anyone built with or experimented with acoustic guitar strings on ukes???

dakamaainahaole

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sooo, i wanna experiment a lil but not if it will possibly damage my uke. I'm wondering if i could take one of the g c e or a strings from a pack of light classical guitar strings and string it on my tenor uke. would this work or damage the uke or something like warp the headstock???

Also if so, would the TYPE of string matter? (like wound ones with nylon core maybe)

Mahaloz.
 
Brah, Laron (aka uluapoundr) wen do dis vid using Savarez Classical Guitar Strings. An befo dey wen staht pakaging D'Addario J series string fo ukes, guys was using D'Addario Pro Arte Classical Guitar Strings (J46). I have used Savarez strings.
 
one spearo dat guy fo sua! haha miss me a mean ulua... but yups, real thorough vid.... brah, u know wat, i think imma hawaiian style borrow my sisters concert Cordoba for test em ($100 uke that she no play anyways, garanz she neva even notice its gone... i dont even think she learned a single chord!!! ... grrr.) gonna use a set of light Martin strings called MARQUIS (80/20 bronze)... oh n i saw in that same thread u show me that there was talk of usin one guitar D string to make the uke G string, know bout this?
 
Lemme no how you like it . . .

Brah... ... ... ...I CANT WAIT TO TRY EM WIT BETTA STRINGS!!!!!!! na for real tho, sounds mean... the article n vid u sent me were good confidence boosters to try em. the wound string versus the nylony string sounds so much more full-bodied, but this is only the beginning. i used the cheapest $5 pair of strings they had. the titanium strings that curt sheller recommened are in my future. photo (2).jpgphoto (3).jpgphoto (4).jpg :drool:

now, da brodda in da vid said he replaced ALL em... i noticed (with my Kanile'a) that even if i was to replace all strings with wound strings (which im not), i wouldnt be able to anyways (i think) cause of thickness restrictions on the strings in the bridge (with their pin-drop peg things), but i think i MIGHT change out my A string too, for more brightness... other thing on my mind is how much overall tension is too much, or is it about the same amount, equivalent? lol Sooooo da kine!
 
Da only one wound is da low g so you shouldn't have any probs about fitting the nut. As fa as tension go, check out dis article by David Hurd (aka Ukuleles by Kawika). I dunno if get one accurate way to check string tension. In da service we used to check cable tensions using one tensiometer and I don't really know if the luthiers/builders do check string tension.
 
my main go-to app for my chords n tuning is called GuitarToolKit but get tuning/chord creater/chord finder/scales/metronome for all kine stringed stuffs... 6string 8 string, banjo, bass, etc, and uke... and get frequency reader on the tuning part... never noticed the frequency meter til now, and they all match up with the tuning frequency chart on that site. raja dat, learnin all kine things today! akamai dis guy, ya!? mustve been the :spam: musubi i ate with dinna tonight lol

but eh, so no can on the other strings, being wound i mean? i like see what the A string would sound like with a guitar string... or would that guitar string be straight up wire??
 
Most classical sets the trebs are usually nylon and the bass strings are wound. I know Ko'olau has sets using wound 3rd and 4th. I have one set I goin try on my Kamaka. Check out Southcoast Strings. Dirk has put together linear (low g) sets with wounds and they sound really balanced and clean. If you have questions about them, he will answer questions as best as he can.
 
Rick Turner uses Savarez classical guitar strings on his personal ukes. He uses a low-G tuning.




-Kurt​
 
I use the Savarez as well, low-G is a Fremont Soloist gold polished squeekless wound. My favorite strings of any and the only classical guitar strings I have used.
Now they make a uke set but for my tenor's I just get the Alliance HT Classic 540's standard tension. (which come with a wound but the Fremont is a much nicer wound being polished and squeekless).

Rick Turner uses Savarez classical guitar strings on his personal ukes. He uses a low-G tuning.




-Kurt​
 
The gauging of classical guitar strings are pretty much perfect for tenor ukes. The distance from 5th fret to saddle on classical guitars is just about 17"...the same as the scale length of a tenor uke.

Yes, I use the top four strings from a Savarez red label set with the nylon on nylon wound 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and a silver plated copper wound 4th. So the classical D, G, B, and E become the uke G, C, E, and A. Tension is perfect.

One side note...for whatever reasons, the term "acoustic guitar" tends to mean "steel string acoustic guitar" these days, even though "classical guitars" are also acoustic.
 
The distance from 7th fret to saddle on 650mm classical guitars is 17.06", so the actual tension of the same strings on a GCEA tenor would be near 80% of its intentional tension.
 
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meaning when strung with classical guitar strings on a GCEA tenor, there's still an assumed 20% more tension that it could withstand?
 
No, the tension on a GCEA tenor when strung with four cg strings is a bit less than 80% of the tension of DGBE on a regular cg.
 
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