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Saitenwechsel auf auf der Ukulele – mit Iso Herquist

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Saitenschneider und Kurbel braucht man bei seltenen Wechseln nicht. Schere und Drehen mit den Fingern führt zum gleichen Ergebnis.

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Ukulele neu besaiten - Anleitung - #sonntagsschaff

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Hier gibt es eine super Beschreibung mit wirklich allen wesentlichen Aspekten zum Thema Saitenwechsel,

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Changing strings on an ukulele is regular maintenance! Knowing how to do it well is an important part of playing the instrument.

I love the fresh feel, sound, and tuning stability a new set of strings gives. In my line of work, performing with a set of reliable strings that sound good is vital to a successful gig.

Handy Tools

Besides a new set of strings, here are some things that are helpful when doing the job.

Big nail clippers (the toenail ones) are by far the best way to cut and trim plastic uke strings!

A tuner for getting the new strings up to pitch.

A string winder will save you a lot of time winding and unwinding geared tuning pegs, but I rarely use one.

Remove the Old Strings

You need a spot to install the new string so get rid of those old ones!

Loosen the tuning machine until you can pull the string out of the machine head.

Then unfasten the string at the bridge and retrieve the string from the bridge hole, making sure to keep the string from scratching the surface of your ukulele.

If you're unsure about any of this, have a look at the instructions below and reverse them.

All the strings at once?

Sometimes, to clean the fretboard or make the process easier, you might want to take all the strings off of your ukulele before restringing.

Be aware that the saddle is held into the slot only by string tension. As soon as you take the strings off and turn the ukulele upside down, it will fall out.

Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with replacing the strings one or two at a time.

Attaching the Strings to the Bridge

Use this navigation to go to the sections relevant to your ukulele:

Tie Style Bridge

This is the most common style of ukulele bridge. It's easy to string and rarely fails.

Take the new string out of its pack and feed one end through the hole in the bridge. There should be two or three inches sticking out toward the ukulele's base.

Pull this short end of the string over the top of the bridge, back towards the nut.

From the left side, wrap it under and away from you - around the long end of the string - and pull it to your right so it points away from the soundhole and neck.

Now pull the short end of string towards you and over itself.

Feed it under into the loop above the bridge.

Pull it back over towards you and feed through the loop again.

The last "under" should be set in place so that the short loose end finishes over the rear corner of the bridge. It will point at the ground when you hold the ukulele.

A third loop will help hold extra small strings tighter if you are having problems with slippage.

Sometimes only one loop is necessary or possible for large wound C or low-G strings.

While holding the bridge knot in place, pull on the long end of the string so that the knot tightens up. Be sure to babysit it so that the protruding end continues to remain over the edge of the bridge.

String-Thru Style Bridge

The string-thru style bridge is the most visually elegant, but it's the trickiest to string.

To string this style bridge, start by feeding the string down into the body, through the string hole. The internal side of the string needs to come out of the soundhole. Feed as much in as needed. You can twist as you push to help bring the string into reach.

Do not pull the string all the way through once you grab it! It has to go back the way it came and you do that by pulling the opposite end.

Slide a bead onto the soundhole side of the string.

A string bead is used to prevent the stopper knot from digging into the inside of the soundboard. To be most effective, a string bead should fit closely around the string's diameter and have rounded edges around the hole.
Main thing is that the string doesn't slip into the hole or get cut by it.
Tie a Figure 8 knot at the end of the string, pull it tight, and trim the loose end short (so it can't buzz against the inside of the ukulele). This will sit against the bead and the bead will sit up against the sound board. They work together to keep the string from pulling through the hole.

Pull the string back through the top side of the hole. Once the bead is seated in place, give the string a slow, firm tug to set the knot.

Slotted Style Bridge

Slotted bridges are common on old-school soprano ukes and are functionally similar to string-thru. The difference is that the slotted style bridge holds the knot externally.

Tie a figure-8 knot at the end of the string. Slip the string into the bridge slot and pull the knot under the overhang in the bridge. Tug to set the knot.

Pin Style Bridge

These are mostly found on vintage Martin, Kanileʻa, and various custom ukuleles. I guess they are more visually elegant than a tie-bridge, but I don't think they offer any other upsides for how annoying they can be to deal with.

To remove the old strings, you have to pull the bridge pins out. You can do this with a bridge pin puller. Pliers will work, but tend to mar the pins.

Tie a figure-8 knot on one end of the new string. You can slide a bead onto the string to make a more uniform mount.

Feed it into the hole in the bridge. If there is a little slot you can rest the string in, do so.

Slide the bridge pin into the hole snugly, but not too tight (if there is a groove on one side of the pin, line this up so that the string rests inside).

Pull on the long end of the string until you feel the knot settle into its home.

Push the pin in the rest of the way into the hole and continue pulling the long end until everything is tight.

Attaching the Strings to the Headstock

There are two main kinds of ukulele headstocks. Choose which your ukulele has to jump to the appropriate section.

If your uke has friction or planetary pegs, use the standard directions since the install is exactly the same.

Standard Headstock

Pull the long end of the string up the length of the neck to the headstock. The string should end up in-between each set of tuning pegs. This means that every string should exit its turn on the tuning peg towards the center of the heastock.

Pull the string through the hole in the tuning peg.

Different string sizes come up to pitch at different speeds. Since you usually want a minimum number of wraps to secure the string, you need to take this into consideration when pulling it tight.

In general, small strings come up to pitch slower than larger strings.

This means I pull the A string as tight as I can while I tighten it. But I give myself a couple inches of slack when tightening the low-G string. This is the most ambiguous part of changing strings and will take some experimenting.

