In 1954 Link Wray released “The rumble” which became an all time classic rock instrumental. A big part of the sound was created by Link poking holes in his speaker cones which his producer hated with a vengeance. In 1977 Eddie Van Halen was messing about in the studio and played a piece that is now known as “Eruption” and another great rock classic. What both these artists have in common is that they had a spirit of exploration and experimentation which pushed sonic boundaries. I’m a big fan of experimentation and exploration and many of my music friends including Martin Simpson have a similar philosophy. The last time I saw Martin at his home he was playing one of my ukes through his giant magnatone amp. “Lets see how this sounds” he said.
Of course this kind of exploration is not for everybody. In the ukulele world especially there are all manner of opinions on “what is right” and “what is best” My view is that there is no “right” or “best” just different. It reminds me of my explorations with tubes in guitar amps. The old Mullard and Phillips tubes are greatly sought out by professional artists for good reason. Fifteen years ago I visited the Mesa Boogie factory in the USA and heard they had some Phillips 6L6 tubes. “Who told you about this the manager asked? These are mostly reserved for Dave Gilmour, BUT we can sell you a couple of pairs”
The ukulele continues to fascinate me and I’m discovering that different types of string combinations with different wood constructions can make a big difference. I set up The Ukulele String test to see how different strings sounded on the same ukulele. I used a Cocobolo tenor to start with and am now using a Cocobolo Super Soprano. I had no idea if there would be any noticeable difference, but was interested to find out. I made sure I recorded the same instrument with different strings in the same acoustic space with the same equipment, set to the same audio levels. The ONLY variable was the change of strings. I also made sure the strings settled in before each test.
I have posted audio and more recently video of these tests online and let others take a view on what they hear. Many folks will consider this very “train spotting” type behavior and I respect that totally. Some folks have no interest in sound exploration and some remain convinced that “ALL STRINGS ARE THE SAME” which is another opinion although I suspect not always based on any exploration. My point is that exploration and experimentation can often yield some quite fascinating results. Its a personal choice of course and not for everybody and that’s 100% fine too!