Nylon fans, assemble!

Learned something about nylon strings

I took my uke that has AGxAQ strings on it to play with the group at the park. Also took the dog. I had to move out of and into the sun as the weather changed, each time required retuning. Every time I had to set the uke on the grass for a second to go round up the dog, I had to retune. I like the strings, but I
 
What Rllink says is surely true, when new tech gives us new string material people want to check it out. On the other hand with the variety of Uke builds, materials, designs, variety of woods, laminate, natural, mixing woods, various bracing technologies, even glues, and with the variety of people wanting their favorite ideal Uke sound it does make sense to play with various string sets. Strings do change the way your ukulele sounds. The different combinations of Uke build and string material will yield a verity of sound. Do you like your Uke bright, jangly, warm, full, mellow, chimey, shouting, quiet, all can be achieved with a variety of string material. It pays to experiment with strings, at least till you find the ideal sound you envision for your Uke. I won’t even start on string finger feel.
The best sound in a ukulele I have heard so far is with gut strings, bar none. It was a 100+ year old Nunes, with gut string. Was it the wood, the build or the strings, maybe it was Jake Shimabukuro.
 
So this thread inspired me to try some plain clear nylon strings on my Pohaku soprano. I'd previously written off nylon strings because I have tried titaniums on a few ukes and never really liked them. Well, I strung it up with some Ernie Ball clears a couple days ago and they are starting to settle in. I really like them a lot. I expected that I might find them too dry sounding, but they are very full and very balanced. WAY better than the titaniums which are really plinky in the attack but very chunky and dry on the fundamental note. The titaniums have a sorta charming novelty sound on a soprano but they are really not the sound I want on a daily player. The clear nylons are much better. They aren't as different from flourocarbon as I had expected. Warmer and rounder sounding but still plenty of bark, volume, fullness, and sustain. I like the feel of them a lot too. I think it very likely that I will be keeping a set of nylon on one of my sopranos from here on out. I love them on my Pohaku and will be really curious to try some on my Weymann when I get it back from Jake Wildwood (it's getting a setup and some Peghead tuners).
 
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I’m wondering how much difference between clear nylon and the black nylon, sound wise. Any thoughts welcome.
 
I’m wondering how much difference between clear nylon and the black nylon, sound wise. Any thoughts welcome.

Guitar players usually associate black nylon with cheap folk guitars, ukulele, and flamenco. So if sound is different because of colour or because of different playing style and instrument is the big question. I doubt that the colour in itself is relevant at all to sound.
 
There must be some difference in sound...Kamakas come with black nylon, if there was no difference why don’t they come with clear nylon. There was one guy, not sure where I read it, he sent a Kamaka to them for some repair work not sure what strings were on his Uke but a the Kamaka shop they took his string off and put on their standard black nylon string. Which he doesn’t like and switched them out as soon as he got the Uke back.
Just wondering what the difference is. I have a Kamaka with clear nylon strings, I like the sound, but I also have some black nylons in house. Is it worth it in difference of sound to try the blacks. If anyone has tried both any input would be appreciated.
 
In theory and in general, clear nylon has a slightly brighter sound and a bit more projection whereas black nylon is mellower and darker in tone. In practice, I'd say it also depends on the instrument. I've tested both clear and black nylon on my Kanile'a and the difference was almost completely negligible. They sounded very similar, with black nylon having maybe slightly less volume. I'm guessing this is because a Kanile'a has a very distinct sound to it so comparing strings that have similar properties anyway didn't make that much difference. On some other instruments the difference can be more noticeable. Unfortunately, I haven't tested clear nylon on my Kamaka HF-1 yet but I certainly intend to. I'm using D'Addario black nylons on it currently and they work great as I love the mellow tone of them. I did try D'Addario Titaniums on it but they sounded a bit too thin. I'm guessing clear nylons will be somewhere in the middle of these two, with a slight increase in projection compared to black nylon while still retaining a decent amount of warmth.
 
The difference should be 99% placebo, IIRC.

Mimmo from Aquila explained the differences about the colors in his strings and the only possible factor is that the substance used to color the strings might make the strings' specifications slightly out of spec and add a tiny bit of randomness due to how that substance is mixed.
 
The difference between clear and black nylon isn't just the colour, rather it's the manufacturing method, extrusion vs. rectifying.
 
I know these "Titanium" type strings aren't actually nylon but since their properties are very similar to nylon I usually lump them in the same category.

Only a few days ago, I was ready to sell my KoAloha KSM-00 because I didn't play it that much. Since I bought it, I've been more into warmer sounding ukes so the overly bright and punchy sound of the KoAloha didn't appeal that much to me anymore. As a sort of last ditch effort, I decided to test some Ko'olau Alohi strings (which are essentially the same as D'Addario Titaniums) that I had handy on the KoAloha and the result is fantastic. While it didn't really transform the uke in a major way it did warm up the sound a bit while still retaining some of the punchy nature of the instrument. And this type of string is my favourite in terms of feel so I'm really pleased they work so well on the KSM-00. After only a simple string change I now want to keep the uke, at least for now. :)
 
The difference between clear and black nylon isn't just the colour, rather it's the manufacturing method, extrusion vs. rectifying.

I fear that we will only truly understand the difference between black and clear strings when we understand what their intended role in fishing is (what they were actually made for). My suspicion is that all string material is original near enough clear and that colour is achieved by adding various forms of ‘contaminant’ - which might make the string very slightly weaker and might slightly change its density.

