Like many members of this forum I have experimented a great deal with strings looking for the "holy grail" of tone, play-ability and enough volume for playing with others. The abundance of reasonably priced, good quality Baritone Ukes with the 20" scale, which is amenable to the stretches required with a 5th tuned instrument, is an attractive platform. Nylon is warm, easy to play, easy on the fingers but generally lacks the volume of steel. And I must admit for session play and in general I prefer the sound of steel. There are two problems that I ran into when trying to adapt steel to the Baritone Uke. The first was to keep the total lbs of tension low enough for the top/bridge/neck of the Baritone Uke. They are designed for around 48 to 60 lbs of tension, while a tenor guitar might handle 80 to say 98 lbs or more tension. So to get lower tension we increase string gauge and things get floppy. The second problem is intonation. The steel strings generally need more compensation in the setup of the saddle/scale length.
I found a solution to all this a couple of years ago and want to share it.
Th solution came in trying out Thomastik-Infeld Classic S Series steel strings. Here is their description: Thomastik-Infeld S Series KF110 - A very unique string for classical guitars. The Classic S Precision are ball-end, soft steel strings with polished winding. Strings E, A, d, g, b are chrome steel flat wound on a highly flexible steel core,
The soft steel core keep tensions very low. About 15 lbs per string. This keeps the overall tension within the design limits of the Baritone Uke. They also "give" more when fretted, relieving the intonation issue. They are also the best feeling strings I have ever played. They feel like butter. They are flat wound in stainless or nickel (depending on the string) and are highly polished. Folks these are expensive strings, around $5 each. But do not despair as they last and last and last, many times longer than the higher tension run of the mill steel strings and are worth every penny.
Now on to the setups for Baritone Uke with the 20 inch scale. I give the string, then the string nomenclature.
GDAE
G KF38 .038
D KF31 .031
A KF24 .024
E KF14 .014
I also keep a Baritone set up in DGBE
D KF31
G KF24
B KF18
E KF14
Here is a link that will take you to a place that sells these strings individually (I have no affiliation with this company, they give excellent service).
https://www.stringsbymail.com/classi...-87/kf110-441/
I hope this helps folks enjoy their instruments as much as I have mine now that I have finally found the "holy grail".
Tom
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