Best LowG string setup for Steven’s aNueNue tenor ukulele AMM3?

[ukandrea]

Hi ukulele lovers and @sgwarren,

While dreaming of a Kanilea uke I really fell totally in love with the sound of Steven Warren’s aNueNue Tenorukulele AMM3, which normally comes with aNueNue Clear Water Fluorocarbon strings.

I would like to have it as dedicated LowG string uke.

A local music house offered me to deliver it already with the lowG string and would also make the saddle slit wider to match the huger diameter of a lowG-string (without extra payment).

My Enya EUC-M6 has also fluorocarbon strings and I think they sound much better than the Aquila strings I have on my low budget Aklot concert uke.

My questions where I hope to find an answer:
1) Has anyone experience with a dedicated wider saddle slit for the LowG string?
2) I guess I can then never use it with a smaller HighG string afterwards, right?
3) There seem to be no dedicated LowG strings from Clear Water – has anybody experience which another brand that would match well to the Clear Water Flourcarbon strings? The music dealer has those LowG strings available: Pyramid, Oasis, Pepe Romero, Aquila. Another dealer offers Fremont wound low G, Worth brown or Clear fluorocarbon unwound low G.
4) In general is it better to have a wound low G or an unwound low G string?

If anybody has any advice on that, thank you very much!!!
Andrea

• This topic was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by ukandrea.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by ukandrea.

[akukes73]

I have the aNueNue AMM3 tenor and for the June challenge, which unfortunately I didn’t get around to submitting, I put a low G on it (worth brown, fluorocarbon, unwound) – I’ve had no problem and had no adjustments made to the nut or saddle. It was actually a string for a concert scale (so maybe it is slightly thinner?) which I never used but it fitted fine and sounds good. The WB low G is well balanced against the other strings and doesn’t seem to dominate. It sounded so much better than I expected. I’ve never been a been a big fan of low G but it sounds great on the AMM3 and I’m going to probably keep it as my low G instrument. Hope that helps.

[ukandrea]

Thank you so much! Meanwhile the dealer suggested to go with the Clear fluorocarbon unwound low G.

[Steven]

Hi Andrea, glad to hear you’re interested in getting the AMM3 tenor ukulele. I love mine and I think it gives much more expensive instruments a real run for their money. I’ve never put a low G on mine but I have heard this uke with a low G and it sounds wonderful so I think it’s a good choice!

In terms of wound vs unwound it really just comes down to personal choice. I’ve used both and I personally prefer a wound low G for the following reasons:
1) they have a higher tension more similar to the other three strings. I find unwound strings to be a bit ‘floppy’ due to the much lower tension.
2) they have thinner gauges so usually just fit in the standard high G nut slot so no adjustment/widening is necessary. I like to experiment a lot with strings and change them quite regularly so I don’t like the idea of widening the nut slot.
3) I also just prefer that slightly more metallic sound (however they can be a bit ‘squeaky’ when you slide your fingers up and down them – I quite like that though).

Having a wider nut slot wouldn’t necessarily stop you going back to a high G later on but the slot would be too wide for it so there may be a risk of some buzzing if the string was able to move around in the slot.

In terms of specific low G strings I would recommend the following:
Wound options:
1) Fremont soloist squeakless – a lot of people really like this string due to it being polished so it doesn’t produce that squeak quite as much as a regular wound string.
2) My personal low G string of choice is the D’Addario BEB031W folk nylon bronze wound string. This is actually a guitar D string but works perfectly as a low G. It has a nice narrow diameter so it fits in a standard high G nut slot, has great tension and a really warm, mellow sound.

Unwound:
If you choose to go unwound I’d go for either Worth Browns or Living Waters. Both fluorocarbon and both great strings.

That’s probably wayyyyyy too much info but I hope it helps you make your decision. If you have any more questions please just ask. I’m a total string nerd so I’d happily talk about strings all day 🙂

All the best,
Steven

[ukandrea]

@sgwarren
Thank you Steven, that helps a lot!!!
I will probably go with the pre-installation by the dealer with his available Fremont soloist squeakless and have D’Addario BEB031W folk nylon bronze wound string as fall-back option for self-installation which I could order locally at Amazon.

It seems that only one music store in Germany carries aNueNue but has no stock before August.
But Matt from World of Ukes has it available. Do you have any experience with this shop?

And final question: Does yours have a pick-up installed?

Thanks so much for your advice,
Andrea

[Steven]

Yes, I can absolutely recommend World of Ukes. That’s where I bought my AMM3 from!! 😀
Matt’s a great guy who knows his stuff so you should be able to buy with confidence from him, based on my experience.
My AMM3 does not have a pick-up. I did consider getting Matt to fit a Mi-Si Acoustic Trio pick-up when I bought it but I very rarely play ‘plugged in’ and I much prefer the natural acoustic tone of the ukulele anyway. The sound you hear on my videos is just the acoustic tone recorded using a condenser microphone.

Happy shopping Andrea. I hope you enjoy your new uke when it arrives 😀

[ukandrea]

Hi Steven and peers,
here is a short soundcheck of my new beauty:

I finally went with the unwound Worth Clear Low G string, recommended and installed by Matt from World of Ukes.

Best,
Andrea

[gi_gi_]

Beautiful uke Andrea. My Dad has the same one. I only have low G ukes for now. My next one will be this one in high G. It’s just great. Congrats.

[ukandrea]

Thank you, I really love it and know Steven loves his one as well.
You won’t regret getting this one for sure!!!

[Author]

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