KoAloha Opio Strings?

Puglele

Puglele

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Hi KoAloha opio owners, or acacia uke owners,
What do you use on your string? I tried the stock strings, and Fremont black medium line, did not like either.
The acacia wood came with bright and higher pitch tones. How to make it fuller and rounder?
Thanks.
 
What top is on the Uke and what size?
I have a tenor acacia with spruce top. I use low g flouro carbons. Full rich and loud.
 
I recently put Living Waters strings on my concert scale acacia KoAloha Opio and I really like them. The sound is less brash, definitely fuller, rounder and sweeter. I also find Living Waters strings to be very comfortable under the fingers. They are available at Uke Republic, if you decide to give them a try.
 
Living Water concert low G fluorocarbons on both my long neck concert acacia Opio, & my concert acacia Kala.

(I use them on most of my other ukes too, they work well for me.)
 
Choirguy said:
I think I'd send you to try the Premium Martin Strings (not the 600 series). If you don't like fluorocarbon...
Click to expand...

What are they like? They're sourced from Aquila, right? I thought they were similar or same as super nylgut, but maybe they're a special formulation for Martin.
 
glennerd said:
What are they like? They're sourced from Aquila, right? I thought they were similar or same as super nylgut, but maybe they're a special formulation for Martin.
Click to expand...

They are perhaps sourced from Aquila. The Ukulele Fool reviewed them and liked them--but I'm a M600/M620 guy.
 
I have Living Waters on my sapele Opio. Sounds wonderful.
 
Puglele said:
Hi KoAloha opio owners, or acacia uke owners,
What do you use on your string? I tried the stock strings, and Fremont black medium line, did not like either.
The acacia wood came with bright and higher pitch tones. How to make it fuller and rounder?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Why did you buy the Opio if you did not like its sound (with the stock strings)? Many people who are drawn to the Opio as an alternative to a Hawaiian KoAloha that are known for their bright punchy sound. Was probably a good idea to have it up for sale for someone who likes this kind of tone. A fuller and rounder tone could probably be accomplished with d'Addario Titaniums.
 
Bill1 said:
From the Martin Guitar website on Premium Strings:

"Developed exclusively with Aquila, Ukulele Premium Polygut® strings provide precise intonation and clear, balanced tone with exceptional sustain and projection. All Nazareth-made ukuleles are strung with Martin’s premium ukulele strings. Martin Ukulele Premium Soprano, Concert and Tenor strings are made with Graphite Gray Polygut®."

So it looks like the secret is out, the Martin Premiums were developed with Aquila.

I have never tried them, and they will be around AU$20 a set landed in Australia. So its likely I wont be trying them.

Going back to strings for an Acacia Opio, I like low tension fluorocarbon on all Acacia woods, including koa and blackwood. There is a good choice available as discussed above. If you are into fluorocarbon fishing line look at a set with PE 10(A) 12(G) 14(E) 18(hi C).
Click to expand...

Martin Premium Strings are indeed made in collaboration with Aquila. However, they don't really sound much like your typical Aquila string. In my experience, they sound very much like fluorocarbon but maybe not quite as bright. Personally, I find them decent but they definitely don't give you a particularly warm sound. If you want to go for that warmth I'd suggest clear nylon or even black nylon.
 
Living Waters or Worth Browns.
 
Reporting back: I have the Worth brown on them currently. Like them a lot so far.
Better than the stock strings and Fremont black
 
Not an Opio, but I do love Worth browns on my Koaloha KTM-00 Koa tenor.
 
My concert Opio is only a few weeks old, but when I first received it I wasn't impressed with the strings. I thought they were too brash and kind of thin sounding. Since then they have warmed up some and sounding a bit fuller, but I have worth browns on the way from all the good reviews. Hopefully they will give me more of the deeper warmer tone I'm looking for.
 
Just a follow up...I restrung my Opio concert with the worth browns medium I had ordered. Wow, what a difference! The tone is much fuller and warmer, and the tension is just where I like it. I think the stock strings were the worth clear CL. The tension was just to low for my taste, and the sound didn't do the Opio justice. Anyway, very happy with the WB's, they may be my new string of choice.
 
jkib said:
Just a follow up...I restrung my Opio concert with the worth browns medium I had ordered. Wow, what a difference! The tone is much fuller and warmer, and the tension is just where I like it. I think the stock strings were the worth clear CL. The tension was just to low for my taste, and the sound didn't do the Opio justice. Anyway, very happy with the WB's, they may be my new string of choice.
Click to expand...

Haven't played an Opio. Was yours spruce or acacia top? I assume the tone was brighter before the Browns warmed things up?
 
jkib said:
Just a follow up...I restrung my Opio concert with the worth browns medium I had ordered. Wow, what a difference! The tone is much fuller and warmer, and the tension is just where I like it. I think the stock strings were the worth clear CL. The tension was just to low for my taste, and the sound didn't do the Opio justice. Anyway, very happy with the WB's, they may be my new string of choice.
Click to expand...

The stock strings on KoAlohas are not Worth CLs. Instead, they use their own KoAloha strings but they are extremely similar to Worth CLs so the confusion is understandable. I had the exact same experience with my KSM-00 with the stock strings, too low tension and extremely bright. I too switched to Worth Browns which I think fit solid koa or spruce top ukes very well (acacia probably also). They take the edge off the brightness of those tone woods and emphasise mids and lows very well without making the sound too dark and muffled. I love them.
 
Mine is the solid acacia. I had read a few other places that the stock strings are the worth clears, but I guess it's neither here nor there. I know the brown mediums are very nice on the acacia concert.
 
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