All,
I generally play a reintrant Bari and concentrate on campanella stuff, but I'm learning Fred Sokolow's Slack Key Uke songs and love them on a low D, and I'm having problems finding a set of strings that I like.
Normally I avoid wound strings like the plague because they have a short life and are hard to get a tonal match to the unwound strings.
I recently tried the D'Addario Titanium strings. They were tight (high tension) and had a lovely chime to them. However, the wound D had too much sustain and after about a second a harmonic emerges that sounds a bit like a buzz - not really a buzz, but very different from the crystal pure tones the other 3 strings are giving, so as you move along the fingerstyle tunes, it sort of sounds like a buzz. Very annoying when I am trying to produce a clean fingerstyle line.
I tried substituting an unwound 4th from a bari Worth Clear set and it sounded terrible. It was a dull thud compared to the other 3 D'Addario strings, which were chiming away. Not useable with those other 3 at all.
Next I replaced the strings with a complete set of Bari Worth Clears - they are more consistent tonally now, but the tension is much lower plus the sound is consistently much duller than the D'Addarios. This is not acceptable for these tunes.
I tried a set of SouthCoast Heavy that I had and despite the fact it has 2 wound strings there is a great tonal balance (SouthCoast was great for that!). However, there is no future supply of those, plus the treble strings were still not as bright and lovely sounding as the Titaniums.
So, ideally I want the D'Addario Bari Titaniums trebles and either:
1. An unwound 4th string that would match the other 3
2. A different set of strings that are high tension, hopefully no wounds
3. A clever way to "slightly" dampen the Titanium wound 4th so that it dies off before the ugly overtone emerges (could my luthier attach a piece of wood or something on the bottom of the uke top to dampen out the D frequency?).
Thanks to any suggestions you might have.
Sopher
I generally play a reintrant Bari and concentrate on campanella stuff, but I'm learning Fred Sokolow's Slack Key Uke songs and love them on a low D, and I'm having problems finding a set of strings that I like.
Normally I avoid wound strings like the plague because they have a short life and are hard to get a tonal match to the unwound strings.
I recently tried the D'Addario Titanium strings. They were tight (high tension) and had a lovely chime to them. However, the wound D had too much sustain and after about a second a harmonic emerges that sounds a bit like a buzz - not really a buzz, but very different from the crystal pure tones the other 3 strings are giving, so as you move along the fingerstyle tunes, it sort of sounds like a buzz. Very annoying when I am trying to produce a clean fingerstyle line.
I tried substituting an unwound 4th from a bari Worth Clear set and it sounded terrible. It was a dull thud compared to the other 3 D'Addario strings, which were chiming away. Not useable with those other 3 at all.
Next I replaced the strings with a complete set of Bari Worth Clears - they are more consistent tonally now, but the tension is much lower plus the sound is consistently much duller than the D'Addarios. This is not acceptable for these tunes.
I tried a set of SouthCoast Heavy that I had and despite the fact it has 2 wound strings there is a great tonal balance (SouthCoast was great for that!). However, there is no future supply of those, plus the treble strings were still not as bright and lovely sounding as the Titaniums.
So, ideally I want the D'Addario Bari Titaniums trebles and either:
1. An unwound 4th string that would match the other 3
2. A different set of strings that are high tension, hopefully no wounds
3. A clever way to "slightly" dampen the Titanium wound 4th so that it dies off before the ugly overtone emerges (could my luthier attach a piece of wood or something on the bottom of the uke top to dampen out the D frequency?).
Thanks to any suggestions you might have.
Sopher