Rectification is, as I understand it, a grinding process that ensures that the strings are both round and of a specific diameter. I believe that all strings are extruded, but would be glad to hear about their manufacture from an expert.
 
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Rectification is, as I understand it, a grinding process that ensures that the strings are both round and of a specific diameter. I believe that all strings are extruded, but would be glad to hear about their manufacture from an expert.

If you mean that even rectified strings are first extruded, then you might be right, and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise.

I do find it odd that rectified nylon strings are always black. Couldn't you just as well rectify the clear ones?
 
I fear that we will only truly understand the difference between black and clear strings when we understand what their intended role in fishing is (what they were actually made for)t.

I think you are referring to fluorocarbon strings which is repurposed and repackaged fishing line. Nylon strings are usually manufactured by string companies for use as strings. There are different formulations of Nylon that have different properties, for example Titanium Nylon is quite different from regular Nylon.
 
I think you are referring to fluorocarbon strings which is repurposed and repackaged fishing line. Nylon strings are usually manufactured by string companies for use as strings. There are different formulations of Nylon that have different properties, for example Titanium Nylon is quite different from regular Nylon.

The way I understand things is that nylon line was developed for other purposes and later adopted for Guitar and then Ukulele use. I’m not sure about GHS but D’Addario and Aquila both extrude (some or all of their) strings, but otherwise I’m fairly sure that just like with Fluorocarbon strings selected nylon fishing line is adopted and repacked by various suppliers for instrument use. Certainly Nylon fishing line is widely available and I recall that one guy on this forum strings the Ukes he makes with off of the reel nylon (Jarvis Walker Bulk Mono Line in 40, 50, 60 and 80 lb strengths).
 
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While I started out playing on Fluorocarbon strings, I much prefer nylon strings now. In the beginning the biggest problem I encountered was that the few ready made sets out there don't necessarily work on all of my different instruments, due to scale length variations and tuning variations. Once I found a few sources who sell them in increments of 2mm I've never looked back. I generally use two flat wound and two nylons on all of my non steel string ukes. Though I have recently been experimenting with two flat wounds for D and G, one fluorocarbon for B and one nylon for E on my baritones. I have found that the fatter nylons can be a little thuddy, and a high tension fluorocarbon on the B is resulting in a really nice balance both to my ears and my fingers.
 
Reading this thread has made me rethink some string choices. Over the years I have usually used fluorocarbon. I have an old Martin which is very light and resonant, the kind that seems to resonate if you breathe on it. Various carbon strings that I have used have lots of ring, but sometimes a little brash. I sometimes speculate that since the old instruments were made to sound good with gut and later nylon strings, perhaps they would be better suited to other options. I think I'll try some of the nylon options and see how well they suit this instrument.
 
The way I understand things is that nylon line was developed for other purposes and later adopted for Guitar and then Ukulele use. I’m not sure about GHS but D’Addario and Aquila both extrude (some or all of their) strings, but otherwise I’m fairly sure that just like with Fluorocarbon strings selected nylon fishing line is adopted and repacked by various suppliers for instrument use. Certainly Nylon fishing line is widely available and I recall that one guy on this forum strings the Ukes he makes with off of the reel nylon (Jarvis Walker Bulk Mono Line in 40, 50, 60 and 80 lb strengths).
No. There are different types of nylon with different physical properties. The kind of nylon used for fishing is a different type than is used for strings. There is extensive discussion about this on one of the classical guitar forums.
 
Reading this thread has made me rethink some string choices. Over the years I have usually used fluorocarbon. I have an old Martin which is very light and resonant, the kind that seems to resonate if you breathe on it. Various carbon strings that I have used have lots of ring, but sometimes a little brash. I sometimes speculate that since the old instruments were made to sound good with gut and later nylon strings, perhaps they would be better suited to other options. I think I'll try some of the nylon options and see how well they suit this instrument.

I experienced the same with my vintage Martin. Fluorocarbons were ok on it but sounded very modern to my ears, basically identical to my Kiwaya KTS-7 which has fluorocarbons on it. Once I switched to D'Addario clear nylons with D tuning the Martin really came to life. It has such a distinct sound now. Basically how it was played back in the day.
 
I experienced the same with my vintage Martin. Fluorocarbons were ok on it but sounded very modern to my ears, basically identical to my Kiwaya KTS-7 which has fluorocarbons on it. Once I switched to D'Addario clear nylons with D tuning the Martin really came to life. It has such a distinct sound now. Basically how it was played back in the day.

Dohle, that D'Addario "a D F# B" set that you referenced, is that their set coded as EJ65-S ? Might be fun to try them on my Martin S-0, which pretty much otherwise always sports M600's.
 
Dohle, that D'Addario "a D F# B" set that you referenced, is that their set coded as EJ65-S ? Might be fun to try them on my Martin S-0, which pretty much otherwise always sports M600's.

Yes, that is the exact set of strings I was referring to. Those are my preferred set for D tuning on a soprano. They are a great mix of the warmness of nylon and the brightness of the higher tuning. They produce a very classic vintage sound in my opinion. GHS makes a similar set but they use thinner strings which makes the sound a tad too bright for my tastes. La Bella seems to make a very similar set to the D'Addario one as well. I have one handy but haven't tried them yet.
 
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