Strings for switching between high and low G

It depends on what kind of strings you already have installed or if you want to get a completely new set that has matching high and low G strings. If you want to get a completely new set I would recommend either fluorocarbon that often have low G in the same material, or Nylgut that pair very well with Aquila Red low G. I strongly advise against wound low G because 1) they will sound distinctly different than the other strings, and 2) there is a good chance they will unravel when you take them off and put them back on as the thin metal winding is prone to breakage at tuners and other contact points.
 
Guitar player here, with a really dumb question: What is the purpose of the high G string? I just can't figure out what earthly use it is to have a high string where the bass string is supposed to be. I'm sure that's a guitar-centric perspective, but I just can't make any sense of it.

That's what makes the unique ukulele sound and why it's not just a little guitar.
 

I just put a Fremont Soloist G on my Ohana concert uke and it worked perfectly without needing to adjust the nut or saddle. It blends fine with my fluorocarbon strings - it's probably a little louder but the tone isn't discernibly different.

I came to uke from the banjo and I'm committed to reentrant for playing clawhammer and fingerstyle uke (especially classical and campanella-style), so I am keeping my Beansprout alto tuned high-G, but it's really nice to have the alternative.

The Fremont Soloist is a great, inexpensive way to dip your toe in the water and see what you'll think, but as others have suggested I don't think you'll want to switch back and forth between the two on the same uke. If you can, just get an inexpensive laminate uke to use as a second and go from there. My daughter's $100ish Ohana SK-22 sounds totally fine and is really fun to play, but even that is fancier than she needs (the only way I could convince my tiny daughter to accept a soprano instead of a concert was to get one that looked extra pretty, and the fancy willow laminate dazzled her).
 
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-Probably better to either settle on one tuning long term (provided you are able to find a clear preference) or have 2 ukes tuned differently.
My personal solution to this is have a Soprano tuned in high-G and have a Tenor (or Concert) tuned in low-G.
For some reason, this duo seems appropriate, like that's how the ukuleles are meant to be tuned.

I haven't tried it, and I'm not planning to for a while, but I vaguely suspect that I might prefer my smaller high-G uke tuned low-G and my larger uke tuned high-G. I sort of wonder if it'll balance better. The thing is, my smaller uke is much, much nicer and I have a lot more use for reentrant tuning, but maybe if my collection were bigger, I'd try the experiment.
 
Though I’m really not sure whether I’ll get any benefit from it I’ve been pondering having a low G Uke for some time. A lot of people seem to have a low G Uke so there must be some sense to it, yes? By lucky chance I happened on this thread and it’s been helpful in answering a few questions for me and making me aware of an issue.

I was going to go down the wound low G route - and likely still will - but wasn’t aware of them being on the fragile side and not really suitable for swopping in and out. Fitting a solid low G string will require the nut slot to be widened and intonation seems almost certain to be thrown out too. There seem to be no easy answers, well none that don’t also have draw-backs too.

Though I’m mostly using a Concert at the moment I prefer to play Soprano. Opinions as to whether low G works on Sopranos seem be quite variable but one of those (Edit. probably my pineapple) would be my altered Uke. The gCEA Concert’s working well at the moment and I’m loathed to risk upsetting things and particularly so to further an experiment - there shouldn’t be an issue and there should be a happy outcome but I’m not happy to take a chance.

So what’s the Soprano route that’s most likely to leave me with a happy outcome? Fit a wound low G that might have limited life and might dominate other strings but doesn’t need much in the way of set-up; or fit a solid fluorocarbon string that should last well but might not intonate well and will require a permanent change to the nut?

I’m thinking Fremont for a wound low G and both Fremont and Living Waters for solid fluorocarbon low G Soprano string sets.

Edit. Further research here is telling me that the 0.036” solid low G strings (in the sets mentioned above) are on the floppy side. D’Addario do a Tenor low G set with a 0.041” solid low G string, apparently that set is OK on a Soprano too.
 
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Though I’m really not sure whether I’ll get any benefit from it I’ve been pondering having a low G Uke for some time. A lot of people seem to have a low G Uke so there must be some sense to it, yes? By lucky chance I happened on this thread and it’s been helpful in answering a few questions for me and making me aware of an issue.

I was going to go down the wound low G route - and likely still will - but wasn’t aware of them being on the fragile side and not really suitable for swopping in and out. Fitting a solid low G string will require the nut slot to be widened and intonation seems almost certain to be thrown out too. There seem to be no easy answers, well none that don’t also have draw-backs too.

Though I’m mostly using a Concert at the moment I prefer to play Soprano. Opinions as to whether low G works on Sopranos seem be quite variable but one of those would be my altered Uke. The gCEA Concert’s working well at the moment and I’m loathed to risk upsetting things and particularly so to further an experiment - there shouldn’t be an issue and there should be a happy outcome but I’m not happy to take a chance.

So what’s the Soprano route that’s most likely to leave me with a happy outcome? Fit a wound low G that might have limited life and might dominate other strings but doesn’t need much in the way of set-up; or fit a solid fluorocarbon string that should last well but might not intonate well and will require a permanent change to the nut?

I’m thinking Fremont for a wound low G and both Fremont and Living Waters for solid fluorocarbon low G Soprano string sets.

Graham, what you could do to tip your toes in the water is what Glen Rose described on his website: swapping your normal set around, from thicker string to thinner gauge from G to A.
String 1 stays in place.
String 2 now gets your G string (but you tune it to E).
String 3 gets your E string (but you tune it to C).
String 4 gets your C string (but you tune it to G).

I use fluorocarbon strings and this worked for the nut. The slotted bridge did not completely accept the thicker C turned G string, but the intonation was fine. The tension was a bit too low on my tenor, so it's now always high G. As I like low G as well, I have a second tenor. I still have to file the nut slots a bit, but I have been reluctant. The intonation is off, and experimenting with different strings hasn't completely solved the issue. In my limited experience, there is a difference between Worth Browns (BT-LG) and Worth Clears (CT-LG). Officially they are the same diameter, yet the Brown fits the nut slot better, and has therefore better intonation than the Clear.

https://nebula.wsimg.com/1a83e94924...1361A13E7BB9029EC&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
 
I've switched out the high-G for low, but only that string (Fremont Soloist). As Nickie said, having more than one uke is the way to go. I like the low-G on tenors, but I got a super soprano with low-G, and it sounds great.
 
Switching between high and low, the low will probably have to be wound to be closer in size to the unwound high G.

I've put various branded unwound low G strings on several different ukuleles over a number of years and have yet to experience this "too fat to fit" issue that I read about every time someone brings up low G strings. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe this problem is overblown?
 
I've switched out the high-G for low, but only that string (Fremont Soloist). As Nickie said, having more than one uke is the way to go. I like the low-G on tenors, but I got a super soprano with low-G, and it sounds great.

I agree that having at least two ukes is a huge bonus if you can afford it and like to play different styles. At a minimum I like a linear tuned tenor for finger style and modern songs, and a re-entrant concert or long neck soprano for playing more traditional uke music.
 
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