I hate to resurrect an old thread, but I need to be clear about this. I have my first uke coming in a few days and want to buy strings now.
Since I was a classical/folk guitarist for about ten years (before marriage and kids and regular jobs), I preferred Savarez Red Card nylons. I want to string my new MK-T with low G, and would also like to try DGBE. I have some strange belief that my fingers are going to recall the old skills better the closer I can get to a guitar. I intend to do mostly finger picking.
Basic questions:
Is there any modification needed to string the MK-T to a linear tuning? Is the groove in the nut wide enough without having to file it?
If I can't find real uke strings here in Des Moines - a real possibility - I can get guitar strings. What would be the best Savarez string for a low G/D uke string, for instance? I'd prefer an unwound 4th but I don't want it to be too muted. I do have a fresh set of regular Aquila Nylguts coming that I mean to use for the bottom three, since I have no idea what condition the provided strings are in.
I have a Cherub tuner coming. From the pictures, it seems set to recognize all the right notes for both DGBE and GCEA. Does it care what octaves the notes are in? I assume not, but I'd be disappointed if it doesn't work. You may not believe this, but we didn't have these back in the 70s ;-)
Really stupid question, probably, but do you tune up to DGBE or down? (Sorry)
Finally, I used to really enjoy a lot of open tunings on my classical guitar, but I would tend to burn through a lot of tuner gears. It was a combo of changing tunings too often and using high tension Savarez, I think. Since I'm unsure how much tension a tenor normally has, how far up can you tune without running the risk of damage to the instrument, broken strings, damaged tuners, etc.?
Some of this is, I'm sure, over-thinking and over-caution. And much of it will certainly be clearer once I get my hands on the little rascal. But this is how I'm occupying my mind while trying to puzzle out why it takes FedEx 5 days to travel from Texas to Iowa.
Thanks for tolerating so much n00bness.