Aquila Baritone Strings / Love 'em - hate 'em!

Wooville

Wooville

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Well, I've had my new Ohana Baritone Uke for just over a week now. It came strung with Aquila Baritone strings with the wound G and D. Loved these strings to start with, now...not so much! I really liked the feel, sound and sustain of the wound strings, but only after a week, the wrapping has started to come off. I've had to trim them up a couple of times and nearly every fret wire has cut into the strings.

"Told ya that...to tell you this"

Now I'm on a mission for new strings and thought I'd hear your input before making up my mind...

I'm leaning toward the Aquila Red Series...anyone have thoughts on these, or any others...

my ears are open....
Wooville
 
I think the Aquila strings that come with new instruments maybe aren't the same you get when you just out and buy them, but I could be wrong. I've noticed though that the wound strings seem to last a lot longer when you buy new ones. Anyhow, my mom goes through a set of Aquilas every 9-months on her baritone without any issues of the wound strings unwinding. I'm definitely going to use Aquila strings on my Harmony baritone after I do the neck reset.

Dan
 
Absolutely Southcoast strings. After having zero success with Aquila Red (old formula) I went back to Southcoast and wondered why I'd even tried changing at all.
 
I'm trying out Ken's "Living Water" High D Baritone strings at the moment. We're still at the settling in phase... So, lots of retuning so far... but I love the sound it seems to have completely transformed my instrument... and the High D makes it sound so much more "Ukulele" and so much less 3/4 guitar!
 
Assuming it was Aquilas on my Mainland baritone when I got it I'd have to say that they were decent for wound strings - way better than the Martin (M630's?) that I tried. That's not to say I liked them, however. I just don't like wound strings on a uke, not even a baritone. So, I solved all the problems by tuning my baritone reentrant CFAD (also works at DGBE with the same strings but I like CFAD better) using all solid fluorocarbon strings.

John
 
I am surprised that someone else has not asked about the sharpness of the edges of the frets. There is a possibility that anyone's strings may cut until the edges are dulled(rounded). Guadalupes are wonderful strings IF the frets are not sharp on the edges.
 
When I used Aquila strings on my bari, the wrapping came of over the fret wires too. In addition to that I don't like that the string tension is rather low.
I tried Martin carbon strings, but they have 2 wounded strings instead of one.
Now I use carbon strings for classical guitar from Hannabach ( " Carbon " or " Goldin " ).
 
I doubt that it is sharp frets. My Kala bari came with aquila strings and within 3 weeks the D string started to unwind. Since I had used D'Addarios on a couple of my guitars, I tried a set of those. D'Addario's come in a couple of choices but, either one sound much better to me than the Aquilas. My current set is over 7 months old and show no signs of unwinding. I even tried a set of Guadalupes and they didn't last as long as the Aquilas. I'm sticking with the D'Addarios.
 
I've had a set of Ko'olau Gold strings on my baritone for months. The wound strings are still sounding great. (They haven't unwound a bit.) The gold nylon strings sound great, too. Great baritone string set.
 
Well, I finally decided that I will try the Aquila Red Series on my baritone. I liked the way they sounded on the videos. Looks like there were some issues with them at first, but looks like that's been resolved. Thanks alot to all who got envolved with this thread. I'll be sure and let you know how it turns out.

Wooville

Wooville said:
Well, I've had my new Ohana Baritone Uke for just over a week now. It came strung with Aquila Baritone strings with the wound G and D. Loved these strings to start with, now...not so much! I really liked the feel, sound and sustain of the wound strings, but only after a week, the wrapping has started to come off. I've had to trim them up a couple of times and nearly every fret wire has cut into the strings.

"Told ya that...to tell you this"

Now I'm on a mission for new strings and thought I'd hear your input before making up my mind...

I'm leaning toward the Aquila Red Series...anyone have thoughts on these, or any others...

my ears are open....
Wooville
Click to expand...
 
I strung my Ohana Baritone with the Aquila Reds, 73, 74...this past Friday afternoon and played it ALOT this weekend. Just now starting to settle in. I really like the feel, but I doubt that this will be the last string I try on the baritone. Less sustain than the Aquila wound strings and not nearly as loud, but the overall sound is wonderful, yet mellow, which works fine (sometimes). Material is easy to work with, ties easy, just make sure you stretch string before installing.
I changed strings on my Lanikai Concert this weekend, going from the stock GHS to D'Addario Pro Arte's. I can say that I like the Pro Arte's only slightly better than the GHS, which isn't saying alot. From me the Pro Arte's were a little difficult to tie at bridge. If I played the concert more, I would probably change again. Just looking for that right combination....

wooville
 
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