Southcoast Uke Strings Convert

I just put a set of linear Southcoast Uke strings on my Big Island mahogany tenor, and they sound and feel great. I'm a relative noobie so it is a bit difficult for me to describe. I previously had low G Aquilas. The Southcoast strings sound mellower and warmer, yet clearer and without any loss of volume. They are also a bit easier to fret and just feel right in my hands.
So, if you are contemplating a string change, I highly recommend trying out some Southcoast Uke strings.
Their website is full of information about strings and I enjoyed reading the detailed information. However, I felt a bit of information overload, but a quick and helpful email exchange helped me finalize my choice.

The beauty of Southcoast is that, if you are into it..you can read all kinds of information about how strings should work. If you are not, you can just email Dirk and ask him what he thinks, he sends the strings, and you are pleased. Currently running Southcoast on all my daily players.

I just put them on a mahogany tenor that sounded great with Worth browns, and while these feel super and have a nice ring, and I have them on a soprano and also a guitalele as the trebles, on this particular uke there is an annoying "snick" kind of sound on the A string when picked. Maybe it's just my own annoying lack of picking and strumming skills, but it is really kinda strange.

Otherwise they are a super string, I'm going to try this set on another uke, maybe a concert, and put Worth clears on the tenor and see how it sounds then. Probably just an off string. I certainly do recommend trying them, I'm sure they will be the only strings for certain ukes (some seem to sound best with one specific brand and tension), and I will be buying more.

On vintage mahogany instruments, these are wonderful sounding strings. They seem a tad bit louder than Worth clear mediums, and also the tone, projection, and intonation is very even across the fingerboard. One very strange thing, though.... they are shedding off some very fine, hair like strands (sort of like fiberglass). Is this common for Southcoast strings? I've never seen this with flourocarbons before, but I believe these may be a different material? As stated here before, Dirk is great and super helpful. I'll probably give him a call and ask about this shedding thing. Fantastic strings, though.

Aloha Hiddencross,
I agree with you on Southcoast strings. I put g-650's on my Mele Koa Tenor and love the balance and feel I get from them. Will order more for my other ukes....................................BO............................

strombolimusik said:

... they are shedding off some very fine, hair like strands (sort of like fiberglass). Is this common for Southcoast strings? I've never seen this with flourocarbons before, but I believe these may be a different material? As stated here before, Dirk is great and super helpful. I'll probably give him a call and ask about this shedding thing. Fantastic strings, though.

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I'd be interested in hearing what he has to say about this. I've bought some Southcoasts (based on this and other threads) but haven't put them on yet.

Jim B

No shedding from mine. Curious. Getting ready to order some more Southcoast strings today.

I just want to say again .. these are great strings and I would recommend them to everyone. It could just be me, I play loud and daily ... I might just be wearing them out. I am in contact with Dirk and will let you know what he sez (probably the best customer service I have ever experienced). Go order a set today!

I put a set of the G650 linear flatwounds on my LoPrinzi tenor, and like them a lot. Great string-to-string balance, both tone and tension. I agree that Dirk provides exceptional customer service. He's a merchant that not only replys to email, but actually has something of substance to say.

Agree 100%. Great on my Islander solid wood concert. Nice clear tone.

strombolimusik said:

On vintage mahogany instruments, these are wonderful sounding strings. They seem a tad bit louder than Worth clear mediums, and also the tone, projection, and intonation is very even across the fingerboard. One very strange thing, though.... they are shedding off some very fine, hair like strands (sort of like fiberglass). Is this common for Southcoast strings? I've never seen this with flourocarbons before, but I believe these may be a different material? As stated here before, Dirk is great and super helpful. I'll probably give him a call and ask about this shedding thing. Fantastic strings, though.

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I've been using Southcoasts almost exclusively for the past year or two. They are awesome.

However, I did once experience the shredding. I think it can be caused by strings from the end of a roll or something like that. Dirk was super helpful and sent me another set right away, no charge. Every other set that I've used (around 5-10 of them) have worked great and have not had the shredding issue.

strombolimusik: that light shedding happened once to me quite a while back on a set of strings. A quick contact with Dirk, he was kind enough to replace. This can happen with strings: do give him a call. I am very happy with my Southcoast varieties

Maybe Dirk can sell the "shredding" strings to electric guitarists. Get it...shredding...:rofl:...(crickets chirping)...uh...ok...I'll just show myself out.

