hi everyone!
thanks Mimmo for your expert advice since you are the designer of the strings. The E and A sets do sound nice but the feel is weird for me, and maybe for some others. It makes me feel like I'm rubbing marble rather than playing guitar. and maybe it's ok for some people but strange for me in terms of feel. Sound-wise, it's very warm and sweet. but for feel, So the quest continues to find an alternate string that feels more familiar for guitar players alike.
So the good news. I put on the Oasis GPX Carbon HT trebles on last night, and kept the base strings from the Aquila E-E set and here's my verdict:
SOUND: Fantastic. More power and notes ring clear and defined! Very nice sound and now it sound more like a guitar. I've tried several styles of playing...sounds great with jazz, fingerstyle, Brazilian choro, Bossa, Samba, Country and just general strumming. Very very nice.
FEEL: slightly squeeky but that's because they're new, and carbon and needs time settling in. But, very nice feel in terms of needing that same familiar guitar string under fingers touch and feel. They are slightly thinner than the Aquilas and when using finger pull off techniques, they ring loud and clear, and easier to pull off. Now this may be subjective and maybe even psychological, but it does now give relief that we're really playing a true mini classical guitar. And..that's just maybe just perception. Whatever it is...I like the results a lot as an alternative.
TENSION: so this is where it gets tricky. The Oasis GPX HT trebles are labeled as high tension. I don't remember the gauges and pounds off the top of my head, but...they don't actually feel tight at all. I was careful and apprehensive of the high tension but after putting them on, they have quite a bit of give. They are certainly not as tight as i thought in terms of just pure feel and i can move the strings up and down, side to side without feeling tight after tuning to pitch. I have felt MUCH higher tightness on just tenor ukes themselves and they were hard to play.
But these Oasis strings feel pretty good...not tight nor floppy. By contrast, the Aquilas actually felt tighter to move and play.
Of course, just by pure feel may not be enough. I'm not a math and numbers kind of person, so I'm not going to go in and calculate actual tension. I will continue to monitor the guitar over the next few days and weeks to see if the strings made any physical effects on the soundboard, neck, bridge pulling etc. But it does feel like nothing is going to happen because the strings don't feel tight at all and are extremely playable. I have felt other tighter tensions on other ukes where i was really afraid something would get warped.
So, overall...based on what I was looking for, feel, tone, the Oasis GPX HT trebles are (so far) a great alternative to the original strings. They sound good to my ears, feel good and again, just from a pure subjectively perception and psychological point of view, they really work well.
of course I will continue to monitor for physical effects, so after that I will re-post and see what others have to say for those who have also put on these alternative strings.
Mimmo has worked hard to design these original strings, so let's give lots of credit and positive marks for all the work he has done for the community!
No doubt the Aquilas are good and nice. We just want more alternatives because we LOVE this Cordoba Mini so much, it would be so sad to only have Aquilas E or A set to use.
so thank you everyone. I'm glad we still have this discussion going. If we can help make products better as a community, then why not?
so for now, the GPX trebles do work and they sound great from my experience only so far.
Would like to know who else has put on these strings?
