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  #1  
Old 04-21-2019, 12:17 PM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Default How high can Ukelele strings tune too

Those strings are pretty loose. I bet they can go at least six notes higher without any risk of brakage?
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  #2  
Old 04-21-2019, 03:39 PM
frankmcr frankmcr is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitar344 View Post
Those strings are pretty loose. I bet they can go at least six notes higher without any risk of brakage?
Give it a shot & report back.
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Old 04-21-2019, 08:59 PM
Earl49 Earl49 is offline
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Same answer as always - until they break.
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Old 04-22-2019, 10:48 AM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Ukelele strings are pretty elastic. I bet they are harder to break than upright bass strings even. I've once gotten the C up to F

Last edited by guitar344; 04-22-2019 at 10:57 AM.
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Old 04-22-2019, 12:46 PM
leew3 leew3 is offline
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unfortunately not high enough to be out of the range of human hearing. Good luck though
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Old 04-22-2019, 05:36 PM
Swamp Yankee Swamp Yankee is offline
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which size uke? On a soprano, I don't like to go higher than D tuning (a,D,F#,B) but you can go till the strings break, or, more likely, the bridge pops off.

Concerts and tenors I don't like to go higher than C tuning, (g,C,E,A), but for the best tone, my tenors are all Bb tuning.
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Old 04-22-2019, 10:19 PM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Swamp Yankee View Post
which size uke? On a soprano, I don't like to go higher than D tuning (a,D,F#,B) but you can go till the strings break, or, more likely, the bridge pops off.

Concerts and tenors I don't like to go higher than C tuning, (g,C,E,A), but for the best tone, my tenors are all Bb tuning.
You probably get to F tuning on soprano and the string are still somewhat far from breaking. Aren't uke's sturdy?
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Old 04-23-2019, 06:06 AM
Swamp Yankee Swamp Yankee is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitar344 View Post
You probably get to F tuning on soprano and the string are still somewhat far from breaking. Aren't uke's sturdy?
Not in my opinion, no. Ukes, especially soprano ukes, are not particularly sturdy. The bridges on them are often pretty small (in footprint) and a bit on the tall side so there's a lot of tension on a bridge with only a small glued surface area keeping it stuck to the top. As I suggested in my post, I think the bridges on many would pop off before the strings broke.

While it might be possible to tune a soprano to F, I certainly wouldn't advise doing it for any length of time. Besides... many of them begin to sound very tinny even at D.... cranking them up to F would probably not help the tone at all.
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Last edited by Swamp Yankee; 04-23-2019 at 08:01 AM.
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Old 05-05-2019, 07:47 PM
CaptRedbeard CaptRedbeard is offline
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Go ahead and give it a try like others have said. Just wear some eye protection. But seriously. What's the goal?
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Old 05-05-2019, 11:57 PM
Ukulele_Eddie Ukulele_Eddie is offline
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Nice ukes are built much more delicately than guitars, so I'd be careful.
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Old 05-07-2019, 09:03 PM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptRedbeard View Post
Go ahead and give it a try like others have said. Just wear some eye protection. But seriously. What's the goal?
To see how high they can go. I doubt they snap. Ukelele strings are almost unbreakable. Soprano uke's are about the scale as mandolin. You can probably get the A up to E.
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Old 05-09-2019, 10:21 PM
guitar344 guitar344 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Swamp Yankee View Post
Not in my opinion, no. Ukes, especially soprano ukes, are not particularly sturdy. The bridges on them are often pretty small (in footprint) and a bit on the tall side so there's a lot of tension on a bridge with only a small glued surface area keeping it stuck to the top. As I suggested in my post, I think the bridges on many would pop off before the strings broke.

While it might be possible to tune a soprano to F, I certainly wouldn't advise doing it for any length of time. Besides... many of them begin to sound very tinny even at D.... cranking them up to F would probably not help the tone at all.
The strings would still be lose at F tuning. Standard set runs from 5 to 10 pounds of tension.
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Old 05-10-2019, 05:53 AM
Swamp Yankee Swamp Yankee is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitar344 View Post
The strings would still be lose at F tuning. Standard set runs from 5 to 10 pounds of tension.
I often tune soprano ukes up from standard C to D tuning (a,D,F#,B) and those strings are pretty tight. On some ukes, they're tight enough to choke the tone and the uke sounds very thin.

I have a hard time imagining the strings being loose if I continued tightening them up another 3 half steps to F tuning (c,F,A,D)
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  #14  
Old 05-10-2019, 10:35 AM
Neal Neal is offline
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Easy to tune too low if you aren’t ingrained with my dog has fleas tuning and just use a tuner. Best to find a sound sample and go from there. Here’s one
https://www.fleamarketmusic.com/e-tuner/default.asp

You can tune too high, strings can break, bridges can dislodge, tops can distort, intonation can suck. Echoing Swamp Yankee here.

Tunings can vary, but ukes tend to sound and play best within their standard ranges, gCEA, aDF#B, or with the high g and a as low. Alternate tunings are good too, like fCFA, or gDGB. I think a taropatch sounds good tuned a step down, but you have 8 strings and still plenty of tension, and not just from those within earshot.
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Old 05-10-2019, 12:04 PM
Tenzin Tenzin is offline
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It's been a while since I had a nylon string classical guitar, but I've strung my daughter's uke a few times.

I'd have two concerns.
1-Will I damage the ukulele?
2-How will those strings sound when the tension is released?

I'm sure the strings will stretch. (I remember what a pain it was with my classical guitar for the strings to finally stay in tune.) I'm not so sure if they will go back to standard tuning with a similar sound.

YMMV - I was dropped on my head a lot as a child.
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