Well, I saw this thread during breaks today (UU is my favorite breaktime activity), and exhanged some e-mails and PMs with both strombo & Teek.

First, what strombo is referring to is the sign of a bad flourocarbon string. While we mix materials in our sets, the string in question was a flouro.

It can happen when a string is nicked the wrong way. The manufacturer can do it, we could do it during packing, or the customer could do it in any number of ways. It could also, however, be a bad batch from the manufacturer.

The bottom line is that 3 out of 4 of those possibilities are not the customer, so we just replace sets if something like that ever happens. It hardly ever does.

We buy from 10 different sources over 3 continents, and one time a few years ago we actually did have a bad batch of material. It was customer feedback that alerted us then, and feedback is something we treasure.

We could actually have a thread here on UU: "Problems with Southcoast Strings". It wouldn't be a very active thread, but I'd check it all the time. Not only could it alert me to possible problems, but also give insight into ways to improve our string sets.

Teek, for example, mentioned a "nicking" sound on one of her strings. After a couple of messages, I found that the set she was referring to was our Linear Ukulele set - one of our most popular. The sound was coming from the 1st string.

As it happens, this string is a rather unique material - designed to give a soft finish - well suited to the overall feel of the set. In the past, members here at UU alerted me to a "balloon-like" feel on the 1st string of another trial set. Wasn't the same material as on the Linear, but similar density. Thanks to a "test" here at UU, we found another material. Here's the thread:

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/f...d-for-Southcoast&highlight=Southcoast+Testers


Teek's picking technique may very well be somewhat unique. We've probably sold thousands of those sets, and she's the only one that's mentioned this. I've never heard it, but then I chord more than pick. On the other hand, maybe she's just the only one to say something. Based on what I heard from members in the "Soft Light" post, however, I'll take a look at that set. Maybe the material I changed to on that set will sound as good as what we have now and help Teek out at the same time.

I point this out as an illustration of how feedback works. We think we have very good strings. O.K., I'll admit it, we think our strings are the best out there. Some of that has to do with with our basic concepts and the work we put into our formulations, but a lot of credit also goes to folks like strombo and Teek who alert us to possibilities of improvement.

BTW, the string in question on strombo's set was the 3rd string of our Medium Gauge. This is another set where we sell a ton, and so far he's the only mention of a problem, but if anyone else sees something there, do us a favor and let us know.

Thanks for all the kind words -

This answer is indicative of the attention to detail at south past. There are other strings out there but I don't care because they don't compare honestly.

Mouthy is right: this kind of care and intention to detail on strings make Southcoast so very good.

I agree, not only are the strings outstanding (the G650 linear flatwounds on my Collings Tenor are a revelation) but the customer service is exceptional.

Thanks, all based on this thread I ordered the combo pack of wound stings for my Pono MT.

Count me in as another convert. I bought a few sets of these strings because a friend recommended them highly and I trust his opinion on what sounds good on his ukes. So when they arrived (I got the HML-RW per his recommendation), I didn't put them on my KoAloha as I didn't want to risk high tension strings on that uke. I love my KoAloha dearly but I know I had a problem with a KoAloha in the past that had some issues with the top (they replaced it for me, yay for better than the weather warranty)!

So I put them on my Kamaka. I rarely play my Kamaka anymore but wow, it really brought that uke to life. The tone was crystal clear and the volume and projection was better than any other strings I had ever used on it in the past. I liked it so much I put another set on my Kanilea. It did the same for that uke.

I preferred my KoAloha because it's volume and tone had been better than either of those two ukes (for what it is worth, I don't mean in a blanket sense, I fully realize a given Kamaka or Kanilea can beat a given KoAloha, just among my INDIVIDUAL ukes, the KoAloha always sounded the best). I would love to see how that uke would sound with them, but I still am hesitant to put them on it. So for now, the unwound low g set stays on that uke.

I'm going out of town next week and as a default, my KoAloha was always my travel uke. I'm not sure now which uke to bring. I'll probably take one of the other two because I want more practice on the wound strings.

I'm still getting used to occasional squeaks and finger noise as I'm not usually a wound string fan. But I'll put up with a little string noise for that tone and projection out of these ukes. I'm off to order more sets now.

It's such a good resource to hear everybody's reactions to these strings. I definitely have to give them a try. Thank you all for your feedback and comments. I can't use wound strings because they destroy my right hand nails and then I have nothing there to play with, but I assume they make a non-wound set too (for us high G players). I am putting an order on my "To Do" list!

Jamie