EADGBE on original cordoba mini

[spookelele]

Hello, it's been a while.

Recently I've come back to my original cordoba mini tuned E-E using martin M160's ( ball end hard tension nylon ) after hating most of the guilele E-E sets I tried in the past. TBH, I've been loving the feel of soprano uke tension on a bari scale since the hard tensions are thicker, they take less tension on short scale, but they still dont buzz.

But... the 3 non-wound trebles are really finicky with staying in tune (not the tuners which I replaced with gotoh's cuz those stock ones were toy store quality). It's not the neck relief'ing cuz the wound bass dont go out of tune.

Im considering putting steel strings on it to see if it helps the trebles stay in tune, but not keen on trying lots of sets.

Anyone already tried this and can point me in a direction so I can short cut wasting strings?

And anyone that's got a cordoba mini, and wants E-E in nylon... Those M160's feel and sound pretty good, and they're cheap.

 

[Jim Hanks]

Steel strings are not recommended. Nylons do take quite awhile to settle. You could try flourocarbon trebles

 

[anthonyg]

The intonation will be completely wrong if you try and fit steel stings to instruments designed and built for nylon strings.
The first culprit for tuning instability is a poorly cut nut that is sticking to the strings. Tuning stability requires either strings that slip back and forth through the nut easily, or a locking nut where the strings can't move at all.
The easy thing to try is to lubricate the nut with graphite or some propriety substance.
If you have proper nut files you could try carefully adjusting the slots, yet this is something you need to read up on and have the right tools to do properly.

 

[Aline]

A nylon strung guitar is not engineered to withstand the stress of steel strings.

 

[UkerDrew]

I play my mini-r quite a bit and I settled on Oasis GPX carbon high tension classical guitar treble set. It’s affordable, durable and very stable for tuning. The high tension is needed due to the shorter 20 inch scale.

 

[frets alot]

I use the Pepe Romero fluorocarbon strings and love them on my Pono baritone scale guilele. I tune G-g, so I use the UG1 set. The UG2 set is for E-e.

Pepe Romero Strings UG2 Baritone Guilele Fluorocarbon

This string set pairs Pepe’s Fluorocarbon trebles from his Guitar (guitalele or guitarlele) Set GFH with wound Basses that are perfect for tuning a Baritone Guilele E to E. Or if it's a slightly shorter scale it can be tuned G to G like in the example below. .embed-container { position...

theukulelesite.com

 

[cdkrugjr]

Shouldn’t be a problem.

with the shorter scale you’ll want a higher tension Classical set.

 

[Poul Hansen]

I just picked up one of my Mini Ms(Koa) after ½ year hiatus and all strings were too high, which I can only attribute to the wood and change in humidity between summer and winter.

If you want the good sound of solid top, you will have to compromise with a bit of change in tuning with varying humidity.

On a daily basis it stays in tune though.

I use Cordoba E-E strings(made by Aquila) I have tried EJ44 which was usable but I prefer the sound of the Cordobas.

If you have a good sound, who cares about a bit of tuning, which most people check anyway, every time they pick up an instrument.

 

[spookelele]

"If you have a good sound, who cares about a bit of tuning, which most people check anyway, every time"

Thing is... I tune before playing. Then about 5 mins in, I have to retune the trebles, and then another 5 I have to tune again. Then it's stable until I stop playing. So.. in a play session, I have to fidget for the first 10 mins before it stables out. This is not new string set syndrome. The set I have on there has been on there for about 4 months now.

"A nylon strung guitar is not engineered to withstand the stress of steel strings."

I think that's a bit of a misunderstanding. When you put a longer scale set on a shorter scale instrument, the tension is much much lower. The M160 set I use now is a classical hard tension set, but because it's on a short scale guilele, the actual tension is significantly lighter that a tenor uke and is more like a soprano uke. I'd probably need a hard tension steel guitar set to get regular tension on the Mini.

 

[warndt]

Proceed with steel strings at your own peril.