Baritone - Wound Fluorocarbon D?

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asublimeday

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I have Worth Browns on my Pono MB (Mahogany Baritone). The GBE strings are great, but the looseness of the D string is driving me crazy. Is there a wound fluorocarbon D sold anywhere, or a string of another type that fits in with the other 3 Worth Browns smoothly? Thanks.
 
The only single strings on sale for baritones I've seen are Aquila Red or Nylgut and I wouldn't recommend those. If you don't mind buying a whole new set then D'Addario has a set where only the D string is wound and rest are pure fluorocarbon. I personally use Martin M630 strings where both the D and G strings are wound.
 
Dohle said:
The only single strings on sale for baritones I've seen are Aquila Red or Nylgut and I wouldn't recommend those. If you don't mind buying a whole new set then D'Addario has a set where only the D string is wound and rest are pure fluorocarbon. I personally use Martin M630 strings where both the D and G strings are wound.
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I didn't realize the low strings on Martin M360s are wound. Do you think just swapping in the D string would sound okay with the GBE browns?

Is this the D'Addario set you're talking about? I wonder how they compare to the Browns. The price is less than half what I paid for them.

https://www.amazon.com/DAddario-EJ8...lja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1
 
I found the same thing with Worth low D on the baritone, it was just so loose I thought i had it tuned incorrectly. I didn't have that problem with other low D sets from Living Water or Luthier. You might want to try your worth set with a wound D string from Uke logic. I normally dislike wound strings but I really like theirs. Oddly enough, I bought a set of Uke Logic Baritone strings and had to replace the E string because it was jarringly out of synch with the others. I used a Worth E and now the set sounds great.
 
BBegall said:
I found the same thing with Worth low D on the baritone, it was just so loose I thought i had it tuned incorrectly. I didn't have that problem with other low D sets from Living Water or Luthier. You might want to try your worth set with a wound D string from Uke logic. I normally dislike wound strings but I really like theirs. Oddly enough, I bought a set of Uke Logic Baritone strings and had to replace the E string because it was jarringly out of synch with the others. I used a Worth E and now the set sounds great.
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Do you think the Worth Brown GBE would sound good with the low D from Living Water, or should I swap the whole set?
 
Single strings are usually more expensive and if you pull a string from a set you have an incomplete set. Sets of strings are not a big expense so advice is usually to change whole set.
 
asublimeday said:
I didn't realize the low strings on Martin M360s are wound. Do you think just swapping in the D string would sound okay with the GBE browns?

Is this the D'Addario set you're talking about? I wonder how they compare to the Browns. The price is less than half what I paid for them.

https://www.amazon.com/DAddario-EJ8...lja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1
Click to expand...

Yup, that's the D'Addario set I meant. The wound strings on both the D'Addario and Martin sets actually have a nylon core instead of fluorocarbon, but since they are both part of a fluorocarbon set I'm guessing they will probably be ok with the Worth Browns as well. It's not as if you'd be able to find a wound black/brown fluorocarbon string for baritone anyway. Both sets are fairly cheap so I wouldn't worry about having incomplete sets left even if you just use the wound D string. Do note, however, that the Worth Brown set is more expensive simply because they are double length so you get two sets of strings in the pack.

If you'd specifically like to try a single string then the only one I know of for baritones is a single D'Addario Folk Nylon string for classical guitar. I haven't tested this myself but Southern Ukulele Store uses it on their custom sets. You can find their blurb on the string here: https://www.southernukulelestore.co...-bronze-wound-baritone-low-d-string-037-94mm/
I'm sure you'd be able to find the string on any guitar/music shop with a decent selection of strings.
 
asublimeday said:
Do you think the Worth Brown GBE would sound good with the low D from Living Water, or should I swap the whole set?
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Living Waters sells two baritone sets. One features 5 strings with both a high and low D. I think that's the way I'd go. You can use the high D to experiment with the Worths you have installed or just swap out for the low d set.
 
Are there any companies that wind their fluorocarbons? I thought that string winding was done by few specialized factories, and they use nylon cores. Does the core material of a wound string even matter much?
 
merlin666 said:
Are there any companies that wind their fluorocarbons? I thought that string winding was done by few specialized factories, and they use nylon cores. Does the core material of a wound string even matter much?
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I always assumed the wound string in a fluorocarbon set had a fluorocarbon core.

As for if it even matters what the core is, I'm curious too, about how much impact it has on the sound. Less for the difference between nylon and fluorocarbon, but more between those and steel. Since I came across the idea in another thread, I've been thinking about trying to string a regular baritone with low tension steel strings made for classical guitars. There would still be enough tension that it's around the limit of what the bracing and bridge construction on a regular baritone could tolerate. Swapping out the wound steel strings for wound nylons/fluorocarbons should reduce the tension, but I wonder what impact it would have on the sound.
 
snowdenn said:
I always assumed the wound string in a fluorocarbon set had a fluorocarbon core.

As for if it even matters what the core is, I'm curious too, about how much impact it has on the sound. Less for the difference between nylon and fluorocarbon, but more between those and steel. Since I came across the idea in another thread, I've been thinking about trying to string a regular baritone with low tension steel strings made for classical guitars. There would still be enough tension that it's around the limit of what the bracing and bridge construction on a regular baritone could tolerate. Swapping out the wound steel strings for wound nylons/fluorocarbons should reduce the tension, but I wonder what impact it would have on the sound.
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This made me curious so I had to read up a bit. It seems that the wound synthetic strings don't have a solid single core but have a core composed of fine filaments of nylon or other materials. That's why the wound strings seem to unravel at the end in a funny way sometimes. An article that sums it up nicely is at https://acousticguitar.com/ask-the-expert-whats-the-deal-with-nylon-guitar-strings/
This seems to make it unlikely for companies that cut and package fishing line to do. So I assume that the origin of wound strings in fluorocarbon packages is from other source.
 
ubulele said:
The winding is typically metal (different metals are used), not fluorocarbon, nylon or similar composite. I've never worried about the core—the composition of the metal winding is more important.

Aquila used to make a red baritone single for use as a low 4th string, but last I heard, they'd discontinued that, prior to their reformulation of the reds, and I don't know if they've started selling them again. Their red strings have a higher unit density (due to a copper infusion), which makes them much more suitable as low strings—with a thinner diameter as well (no need to alter the standard nut notch). The Aquila red was the only non-wound string I could recommend for a bari low 4th. At the time, the red 4th was only available as a single; curiously, the red sets included wound strings for the 3rd and 4th strings.

.
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Yes I thought the discussion was about fluorocarbon and not winding metals or red strings. Maybe Savarez have some suitable strings. They pioneered fluorocarbon strings and probably have most experience with them. As they are a large company it is likely that they also wind their own strings. I don't play baritone so don't know what they have in that size.
 
The original problem, the laxity of the D string, could be addressed not by the Pandora's Box of wound strings, but by uptuning. Simply tighten The D string until it gets to a tension that you like and then adjust the other strings to match. Instead of playing in DGBE, you'll be playing, for example, in G#C#FA#. The pitch will be higher but all the chord shapes will still work.
 
Yes, string lore has it that Savarez approached Kureha (maker of Seaguar) to modify their fishing line to make it suitable for musical instruments. Apparently they brought them to market in the 80s already though it seems the first versions tended to disintegrate into individual fibers after some hard playing. I think Kureha is still the main producer and it is likely that Worth and others are also using their product. The chemical composition is probably the same but there could be variation on how fibres are melded together into monofilament.
 
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