Hi there! Well here's the situation: I have a ukulele and recently I tried the low g, which I really like. However, I sort of miss the reentrant tuning sometimes, so guess what, now I want another uke! And I really really like one that uses a solid spruce top and laminated acacia for back&sides. My current uke has mahogany solid top and laminated mahogany back&sides. Now my question, giving the woods, which one would you rather play with low g and which one with high g? I know it's probably very subjective, but I'd like to know your opinions and read if you had similar experiences. Thank you guys!
I am of two minds on this topic: there's conventional wisdom and there's practical experience. Following the conventional wisdom I have my spruce top ukulele strung with re-entrant strings and my London plane top uke strung with linear. However, my practical experience allows me to say that it just doesn't matter. If I switched string sets on my ukes, there'd only be a slight tonal difference, but the linear would sound linear and vice versa. It is impossible to go wrong here.
This - and also the quality of wood, skill of builder, thickness of the wood, as well as body depth will have much more impact than the general wood choice. Too many factors involved and several of them more important than what kind of wood.
It's maybe worth noting that most descriptions of the sound from different woods tends to correlate with the woof's colour. Spruce is "bright", mahogany "mellow". Cedar is "darker" than spruce. Walnut sounds very "dark".
Interestingly, I don't know a builder who thinks about wood like this. When I'm building I think in terms of sustain and overtones. Softwoods have longer sustain than hardwoods and produce more overtones, so tend to sound "brighter". This would include very dark colours redwood. Hardwoods have lower sustain, so might be described as more "mellow". This is not colour-dependent - maple is a hardwood, for example.
As for low G, well what sound do you want? High/low sustain, lots of/fewer overtones? Bear in mind though that how I build it affects these things at least as much as the wood I choose!
This kind of goes against the conventional wisdom, but I really like hardwoods (mahogany, koa, mango, etc.) for high G and softwoods (spruce, cedar, redwood, etc.) for low G. That's just a personal thing though. The softwoods make the low G sound really guitarry.
This kind of goes against the conventional wisdom, but I really like hardwoods (mahogany, koa, mango, etc.) for high G and softwoods (spruce, cedar, redwood, etc.) for low G. That's just a personal thing though. The softwoods make the low G sound really guitarry.
I agree 110%. If the choice is a low G on a spruce or mahogany top it is spruce all day long. I have owned tenor ukes with spruce, cedar, mahogany, koa, sycamore, redwood and all have been strung low G at some point. Most remain that way.
Think of it this way, Low G tames the brightness of spruce, it helps to balance it out. Mahogany can be warm, dark and muted, low G can cause it to be muddy sounding. Not always of course, it depends on the individual instrument. I have never heard a spruce top strung low G that sounded off or not right because of the low G.
Low G is linear tuning on a uke, acoustic guitars are linear tuned. The vast majority of acoustic guitar have a spruce top. Think about that fact............ coincidence......I don’t think so. YMMV and it is personal preference but that has been my experience.
I agree 110%. If the choice is a low G on a spruce or mahogany top it is spruce all day long. I have owned tenor ukes with spruce, cedar, mahogany, koa, sycamore, redwood and all have been strung low G at some point. Most remain that way.
Think of it this way, Low G tames the brightness of spruce, it helps to balance it out. Mahogany can be warm, dark and muted, low G can cause it to be muddy sounding. Not always of course, it depends on the individual instrument. I have never heard a spruce top strung low G that sounded off or not right because of the low G.
Low G is linear tuning on a uke, acoustic guitars are linear tuned. The vast majority of acoustic guitar have a spruce top. Think about that fact............ coincidence......I don’t think so. YMMV and it is personal preference but that has been my experience.
Agreed. Like you said, low g on my Mainland mahogany sounds muddy, but on my kala cedar top it sounds more like a guitar. I'll have to take a listen for low g on spruce
Perhaps the real question should be which one do you prefer? While string sets have become somewhat more expensive over the years they are still relatively affordable, and I think experimentation is one of the joys of playing a stringed instrument. You may find that a wound Low G may sound or play differently on your instruments than say, the Aquila Red Low G (like the one you already have on your Mahi Mahi).
My thoughts are that you should try the Low G (linear) / High G (re-entrant) combo on both of your instruments to see which you prefer – switch them out, go back and forth so you get a solid confirmation of the sound differences that you hear and like best. There probably isn’t one truly right answer – some days you might prefer one vs the other and some days it may be reversed.
I keep a Low G on my Kamaka and a High G on my KoAloha, both of which are Tenors and are Koa topped. I have a Low G on my Collings (Concert, Koa top) and a High G on the Santa Cruz (Concert, Mahogany top). Now instead of switching strings I simply change the ukulele I am playing that day to suit what I am hearing and what syncs best with what I am playing. This is what works for me. And what you prefer may be entirely different, so do what works for you.
Hey guys! Thank you very very much for all your replies! They were very interenting and useful
I think that even though I'll most probably try different combinations until I get the best sound for me, I kind of already know what I want thanks to your comments. I think I'll use the low g on the spruce uke and the high g on mahogany. Why? Well, having one uke that sounds more like a classical guitar (because they usually use spruce for the top) and another that sounds more like the typical ukulele is something that really appeals to me. And if spruce sounds very bright maybe compensating it with linear tuning sounds like a good idea. However, like some of you mentioned, it depends on the way it's built, so I'll see when I have both of them with me. And well, I'll also probably try other low g strings to find the perfect sound (although I like the red aquila a lot), but that's another story
