Low g strings wearing through quickly.

captain-janeway

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Anyone notice wound low g strings wearing a lot more quicker than your others? Not sure if it's my playing or if they just wear through faster than the others strings.
I was thinking maybe it was a rough second fret but it seems to be that on both my ukes. Two different string brands too.
Thoughts?
 
Yes that is one of the main reason that I avoid silver wound strings. I only get about 15 hours of heavy play time out of one and then they start to unravel. My preference is for Aquila red where I can get years out of one and they tend to sound more similar to the plain strings as well. I have not yet tried strings wound with other materials such as brass which may last longer than silver.
 
I dont have any wound low G strings, but on classical guitars the wound strings are usually also the first to go. So It makes sense that it is the same on ukuleles.
 
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If you want to use wound low G strings, try Fremont Blackline or Pepe Romero. They seem to last quite a bit longer than others.
 
I've played the Thomastik-Infeld CF 30 and 27 on a baritone C tuning and tenor ukuleles and haven't experienced any problems with them. They are great sounding strings.
 
I’ve been using Fremont Soloist low G and find they are long lasting, with nice tone, comfortable tension, and very little squeak.
 
I definitely encountered that problem with Aquilas, but Fremont soloists have been fine. What brands have you used?
 
I think part of the wear can be attributed to your personal body chemistry interacting with the metal, so trying a different metal winding material could help. But in general, they don’t last nearly as long as unwound strings.
 
Have sets of unwound Fremont Black line and Worth Browns I haven't tried yet.
Miss that kind of textured feel of the reds though.
 
If you want to use wound low G strings, try Fremont Blackline or Pepe Romero. They seem to last quite a bit longer than others.

I think that both of these are manufactured by LaBella, and are commonly marketed together with fluorocarbon uke strings. It is indeed the Aquila wounds that seem to go quickly. The issue is compounded that I have a six string uke and these are low A strings that have slightly different requirement than low G and need to go with Nylguts in the rest of the set. So in about 2.5 years I went through two reds and one wound. Next I will install a d'addario wound guitar string that is supposed to go well with this set. I think I will not cut it at the bridge end and see if it can be untied and extended if it wears out near the headstock.
 
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Before I switched to unwound low g’s I had good luck with flat wound polished classical “d” strings.
 
Have sets of unwound Fremont Black line and Worth Browns I haven't tried yet.
Miss that kind of textured feel of the reds though.

Have you tried buying a single unwound Red low G and pairing it with your other Red strings?
 
The only wound strings that seems to wear out quick are Aquila ones in my experience.

Wound strings from other brands, including classical guitar D strings (eg: D'addario) seem to be quite durable.
They tarnish a bit, but don't disintegrate like Aquila wounds do.
 
Wound strings are wound with soft heavy metals like silver. It is susceptible to corrosion and abrasion. Especially when human sweat and skin cells are present.

They will wear out. You can prolong life by wiping the sweat off, but they will still eventually wear out.

If they were wound with a more resistant metal alloy, like cadmium, arsenic, chromium, chromium or lead, they may not be a very healthy choice.

If you have a high turnover of wound strings, first you can put in extra care to get rid of the sweat. But, you can also find a source of bulk strings, like classical guitar D strings. If you are using a new string every month, buy 12 at a time and ask for a discount. If you buy them one by one individually you will pay a lot for your strings. The specific "ukulele" low G strings are very expensive to buy individually if you are playing enough to wear them out regularly, I recommend looking at classical guitar D strings in bulk.

Or you can try a plastic low G string. I found them to be too fat for my liking. The nut needs to have a canyon carved into it to make them fit. On top of that, I have healthy hands and can just play a guitar or guitarlele if I want to get the notes lower than the open C strings. With a guitar I can (try to) play real Travis picking and actual authentic blue solos. I also have a DGBE Baritone which has the low string, and I have put in some effort to learn the chords on a DGBE instrument.
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Thanks for this info. Wish I had bigger hands in better shape for a guitar. I'm trying to fake a Carter scratch, but without the two low strings it isn't quite right. Maybe the classical D's would be long enough for a couple of uke sized strings.
 
I think the two string idea could work for a soprano scale length. The classical guitar is about 26" scale length and the soprano is about 13".

When you get a classical guitar string it has an end that is wound differently so it can be tied into the tie bridge. So when you cut it in half, on piece would have an end that may have a challenge to put a knot in, but I think that you could still get a knot.

Guitar shops will sell you a single D string, so if you want to try it today, and you are allowed to go out, you could visit a physical shop today and pick up a D string and try it out. Note that sometimes they will sell a single string for close to 50% or 60% of a whole set. If you find that to be the case, buy a whole set and check out using an A string as well as a D string if you want two wound strings. If you are looking for a brand of classical guitar strings because there is a wide choice, Augustine and D'Addario are reasonable brands for an experiment, ask for the lowest tension strings.

Classical D string works well for sure.

Going one step further, sometimes it makes more economic sense to buy the whole classical guitar set (provided you like the strings on a ukulele) and install the DGBE strings as GCEA on sopranos, concerts and tenors.

For baritone, the ADGB strings of a classical guitar set tunes up conveniently to DGBE tuning.
 
For longevity, stay away from the Aquila wound strings, they simply don't last as long. Go on eBay and buy a Fremont Soloist low G smooth wound and just keep playing. It is a wonderful string that plays easily without squeaking and stays bright. I have never had one break or unravel.
 
The only wound strings that seems to wear out quick are Aquila ones in my experience.

Wound strings from other brands, including classical guitar D strings (eg: D'addario) seem to be quite durable.
They tarnish a bit, but don't disintegrate like Aquila wounds do.

I am glad to hear that. Certainly hope that the D'Addario guitar string will mingle well with the Nylguts.
 
The Aquila Red low G strings (sold separately, not wound) are the best of both worlds, in my opinion; thinner like metal due to the copper powder added, but durable like nylon / fluerocarbon strings.

The sound also blends in much better with the other strings, much less 'thumpy'.

Like all Reds, they feel a bit paper-like at first, but that goes away quickly when you play them.
 
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