Seasonistas general thread: yakking, joshing, news and pictures

Hey Seasonistas! I was wondering about what strings you guys like to use. I think that I like Martin the best. I really like the bright, happy sound. My Cordoba concert uke came with Aquilas and I hate the process of changing the strings (mine always seem to slip a few times before I get them on right, and it's super frustrating),and I like the way they sound ok, so I've left them, but I have a cheap soprano that I play at work, and it has Martins on it. After I play that one, and go back home and play the Cordoba,I always want to change the Aquilas. Really, I'm going back and forth.

I wanted to know what you guys think, since I've gotten acquainted with what your ukes sound like over the last few weeks. What are your favorite strings?

I prefer fluorocarbon. My favorite is the Worth Premium low G, but I have different brands on all my ukes.
 
I prefer Fluorocarbon strings but with a new uke I will leave the strings fitted by the store on as long as they sound OK but when they need changing I either use Living Water or Worth Clear. I go for Living Water for preference but there's little difference between them and Worth according to my ears. My tenors which I have tuned to dGBE have Worth fats on them as they give nice tension in G tuning. I'm thinking of asking Ken Middleton to make up a custom dGBE tenor set (I suspect has already done some already) to try. My Baritone came with Aquila with wound D & G strings but the wound strings are showing signs of wear already so I'll be getting a Living Water set to replace them soon. My 6 string came with Aquilas and has a wound low A. It's OK just now but again I'll see what Ken Middleton can do. I was looking on a web site the other day (can't remember which) and I noticed that Aquila do a red for a 6 string low A. I tried an Aquila dGBE set which came with a red G and I wasn't too keen on it.
 
STATE OF CONFUSION!

I have quite an array. Martins on my Martin. Living Waters on my pineapple. Aquila Super Nylguts on my Firefly and Islander. Aquila Lavas on my Vita. Fishing line fluorocarbon on my Ohana soprano. Then there are the hybrids: Combo of flshing line and a Lava on my Ohana cedar/willow. Combo of Aquila Reds and Lavas on my Fluke. Combo of Super Nylgut and Lavas on my KoAlana.

I'm trying to give Aquilas another chance. I switched almost exclusively to Martins or fishing line for awhile and found that they didn't project properly on some ukes. Maybe my playing style changed (not that my technique improved!). I've warmed slightly to the Super Nylguts but the C can be a bit floppy on some ukes. And they tend to go out of tune frequently on the Firefly. (But it's a banjo. How can you tell?) I may be back to fluorocarbon only by the end of the year.
 
Thank you all for your input. I think I'm just going to slap the Martins on, and save the Aquilas just in case I don't like the new sound. I think I lean more towards a fluorocarbon sound myself.
 
Thank you all for your input. I think I'm just going to slap the Martins on, and save the Aquilas just in case I don't like the new sound. I think I lean more towards a fluorocarbon sound myself.

I wouldn't argue with that choice. I have Martins on my concert, but I hardly ever use it. It's an Epiphone Les Paul and it doesn't sound good unless it's plugged in, but that's not the fault of the strings. It's just because of the way it was built, I think. It's too solid and the wood doesn't vibrate enough.
 
never tried martins on a tenor. i use Southcoast on my tenor. But I love martins on sopranos and long neck sopranos. I did try martin baritone strings on my tenor, and they sounded great. 2 wound strings though. ended up nice at a linear FBbDG tuning. went back to re entrant dgbe with the Southcoast strings though.
 
You Tube at it again. I click on Publish and it tells me the video is Private even though it's set to Public. It's done that a few times and each time I go to the video manager and find it's actually Public already. ?????
 
I keep songs that I'm learning on my music stand and I will play them through at least once a day. When I think I'm getting the song into my head, I turn my back to the music stand and try it without looking at the words. If I forget a line, I'll take a quick look then turn round again. I keep repeating this until I can sing the song through with confidence without looking at the words. At that stage, I'm ready to sing it out. I don't generally sing a song out until I have learnt it and can sing without words in front of me.

Learning a new Song well enough to sing out generally takes quite a long time, often a few months.

I rarely record a song without words in front of me even if I know the song and regularly sing it out. Pressing record has a negative effect on my memory.
I record a song every day so it doesn't make sense to learn lyrics for the recording.
Actually I prepare a busking setlist...then I'll have to learn the lyrics:) Playing uke or guitar is no problem..get it straight pretty fast bcause I'm used to sing my daily song (with one playthrough)
 
Hey Seasonistas! I was wondering about what strings you guys like to use. I think that I like Martin the best. I really like the bright, happy sound. My Cordoba concert uke came with Aquilas and I hate the process of changing the strings (mine always seem to slip a few times before I get them on right, and it's super frustrating),and I like the way they sound ok, so I've left them, but I have a cheap soprano that I play at work, and it has Martins on it. After I play that one, and go back home and play the Cordoba,I always want to change the Aquilas. Really, I'm going back and forth.

