Great sweet mother of Danno, did I have an epiphany last night!
Have you ever noticed your uke seems to be in tune–that is, until you actually play it?
If you use a fancy modern-type elctro-tuner, you can even verify that each string is right on.
But then, you place your fingers for a chord, and–eeeew.
Something is not right.
So:
Re-chord.
Re-eeeew.
Now, I am embarrassed to admit–as a professional teacher of ukulele, as a person who spends most hours of most days thinking about ukulele-related topics, and a very, very frequent strummer–
I almost never change my strings.
— My friend, I’m telling you:
You should change your strings.
I recently bought a set of Aquila “Red” strings (mostly because I liked the way they look).
Over the evening ritual of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” with the boy, I replaced the strings on the first “good” uke I ever bought, my good ol’ Ohana soprano. A ukulele I’ve been complaining about for years now, because of the weird staying-in-tune issue.
When I examined the old strings, I could feel nicks and notches in them. Hm. Never noticed that before.
Something was not right.
The new Reds were as smooth as a baby’s bottom, assuming your baby’s bottom is very long and very thin.
I had them installed in no time.
Stretched ’em and tuned ’em (and stretched and tuned again).
And the little Ohana–oh, my baby!
She’s back. Still sweet, but with a bright, loud sound and easy-playin’ action thanks to the new strings.
And beautifully, happily IN TUNE all the way up the neck. For the first time in ages.
That’s my public service message for today: like taking bath once a week, whether you need it or not, go change your strings.
It’s like getting a new ukulele for eight bucks!
So, take my advice — go change your strings!
After 2 years, I didn’t like what I thought was an unappealing aftersound so tried to buy new strings. The guy in the string shop (a musician who plays between customers) took my uke, listened to it and handed it back to me: “Nah, you don’t need new strings.” The implication being that it was the crappy way I was playing it, I guess. It was rather embarrassing. (At least there were no nicks or notches.)
You know, 50 percent of the time, “guys in music shops” are amazingly helpful, kind, and supportive. The other 50 percent of the time, unfortunately, they’re like yours–snobby, condescending, and rude.
One thing to consider, you might not necessarily need NEW strings, but you might still benefit from DIFFERENT strings–different feel, different sound. That can be a lot of motivation right there!