Tenor strings for down tuning: World of Ukes Clarity strings

Jim Hanks

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This was very informative. It's nice to see new strings, especially from Worth.

Your demo is very well done here :)

Thanks for the video Jim.
 
Thanks Joe. It's impossible for a player to tell (me anyway) if these really are a different formulation or just different gauges from their regular catalog. They feel like standard flourocarbon to me. Thickness was the same or maybe a tad thinner than the Southcoast mediums that came off, but those were the "soft" variety so maybe these are a "harder" variety to give the intended higher tension. I personally wouldn't want to wind these up to C tuning as they were designed for, but I'm sure others would love that.
 
That really did sound nice, Jim. Good review and very nice sound. Thanks for posting this.
 
Thanks Jim. I'll admit to some nervousness as you bought them based off my review - glad you ended up liking them! That uke is a beaut.
 
That really did sound nice, Jim. Good review and very nice sound. Thanks for posting this.

Thanks Jim. I'll admit to some nervousness as you bought them based off my review - glad you ended up liking them! That uke is a beaut.
It was a bit hard of a gamble as even the creator admitted not trying what I was suggesting. :p
But hey, they're still Worth clears so I figured they'd be good somewhere even if my target didn't work.
 
I want to get truly loco and downtune a gCEA tenor uke 2 1/2 steps to dGBE. Three reasons: 1. I like that lazy downtuned tension, 2. I like the lower tone but still w/ re-entrant, 3. so I can play w/ guitars and not have to transpose on the fly.

Based on this thread, I was planning to get some Clarity tenor strings to attempt this madness. However, I wonder if there are any other likeminded folks who might recommend other super-high-tension fluorocarbon tenor strings they‘ve successfully used to go from gCEA to dGBE and still have it sound non-stupid-and-awful.

FWIW, I got the idea after doing 10 years on a nylon-stringed soprano and then getting my first non-cheap uke, Martin T1K tenor with Martin fluoro strings. My fingertips were like, “ow!” so I kept downtunong until I liked the tension. Turned out I’d downtuned 2 whole steps. “Hell, I’m almost all the way down to baritone uke/guitar land, so why not try one more half-step and go all the way,” I said. But that last half step just got things all flubby/tubby/limp-rubber-bandy. I figured there has to be some even tensionier strings around to go the full measure.

Thanks to all you beautiful people and your cumulative dank knowledge. You make civilization worth the trouble.
 
I don't think these would work well. If you watch the video, I'm pretty sure i did Ab first and it was "OK" but it is better tuned up to A. If you wanted to try dGBE, you would want to go there first and no higher. Starting at C and going down like you did on the T1K, the strings have lost a lot of the elasticity. If you stop at G, it might work.

Having said all that, there are sets designed for tenor dGBE that may work better for you with less experimentation.
 
Thanks! I'm sure I'll eventually get some strings specifically made for tenor dGBE. For now, though, I'm hellbent on at least trying the downtuned version for the super-low tension aspect. I'm a strictly "clumsily strum while you sing" player, so I don't really need the fingerpicking clarity.

I hadn't even thought about the issue of elasticity. Thank you for pointing that out. I will stop at G and try to preserve the elasticity. I think I will go ahead and get the Clarity strings, though I'll keep my eyes peeled for any potentially tighter tenor strings that would also lend themselves to sounding not-unlistenable when downtuned.
 
I want to get truly loco and downtune a gCEA tenor uke 2 1/2 steps to dGBE. Three reasons: 1. I like that lazy downtuned tension, 2. I like the lower tone but still w/ re-entrant, 3. so I can play w/ guitars and not have to transpose on the fly.

Based on this thread, I was planning to get some Clarity tenor strings to attempt this madness. However, I wonder if there are any other likeminded folks who might recommend other super-high-tension fluorocarbon tenor strings they‘ve successfully used to go from gCEA to dGBE and still have it sound non-stupid-and-awful.

FWIW, I got the idea after doing 10 years on a nylon-stringed soprano and then getting my first non-cheap uke, Martin T1K tenor with Martin fluoro strings. My fingertips were like, “ow!” so I kept downtunong until I liked the tension. Turned out I’d downtuned 2 whole steps. “Hell, I’m almost all the way down to baritone uke/guitar land, so why not try one more half-step and go all the way,” I said. But that last half step just got things all flubby/tubby/limp-rubber-bandy. I figured there has to be some even tensionier strings around to go the full measure.

Thanks to all you beautiful people and your cumulative dank knowledge. You make civilization worth the trouble.

Thanks for doing this Jim. Came across this thread doing research for high tension low G strings to have the option to drop tune low G tenor to DGBE.

Lux, in my experience Martin tenor flourocarbons work very well to drop tune gCEA to dGBE.

Does anybody know of high tension low G fluorocarbons that have similar tension to Martin gCEA tenor strings? I'm thinking maybe the wound D string on a Martin baritone set would work for low G tuning. I've had Martin baritone fluorocarbons on tenors before and they sound good. Mahalo in advance for guidance on this.
 
I know there several threads on DGBE for tenor. You pretty much have to use a wound string for the D. (Unwound barely works for low D on baritone.) Almost any "5" string from a classical guitar set will work. The Thomastik Infeld CF35 (? I think - don't hold me to that. Might be the CF30) gets mentioned a lot. The GBE can be any low G tenor set you like - you're just moving them over one slot. Although many people who've tried this advocate a wound G as well to get a well balanced set.
 
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