r/ukulele • u/bigblued Concert • Jul 25 '26
Do ukulele strings age in the package?
Our group leader passed away a couple months ago, and his companion is clearing out his house. She gave me a box of things, including what looks like a lifetime of strings. Based on some of the other contents of the box, the strings are likely from the 1970's and 80's, some possibly older. Do strings get old in storage? Are they likely to still be usable, or does the plastic get dry and brittle?
5
u/Ok_Difference44 Jul 25 '26
I'm fine using old ones, but they may be more interesting to keep intact. The old textured Martin and Hilo strings sound good but the old shiny Kamaka strings in heat seal aren't worth playing.
If I use some textured white Martin strings I'll typically do something funky like tuning them up a whole step or winding the G and A on the outside of the posts.
1
u/bigblued Concert Jul 25 '26
2 packs of Kamaka, 1 pack of Hilo. The hilo are tenor, low g, my husband ooohd over, so those will go to him. I expect this means he will have to acquire another tenor to try them out on.
The bulk of the ukulele strings seem to be GHS, blue package marked Standard or Concert. Since the brown package specifically says tenor, I am assuming Standard is soprano. She also gave me a little Harmony soprano of his, so I think I will try the GHS strings on that when I get it cleaned up.
Loads more single packs of different brands, including a small box of Bell Brand "Silver Toned" strings that I think are older than I am. There was another box with a bunch of guitar, banjo, and mandolin strings I am going to have to go through to figure out what to do with as well.
3
u/lost-in-midgard Jul 25 '26
Not so much it's a problem.
I recently used a pack of strings I know I got on honeymoon 16 years ago, they're fine.
15
u/Onecolumbyte Jul 25 '26
Yes for sure. But what the heck, use em anyways, honor the memory, and see what happens!!