Fremont Flourocarbon Uke Strings

GrumpyCoyote said:

I picked mine up in Femont, at Dusty Strings... MGM sells them on line I think.

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Im looking for a supplier...Mike only has the one string (Low G). I want to change out the whole set (I just bought the Pono tenor). Your Seattle folks dont sell them online as far as I can tell. Help a brother out.

I've now tried the strings but I need some advice!

Ok so I have now put the fremont set on my tenor with the low g unwound string. LOVE THEM! They feel great, sounds so crisp clear, I wouldn't exactly say bright but really clean, no muddy sound to them. The only problem I did experience was an intonation problem on the A string. While the open string was in tune it would start sharp right at the b (about two notches on my intelli tuner) and stayed that way all the way up. Needless to say this was pretty irritating to me... When I had the koolau golds on it I had the same problem with the e string, but not the a string and now the e string is almost spot on. I don't know :-S.

Well a few days ago i was looking at the high g string that originally came with the set and realized that it was only slightly thicker than the a. (the g was 0.025 mm where as the a was 0.023). Being adventurous i decided to string it up the g string in place of the a and tune it to a. Bingo, the intonation is nearly spotless! Although, it did come at a slight cost seeing as the string is stiffer than the previous one and is a bit harder on the fingers and harder to bend. I'm hoping I can just adjust to it and won't really notice after...

So the question I have for you guys is was this a good solution to my problem? I don't really know how to make intonation adjustments at the bridge. Is there any danger to my ukulele by having this slightly higher tensioned string on it? If you guys could be help me out with this that would be great! I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything that my harm may beloved ukulele in the long run!

Mahalos :shaka:

It's about time!

I don't see how a string can be responsible for an intonation problems. Scale length, fret spacing, saddle comnpensation, and the like are intonation issues. A string is just a tensioned wire that only creates frequencies altered by nuts, frets, and saddles.

Bluke said:

It's about time!

I don't see how a string can be responsible for an intonation problems. Scale length, fret spacing, saddle comnpensation, and the like are intonation issues. A string is just a tensioned wire that only creates frequencies altered by nuts, frets, and saddles.

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hahaha! Well I was away for a week!

Ummm, well I don't know but it obviously has an influence of some sort, either the tension or the thickness influences the intonation some how, I can vouch for that because I have observed this first hand.

But what about having the high g string as my a, if it solves my problem is it okay to do this?

Help? Anyone?

Sorry I just wanna make sure that I'm not gonna damage my ukulele at all.

1uke said:

But what about having the high g string as my a, if it solves my problem is it okay to do this?

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The thickness of the "g" and "A" strings are usually quite similar, so I see no reason why there'd be any problem substituting them.

In fact, some people even use nylon guitar strings on their ukes, including the wound basses.

IANAL

(Usually, that stands for "I am not a lawyer" in tnterweb parlance, but here it means "I am not a luthier.")

Thanks itsme (hahaha, is it you or is it me? Ok... anyways ),

Umm so I was just wondering if there is anyone with luthier experience that may be able to throw in some input too?

Boozelele said:

Im looking for a supplier...Mike only has the one string (Low G). I want to change out the whole set (I just bought the Pono tenor). Your Seattle folks dont sell them online as far as I can tell. Help a brother out.

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I'll bring a couple down - I bought hom out sadly, not sure when he's restocking.

I just put a set on my Pono Concert Mahogany, they are good. I got them because they're slightly heavier than the Martins I had. I like the flourocarbon strings, more overtones.

This string tension intonation thing is something I noticed lately. I bet it depends on how had you tend to press when playing (especially chords). As a guitar player, I have no trouble pressing the uke strings down hard enough to make them stretch as they touch the fingerboard and go sharp. The higher tensioned strings do this less (DUH).

With my playing it seems I'm not consistent in how I squeeze so some chords are more out of tune than others.

I guess I just have to RELAX!

I just wanted to add to this old thread. I recently put some Fremont Black Lines on my Mainland concert and they sound really good. It took a while for the stretching to stop but I'm quite pleased with the sound. I've not tried many strings but these are definitely worth looking into as they sound quite clear and have a nice feel to them when I both strum and pluck. The ones I'm using are medium gauge.

