I picked up a set of the Gallistrings black nylon ukulele bass strings. I thought I'd share my experience of installing them on my Kala Wanderer and initial impressions after playing with them a bit.
Here's the Gallistrings E string next to the OEM E string.
Installation was simple enough. The only hitch I ran into was on the G string. The black nylon string has a little bulge where the string itself and the threaded end of the string meet. I had to use a small round file to carefully enlarge the hole in the body to let this bulge pass through. I used some rubber washers I found in the plumbing aisle at local hardware store to stop the metal ball ends on the strings from rubbing directly against the body of my bass uke, like this:
Here's how the headstock looked when I finished:
Initial impressions: The nylon covered strings have a smooth, cool feel to them that is not unpleasant. They are ever so slightly tacky, but not nearly as "sticky" as the OEM strings. There is a definite roundwound texture, but not the abrasiveness that metal roundwounds can have. Slides are much easier to do than with the OEM strings. The Gallistrings are stiffer than the OEM strings, which means that the tension is higher (better, IMO) and the action is higher (because of the way the strings bend over the bridge). So far I don't find the higher action intolerable.
Subjectively, the bass sounds louder when played unplugged. When plugged into my amp, the sound loses some of that upright-like tone associated with u-basses, but it is still plenty "thumpy". There's no "zing" to the sound, like associate with the Kala roundwounds.
Here's the Gallistrings E string next to the OEM E string.
Installation was simple enough. The only hitch I ran into was on the G string. The black nylon string has a little bulge where the string itself and the threaded end of the string meet. I had to use a small round file to carefully enlarge the hole in the body to let this bulge pass through. I used some rubber washers I found in the plumbing aisle at local hardware store to stop the metal ball ends on the strings from rubbing directly against the body of my bass uke, like this:
Here's how the headstock looked when I finished:
Initial impressions: The nylon covered strings have a smooth, cool feel to them that is not unpleasant. They are ever so slightly tacky, but not nearly as "sticky" as the OEM strings. There is a definite roundwound texture, but not the abrasiveness that metal roundwounds can have. Slides are much easier to do than with the OEM strings. The Gallistrings are stiffer than the OEM strings, which means that the tension is higher (better, IMO) and the action is higher (because of the way the strings bend over the bridge). So far I don't find the higher action intolerable.
Subjectively, the bass sounds louder when played unplugged. When plugged into my amp, the sound loses some of that upright-like tone associated with u-basses, but it is still plenty "thumpy". There's no "zing" to the sound, like associate with the Kala roundwounds.
