PhD, Living Water, etc - are pretty recent developments. Others, like Worth, were really hard to find only a few years ago.

Icelander53 said:
The Oasis I have tried on some middle tier ukes didn't overwhelm me.
Click to expand...

I tried Oasis recently on one of my Kamakas and was underwhelmed as well. They were... okay, but I like Martins better. So that's what I'm sticking with. I'm sure I'll try new things as they cross my radar, but in general I agree with your sentiment about not wanting to pursue the "perfect" string, since I like what I have very much.
 
I'm negative on Aquila.

Martins are my go to and just in case string.

I tend to go with the string choice of the maker, at least for a month or so. They know their instruments better than I do.

So: Worths on the KoAloha Pineapple l/n & KoAlana.
Martins on the Martin and Flea.
Living Water (for now) on the Pono (with PhD next in line).
ORCAS on the Imua.
The Blackbird Clara came with Oasis and a wound low G. Oasis were too brash. Switched to Fremont Blacklines re-entrant. Much better.
 
Aquilas have one thing going for them, IMHO - they are extremely consistent in tone and intonation. It doesn't much matter what uke you put them on, the result is going to sound like Aquilas and the intonation will be reasonably decent (barring the uke being a complete bit of refuse, of course). That's great on ukes that are dead enough to not have much of a "nuance" of their own, and it's tolerable on better ukes especially if you like that particular kind of "brash" sound. On ukes that bring more to the table there are often better choices but that is true of any brand of string. On my various ukes I have some that "like" Aquilas, some that "like" fluorocarbon strings, some that prefer Ko'Olau Alohi nylons, some that prefer Ko'Olau Gold nylons, etc.

I got a good laugh when I heard Aquilas on a KoAloha soprano a couple of years ago...it was loud but sounded more like a Kala or Lanikai with Aquilas than it did a KoAloha uke.

John
 
I bought Aqilas years ago for a classical guitar, because Aquilas had a good reputation for making an inexpensive instrument sound better. They did. Not as much on a good instrument, but I liked the tone and that's what my classical wears today.

None of my ukes like the basic Aquilas, but that's no slur on the brand. When they come out with their new fluorocarbons, I'll give them a try ...
 
If, say, Goodyear were known by manufacturers to offer a really rock-bottom, loss-leader wholesale discount on good-quality tires it sold to car makers, don't you think General Motors, for example, might be only too happy to use mostly Goodyear tires on its Chevrolets, Buicks, et al? And don't you think Goodyear might more-than-make-up-for its deep-discount wholesale pricing by engendering lots of good will via familiarity among GM car buyers, who then are more likely than they otherwise would have been to purchase Goodyear-brand replacement tires when the stock set wears out?

I'm not saying that's how Aquilas became so ubiquitous as stock strings or so popular as after-market replacements, but such an economic factor as savvy wholesale marketing to mftrs. might help account for the uber-success enjoyed by that brand, along with such factors as its Italian cachet and generally high quality and consistency (let's forget for the moment the problematic Red Series v1.0 ).

I'm just saying that quality alone is not always the reason a brand develops rampant, mass-market appeal. (Otherwise, to cite one extreme example of exalted mediocrity, what could explain the runaway popularity of Corona beer?)
 
I think string choice is even more personal choice, and probably the single most widely disagreed topic on UU. I would say it's even more divergent than brands/sizes. It's the one thing no one can agree on. I personally like clear fluorocabron's (Worth, Living Water, Martin). To each his own...
 
Steveperrywriter said:
I bought Aqilas years ago for a classical guitar, because Aquilas had a good reputation for making an inexpensive instrument sound better. They did. Not as much on a good instrument, but I liked the tone and that's what my classical wears today.

None of my ukes like the basic Aquilas, but that's no slur on the brand. When they come out with their new fluorocarbons, I'll give them a try ...
Click to expand...

Don't hold your breath on that wait. Aquila makes their own strings. To my knowledge, none of the fluorocarbon string brands actually manufacture their own strings from raw materials... they are simply repackaged. Aquila strings are the work of one man's formulas. I don't think that Mimmo Peruffo (the man behind the company) is going to dabble in fluorocarbon.
 
????Aquila Strings????

My daughter and I had a discussion about colour. Does everyone see the same hue/value/tint/shade? It was my thinking that probably we do.....until I had cataract surgery ONE eye. My Gosh!!! One eye saw something entirely different from the other eye. One of my ears hears differently from the other one. It would be interesting to compare the sound with people who are not players/owners to see which string set they think sound better than the others---then ask what they think is the difference. Last I looked, we didn't have to sign up for National String Care. Do not let someone talk you into or out of your personal preference for strings. Yes....I have Aquilas on all of my ukuleles. red on some--white on the rest
 
Pippin said:
Don't hold your breath on that wait. Aquila makes their own strings. To my knowledge, none of the fluorocarbon string brands actually manufacture their own strings from raw materials... they are simply repackaged. Aquila strings are the work of one man's formulas. I don't think that Mimmo Peruffo (the man behind the company) is going to dabble in fluorocarbon.
Click to expand...

I think he is ...

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...ukulele-strings-Coming-soon-!&highlight=Mimmo
 
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