And on a purely aesthetic note, the black color looks very nice against the mahogany.

caz said:

I just wanted to add to this old thread. I recently put some Fremont Black Lines on my Mainland concert and they sound really good. It took a while for the stretching to stop but I'm quite pleased with the sound. I've not tried many strings but these are definitely worth looking into as they sound quite clear and have a nice feel to them when I both strum and pluck. The ones I'm using are medium gauge.

And on a purely aesthetic note, the black color looks very nice against the mahogany.

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I'm going to have to try a set. So many strings, so little time.

btw, I love your avatar, Roosevelt!

Comparing these strings with Worths on a Koa Concert, I much prefer the Worths.

I know this is an old thread to resurrect, but I have put these on my Kamaka. I have used original Kamaka strings (eww), Aquila, Worth brown, Worth clear, D'addario J71, and Savarez Alliance on this ukulele. Each of them would grow old on me after a while (too bright, too dull, didn't like the feel, etc.) and so I dragged out a set of Fremont Blacklines in desperation. I had bought these for my Kanile'a and didn't like them so they had been languishing in the box of strings. I figured what the heck, and who would have guessed, they sound great so far. They are much clearer and less dull/muddy than the Worth browns, a better feel (for me) than the Aquila and D'addario, and less bright than the Worth clears. So far so good.

I do, however, reserve the right to completely change my opinion again, as I can never seem to leave a set of strings on for more than a month without itching to switch them again.

When I had them on my Mainland I really liked them. Crisp, loud, and full-bodied. In fact I liked them better than Worth browns, which is what I replaced them with. When the nylguts on there wear out, I believe I'll go back to blacklines.

I had some intonation problems with them on my Ko'olau Tenor. (When I had it )

Since this is now a new old thread, I'll add my :2cents:

I have a new Kanile'a koa tenor that came high 4th g with Aquilas, for which I have little love for most of my ukes. I swapped out the high 4th Aquila for a low 4th G Fremont, and it doesn't intonate properly. It's right on at the first fret, then misses most of the other notes, basically going sharp. This uke is spot on up the neck, but not with this string. I modulated tension and distance from the fret and couldn't get it to play right on the note on more than a couple of frets.

EDIT: I adjusted the nut just a hair, which fixed the intonation problem, I was thinking the string was just old and worn, since it was fairly close to the note every 3rd fret or so, but still off. After that it was ok. I did put the clears on, do like them much better than the Aquilas (I noticed a string squeak on all of the Aquilas I hadn't heard before in the process) and like the Worths, they are less bright but are richer. The Aquilas are only a month old without much wear because my schedule has been hectic. I will say I wish the clears were white. Clear doesn't really look good on anything IMO. Black looks great against most colors and finishes. : Finish EDIT.

I just got the ebony bridge pins so will try Worth Clears. I really like the look of darker strings on this uke, I don't even mind one black string, but I had clears on my last tenor and found that those were the right strings for that one right before I sold it.

Other than that, I like the Fremonts I have on a soprano that carries them well. But if I had the choice of either I'd go with Worth Browns.

Hilos pretty much suck IMHO.

I put some Fremont Black Lines on my Pineapple Sunday a few weeks ago. They took a while to finish stretching, but I like the sound better than the stock clear KoAloha strings the PS came with. (And, the black strings look awesome against the koa of the PS.)

haole said:

I put a Fremont black low G on my Flea to go along with the Worth Browns that were on it. Sounds a LOT better than a wound string and they compliment each other nicely.

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That's encouraging...is it a concert size? I'm considering getting a Flea with plastic fretboard (I volunteer at a hospital and would need to wipe down the uke with disinfectant between rooms) but would want to use a low g...given the plastic fretboard I would need all unwound strings. I noticed your post is a bit dated...you still like the Fremont unwound low g on your flea.

Thanks for the feedback!

Wow, a four-year old thread reappears like the legendary phoenix. Between the last post and the next to last post, there have been many many posts about Fremont Blacklines, you might want to search the archives for more recent opinions, I think there were four pages of posts when I did that <g>. But it's true, you can't go wrong with Fremont Blacklines and they're carried by many more online and brick and mortar stores nowadays. Good pickin, g2