Aquila Red, Worth Clear and. . .? (Strings for Baritone, Linear G)

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cdkrugjr

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I've been playing the stock strings on my Kala Spruce (Laminate). I like most of its sound, just not the string squeak.

I ordered a set of Worth Clear's and Aquila Reds with the loose unwounds.

What else is out there for Baritone G tuning that doesn't squeak like the Aquila wounds?

Thanks
 
I have Living Water strings on my Bari and I like the tone quite a bit. No squeak. :)
 
I have currently have Worth Browns on mine. I also have Living Waters, but have not tried them yet. Anxious to do so, but giving the Worths a go right now.
 
Thomastik-Infeld chromium flat wound classical guitar strings. CF35 for the D and CF30 for the G (I have recently discovered that the CF30 also makes a great low-G string on tenors and the CF27 makes a great wound C string, too).

The CF35 & CF30 are all I've been using for the D and G on linear baritones for quite a while now (I use all plain strings on my reentrant DGBE bari). Almost squeakless. Good tension. None of the "snap" of the unwound bass strings. Good, bright tone that blends very well with everything I've matched them with in the trebles.

You can get them from stringsbymail.com. They ain't cheap but they also seem to last much longer than most other wound strings I've tried so it's probably a wash.

John
 
I've got my pono MB Bari linear tuned to GCEA with the LL-NW (light nonwound) strings from southcoast ukes. They also make wound sets that are polished and not too sqeaky.

My uke originally came with diadario titanium strings tuned in G, but the tone was pretty lifeless. The switch to new strings in a different key completely brought my uke to life.

Wythe
 
I just put a set of Southcoast HL-SW's on a friend of mine's Martin Bari.They're a wound string but being soft wound there's no squeaking. Changed the sound for the better ten fold.

Southcoast strings are incredible. I have a set of his HML-CM's on my Webber bari tuned to Bb. Whew, makes it sound vibrant and alive almost like a tenor guitar. I was missing the steel string sound and these cured it plus saved me big bucks not having to buy a TG.
 
Patrick Madsen said:
I just put a set of Southcoast HL-SW's on a friend of mine's Martin Bari.They're a wound string but being soft wound there's no squeaking. Changed the sound for the better ten fold.

Southcoast strings are incredible. I have a set of his HML-CM's on my Webber bari tuned to Bb. Whew, makes it sound vibrant and alive almost like a tenor guitar. I was missing the steel string sound and these cured it plus saved me big bucks not having to buy a TG.
Click to expand...

I was originally thinking of getting a Bari for Linear C (Low G), but it's pretty bright already. I'm not sure how I'll like it up higher, but I'm still trying things.

I'm also looking at a TG, but that's a Whole N'uther Thang . . .
:)
 
I have my Pono Baritone with Linear C strings Clear Worths.

It is bright. And sounds great but I am going to put Baritone Mahana's on it as I love the warm sounding Bari sound. I have a Tenor now as well so I would like some variety.
 
The Reds arrived and installed. I'll see how well they age over the next couple weeks.

Early impression: Low D, even Red is FAT, but seems okay tension-wise with the rest of the strings.

Unfortunately they're still noisier than the Nylguts I have on the Concert, with quite a bit of texture to the strings, even unwound.

At least one of my experiments will have to be with one of Dirk's A-tuning sets to get above the D#-ish resonence.
 
I use Worth Clear. Linear G. Low tension. I am looking to put regular Baritone strings on. Mahana's.
 
The Red 3 and 4 took a while to settle in, and 4 needed to be re-tied at the tuner, but they've settled in, though it took a while.

I definitely prefer the sound above the 2nd fret, but low-D isn't anywhere near as Dreadful as it was with the stock strings.

I also played on the 5th fret a bit, and it wasn't outrageously bright. I might try this in C after all. . .

Playing with the Reds for a while before I swap out for the Worths.
 
Last edited:
Worth Browns. bout a week to "settle in" for my Kamaka baritone. Now they sound great. I would get southcoast but he does not sell an unwound linear set in DGBE
 
cdkrugjr said:
I've been playing the stock strings on my Kala Spruce (Laminate). I like most of its sound, just not the string squeak.

I ordered a set of Worth Clear's and Aquila Reds with the loose unwounds.

What else is out there for Baritone G tuning that doesn't squeak like the Aquila wounds?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Random question, what makes them squeak? Only two of the strings squeak right, the low two right?
 
Embrace the Squeak! Honestly I know what your talking about as I use regular Aquila Nylguts but I like them. To a certain extent its a technique issue. You need to pick at ABSOLUTE right angles to the string. Any lengthwise movement in your picking is going to elicit a noise. Still I like the sound of a guitar with wound stings squeaking away.

Here's me playing a U2 cover on a baritone ukulele with wound Aquila's squeaking away from time to time.



Anthony
 
I don't like the squeeks of wound strings either, but I put a set of Martin baritone strings on my vintage Favilla [2 wound basses, fluro trebles] and they sound fantastic and are cheap, less than half the price of the fancy flatwounds out there.
 
My baritone with Aquila strings, 2 wound, 2 red trebles, sounds very nice.
 
One more baritone player that agrees with the anthonyg's 'embrace the wound string' approach.
I think I've tried nearly all baritone strings and the choices for the 4th string are either 'floppy' (non-wound 4th) or the possibility of squeaking (wound 4th). I opt for a wound guitar 4th string every time.

When listening to guitar or baritone, I rarely say that squeaking gets in the way of the music. Maybe my old ears can't hear squeaking but one can be fussin too much about the 'perfect' sound and forget that, at the end of the day it's the music that counts.
 
I find that I keep giving wound strings a chance, but I'm always disappointed. The stuff I play is mellow and very slide heavy, so no matter how polished or squeakless a string claims to be, they always still squeak. Maybe a guitar has the volume to drown out the squeaks, but my ukes, even the big ol' baritones, don't - unless I play really loud and hard, which I don't often do.

For linear G on the bari, Worths are the way to go. For reentrant, Living Water. For other tunings more than a step away from those, Southcoast.
 
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