I wanted to know what you guys think, since I've gotten acquainted with what your ukes sound like over the last few weeks. What are your favorite strings?
A bit controversial here but I think too much emphasis is placed on brand, Imo a decent, quality fishing line is all you need. As far as I'm aware Aquila is the only company that has a set up that specifically makes its own strings and all the other brands are made by fishing line companies. I believe you can buy bad strings with bad composite but overall they are pretty much of a muchness Imo. Rob Collins ukes are strung with fishing line once constructed and James Hill uses them too so theres a lot to be said about the over hype of branding.
 
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A bit controversial here but I think too much emphasis is placed on brand, Imo a decent, quality fishing line is all you need. As far as I'm aware Aquila is the only company that has a set up that specifically makes its own strings and all the other brands are made by fishing line companies. I believe you can buy bad strings with bad composite but overall they are pretty much of a muchness Imo. Rob Collins ukes are strung with fishing line once constructed and James Hill uses them too so theres a lot to be said about the over hype of branding.

I've heard there can be issues with intonation using fishing line as the diameter can vary but that seems more of a problem if you go for cheap stuff - the usual caveat: you get what you pay for.

The real major objection to using fishing line is it's not always as economical as it appears at first site. It's OK for James Hill & Rob Collins as they will be using enough to justify buying in the quantities that you have to and that make it worthwhile. For most of us we probably don't change strings often enough to buy however many hundred metres you get on a spool that you will use it up. Fluorocarbon ukulele strings are basically the same as is sold as fishing line and what the string makers do is cut it into convenient lengths for us. At the frequency I change strings buying fishing line represents a false economy.
 
I've heard there can be issues with intonation using fishing line as the diameter can vary but that seems more of a problem if you go for cheap stuff - the usual caveat: you get what you pay for.
The probability is they have not used the correct formula of gauge and poundage to get the correct pitch. (Quality line also comes into play)
The real major objection to using fishing line is it's not always as economical as it appears at first site. It's OK for James Hill & Rob Collins as they will be using enough to justify buying in the quantities that you have to and that make it worthwhile. For most of us we probably don't change strings often enough to buy however many hundred metres you get on a spool that you will use it up. Fluorocarbon ukulele strings are basically the same as is sold as fishing line and what the string makers do is cut it into convenient lengths for us. At the frequency I change strings buying fishing line represents a false economy.
Of course its largely dependent on how much you play as to whether its of benefit to you. I play quite a bit so a 25 yard reel would be justifiable and very economical for me.
Better still knowing some serious anglers who carry these gauges, you can generally get a few metres for FREE for the price of a pint !! Lol
 
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Hey Seasonistas! I was wondering about what strings you guys like to use. I think that I like Martin the best. I really like the bright, happy sound. My Cordoba concert uke came with Aquilas and I hate the process of changing the strings (mine always seem to slip a few times before I get them on right, and it's super frustrating),and I like the way they sound ok, so I've left them, but I have a cheap soprano that I play at work, and it has Martins on it. After I play that one, and go back home and play the Cordoba,I always want to change the Aquilas. Really, I'm going back and forth.

I wanted to know what you guys think, since I've gotten acquainted with what your ukes sound like over the last few weeks. What are your favorite strings?

I've only got the one (concert) uke, and I use Aquila Reds. I tried a couple of different brands of fluorocarbon strings, but they were all either a little too bright for my taste or I didn't like the feel. I actually prefer the Aquila Lavas, but the I'd rather buy at my local music store and they don't carry them. I bet they'd order them if I asked, but I don't swap them out often enough to make it feel worth it.

Really though play whatever you think sounds good or feels best to you. Can't really go wrong I don't think.
 
Hey Seasonistas! I was wondering about what strings you guys like to use. I think that I like Martin the best. I really like the bright, happy sound. My Cordoba concert uke came with Aquilas and I hate the process of changing the strings (mine always seem to slip a few times before I get them on right, and it's super frustrating),and I like the way they sound ok, so I've left them, but I have a cheap soprano that I play at work, and it has Martins on it. After I play that one, and go back home and play the Cordoba,I always want to change the Aquilas. Really, I'm going back and forth.

I wanted to know what you guys think, since I've gotten acquainted with what your ukes sound like over the last few weeks. What are your favorite strings?

I recently was sent Aquila Black strings for my baritone. Favourite strings EVER. They sound amazing. Going to buy a set for my concert and see how they sound on a smaller uke! Would highly recommend though.
 
Anyone else keep getting messages from "Your Angelica" on YT. Her link sends you to her p*** site. Ive reported her as porography so many times in the past week and she just keeps coming back.

I removed/reported her from pabrizzer's YT song yesterday, mine the day before, and the day before that. Ugh!

sorry pa ;)
 
Anyone else keep getting messages from "Your Angelica" on YT. Her link sends you to her p*** site. Ive reported her as porography so many times in the past week and she just keeps coming back.

I removed/reported her from pabrizzer's YT song yesterday, mine the day before, and the day before that. Ugh!

sorry pa ;)

She said she loved me but I didn't click on her link.
 
She said she loved me but I didn't click on her link.

I keep getting offers from young ladies too, but they want to offer me a business
opportunity and want me to belong to their marketing network. I never pay attention
to them and always delete their messages.
 
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