String set, again ... very specific inquiry

danersen

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If anyone here has a light touch and plays chord/melody with only the pads of their thumb and fingers (no nails or picks) and has experimented with different string sets or custom combinations, I am most interested in what you learned ... primarily concert, some soprano, and occasional tenor in my case ... all Koa.
Thank you!
 
I do play chord melody with no nails but on tenor exclusively with low G. If it is any help I could possibly answer some questions.
 
Thanks for your reply, Dave.

More specifically ...
I am in pursuit of a string set with attributes best for not “thudding” or “chunking out” and maintaining tone, clarity, and sustain above the 9th fret on a Takumi all Koa soprano ukulele — especially when barreing across the fretboard at said frets.




I do play chord melody with no nails but on tenor exclusively with low G. If it is any help I could possibly answer some questions.
 
I play in that style and I've come to believe that Living Waters strings sound best on my Koa tenor and Cherry concert but Worth Browns make my Mahogany tenor sing.
 
danersen said:
I am in pursuit of a string set with attributes best for not “thudding” or “chunking out” and maintaining tone, clarity, and sustain above the 9th fret on a Takumi all Koa soprano ukulele — especially when barring across the fretboard at said frets.

One string that I have used that remained clear and ringing all the way up the fretboard was the Aquila Sugar strings
 
Thank you, Bbegall and EDW.

The Living Water set didn’t seem appreciably different to me than Worth clears.

I’ve not yet tried the Aquila Sugar, though I do like the Red; but none of the Nylguts.

Might you know the gauges of the Aquila ukulele Sugar Strings?
 
Posted by Mimmo in another thread here:

"The Sugar plastic compound has same density of supernylgut/new nygut so they have even the same gauges
Mimmo"
 
Catching my fingernails on anything gives me the willies. So I always keep them cut short and play with my pads. To be honest, I don't really feel a big difference in strings. For my baritone I use strings from Southcoast Strings (although I had heard that the company shut down after the death of the proprietor), for my Low G uke I am currently using Fremont blacks and for my High G uke I have some Worth Browns.

I have never thought about it, but I surely must regulate the boominess of the G string by technique--i.e., having a lighter touch on the G string. But, also, I am a bit of a cheater. I don't like the tension of standard tuning, so I usually have my ukuleles down-tuned three to five half-steps (e.g., EAC#F# instead of GCEA). That takes care of a lot of the boom.

Also, I avoid wound strings because of the boom.

I think to a degree I have learnt to embrace the boom. When you're fingerpicking and using the G string as the drone, the boom is appropriate and kind of a strident beat-beat.

Lastly, I find myself palm-muting the G string a lot (even without thinking of it) to eliminate the boom or the buzz (depending on the tension I am employing).
 
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