Winding

Now place the string in the correct nut-slot and start winding the string onto the tuning peg.

The G and C tuning pegs should turn counter-clockwise as you tighten the string. The E and A pegs should turn clockwise. This keeps the strings running up the center of the headstock, like so:

This helps the strings exit the nut without taking a sharp turn, which can cause tuning trouble.

Depending on if you have friction/planetary tuners or regular geared tuners you'll have to turn the knob a different direction. The former is easy to figure out since it's a straight peg thru the headstock.

Geared tuners are less intuitive. Looking at them straight-on, all the knobs turn counter-clockwise to tighten the strings. But since two are pointing up and two are pointing down, it can be confusing.

Watch the string as you tighten the peg to make sure you're going the right way!

Over/Under

The first time around the peg, the string should go over the short, protruding end. The rest of the winds should go under the short end.

This sandwiches the loose end between two tensioned wraps, holding the string from slipping.

For the smaller strings you might need to tie a knot at the tuning peg to stop the string from slipping. Check out Ukulele's by Kawika for a diagram of the best knot (fig 4).

Slotted Headstock

Here's my video walkthrough of how I change strings on a uke with a headstock. Standard tuning pegs are wrapped a bit differently, but there are still some applicable tips that you can apply.

Tuning to Pitch

Keep an eye on your bridge knot and the tuning peg as you increase the pitch. Put a tuner on your uke at this point and refer to it as you get the string close to where it should be.
How to tune your ukulele
At first, the string will slip out of tune almost as fast as you can turn the peg. As you tune it more times it will begin to settle in.

Repeat the restringing process for the rest of the set.

I usually tune up to pitch once and then move onto the other strings, returning to tune each every time I finish a new string. By the time I get to the end, the string I started with will be fairly settled.

Even after you have all the strings on and up to pitch, they will continue to stretch for a few days.

To help speed up the process, I like to play the new strings for a while, retuning as much as needed to give them a jump start. Some people just put their ukulele in the case overnight and retune the next day.

Stretching Strings

To really speed up the settling-in time, you can physically stretch the strings. This pulls the slack out of the knots and tuning peg winds and also wrings out the slack in the string itself.

However, there are differing views of thought about this. Some say that it wrecks intonation to stretch the strings and avoid doing it at all costs. Others yank on them until they stay in tune.

Personally, I adopt a middle ground and lift the string gently off the saddle and pull on it to make sure the bridge knot is cinched tight. Then I lift the string out of the nut slot and repeat the same at the tuning peg.

If you want to try stretching the entire string, you can do so by lifting it off the 12th fret an inch or two, then retuning.

Finishing Up the Job

Once you know that the ukulele is holding its pitch, it's nice to tidy things up by trimming the loose string ends.

I do this with a big pair of nail clippers. I cut the end at the tuning peg so that there's 1/4-1/2″ of overhang (just in case the string slips a bit it won't pull all the way out).

At the bridge I lift the loose ends up and get my clippers under them, clipping almost as close to the bridge knot as I can. This results in about 1/8-1/4″ of leftover.

If you tie your knot correctly, it's very uncommon that the string will come loose here. Hence the short trim.

Becoming an Experienced Ukulele String Changer

Changing strings is an art. It takes time and experience to do it well.

You'll feel awkward and clunky the first time you do it. But once you've done a handful of string changes you'll start to get the hang of it.

After doing it so long I can usually do a string change in 10-15 minutes, no problem. You'll get just as fast and find your own tricks for making the job better and easier.

For more reference, Aldrine does a good job explaining how to change strings in this video:

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Step-by-step instruction on how to replace the strings on your ukulele. Learn to tie the knots, best tools for the job, and when to replace the strings.

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Ein kurzer Blick bei Thomann zeigt: Die Auswahl ist vielfältig und ziemlich verwirrend.

https://www.thomann.de/de/ukulelen_saiten.html?gk=GISAUK&cme=false&filter=true

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Das sind die „Gängigen“ (= meist auf neuen Ukulelen)

https://www.thomann.de/de/aquila_corde_concerto_regular_nylgut.htm

Das ist die rote Serie von Aquila (die mit der Metallbeimischung)

https://www.thomann.de/de/aquila_85u_red_series_concert_set.htm

Relativ neu sind diese von Aquila, könnte ein Mittelding zwischen Standard-Nylgut und Fluorcarbon sein.

Das sind die Fluor-Carbon-Saiten (reicht je nach Uke-Größe für mindestens 2 Instrumente)

https://www.thomann.de/de/risa_premium_high_4th.htm

Ich persönlich spiele Letztere sehr gerne.

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... gute oder die schlechte Saite und es lohnt sich in jedem Fall, das Geld und die Zeit dran zu hängen und die verschiedenen Möglichkeiten mal zu testen. Der klangliche Einfluss und Unterschied ist beträchtlich!

Ist natürlich immer auch Geschmackssache und - was die Sache leider noch unübersichtlicher macht - die Saiten klingen auf jedem Instrument etwas unterschiedlich. Aber dennoch, wenn ihr den Klang einer bestimmten Saite mögt, ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit groß, daß sie auf den meisten gut klingen werden. Um etwas Probiererei kommt man nicht herum.

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Die og. Links führen zu Sätzen mit High-G. Es gibt immer auch eine Low-G-Variante oder die tiefe G-Saite einzeln zu kaufen.

Und die Ukulelegröße berücksichtigen. Saiten sind zwar oft identisch, aber eben unterschiedlich lang :-(