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Old 11-18-2014, 06:15 AM
Yanto Yanto is offline
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Default Stretching ukulele strings

Hi
I've recently bought my first uke. A tenor. It's fitted with open geared tuners. I've noticed that it constantly requires retuning. Spoke to the seller who informed me that I need to spend time stretching the strings and retuning. Or replace the stock strings with something such as Aquila Nylgut, which will require less stretching and will stay in tune much better.
Does this sound correct. Never had a uke before.
Ian
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Old 11-18-2014, 08:39 AM
sirwhale sirwhale is offline
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Yep, if you're used to steel strings you'll notice that when you first put nylon strings on they will take a few days to settle. I would also take off the stock strings ASAP unless they are a good brand. Aquilas are good for one type of sound and you could check out Worths or Living Waters for another type of sound. I normally find that people are with Aquila users or fluorocarbon users.

As I see you live in the UK; living water strings will be a good place to look:

http://www.kenmiddleton.co.uk/pages/lws.aspx
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Old 11-18-2014, 08:58 AM
Yanto Yanto is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirwhale View Post
Yep, if you're used to steel strings you'll notice that when you first put nylon strings on they will take a few days to settle. I would also take off the stock strings ASAP unless they are a good brand. Aquilas are good for one type of sound and you could check out Worths or Living Waters for another type of sound. I normally find that people are with Aquila users or fluorocarbon users.

As I see you live in the UK; living water strings will be a good place to look:

http://www.kenmiddleton.co.uk/pages/lws.aspx
Thank you for the response and information. I would add that before I bought the uke, the seller said he would set it up, and restring it with Aquila strings. I contacted him re this issue, and it seems he forgot to change the strings before sending the uke out. He's sent a free set out to me today. So maybe I will try them and see if there's an improvement, both in tone and staying in tune
Ian
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Old 11-18-2014, 10:29 AM
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Kupuna50 Kupuna50 is offline
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Default uke

As uke strings are mostly nylon as opposed to steel on a guitar, they take considerably more time to 'stretch'.
Just go with it AND keep a tuner handy!
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Old 11-19-2014, 01:30 AM
sirwhale sirwhale is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yanto View Post
Thank you for the response and information. I would add that before I bought the uke, the seller said he would set it up, and restring it with Aquila strings. I contacted him re this issue, and it seems he forgot to change the strings before sending the uke out. He's sent a free set out to me today. So maybe I will try them and see if there's an improvement, both in tone and staying in tune
Ian
Try the aquilas for a while and then have a go at the living water strings, that way you'll try the two most popular types - nylgut and fluorocarbon. Then you can decide which sound suits you and your playing.
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Old 11-19-2014, 07:36 AM
Yanto Yanto is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirwhale View Post
Try the aquilas for a while and then have a go at the living water strings, that way you'll try the two most popular types - nylgut and fluorocarbon. Then you can decide which sound suits you and your playing.
Will do. The Aquilas arrived today. Have ordered a set of the Living Water too.
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Last edited by Yanto; 11-19-2014 at 07:37 AM. Reason: Typo
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Old 11-23-2014, 11:19 AM
Neal Neal is offline
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In general, when we as guitar players change our strings, we pull the string thru the hole, leave some slack for the windings, loop the excess over and under, or lock it at the post in some way, and tune up, clip the excess. Then we lift the strings off the fretboard gently to seat and stretch the string. We're good to go in minutes after that is accomplished, with some minor tweaking for a day or two.

Do the same thing with the uke with the exception of leaving slack for the winding. Pull it thru all the way, preferably with the post hole facing mainly down, if not all the way down. This way, when it is tuned, you will have 2-3 windings around the post and the strings will settle much quicker. If you have a lot of windings around the post, it truly will seem to, if not actually, take forever. Also, settled strings will always sound how that particular string will sound on your uke, probably best not to judge a set until that's done.

On pulling them gently to seat them properly, I do, directly from the 12th fret, but that may be just superstition and have no basis in the physics of nylon or fluorocarbon. They're usually settled in a day, with the stability to play in tune available pretty quickly.

Also, strum the heck out of it for awhile. Not only fun, but helps.
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Old 11-24-2014, 12:41 AM
Yanto Yanto is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal View Post
In general, when we as guitar players change our strings, we pull the string thru the hole, leave some slack for the windings, loop the excess over and under, or lock it at the post in some way, and tune up, clip the excess. Then we lift the strings off the fretboard gently to seat and stretch the string. We're good to go in minutes after that is accomplished, with some minor tweaking for a day or two.

Do the same thing with the uke with the exception of leaving slack for the winding. Pull it thru all the way, preferably with the post hole facing mainly down, if not all the way down. This way, when it is tuned, you will have 2-3 windings around the post and the strings will settle much quicker. If you have a lot of windings around the post, it truly will seem to, if not actually, take forever. Also, settled strings will always sound how that particular string will sound on your uke, probably best not to judge a set until that's done.

On pulling them gently to seat them properly, I do, directly from the 12th fret, but that may be just superstition and have no basis in the physics of nylon or fluorocarbon. They're usually settled in a day, with the stability to play in tune available pretty quickly.

Also, strum the heck out of it for awhile. Not only fun, but helps.
Thanks for the advice and information Neal. Really useful. Will give that a try when I change strings. These stock strings do seem to be settling in. But I think they are a cheap non branded set.
Ian
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