Martin M600 Standard Ukulele Strings

To summarize my review, which is kind of long: I love these martin strings on my 3 ukuleles. I cannot imagine putting any other strings on them. However, so far I have only tried Aquilas, these Martins, and whatever factory/stock strings strung on my ukuleles.Now my novel of a review begins. It is a story filled with discovery, love, bad decisions, regret, hope, reunion, a happy ending, and opens up for the unknown future. I hope you read it all, because I kind of have gone from a total ukulele noob to kind of a more knowledgeable and experience player, and I hope that my review will give you some insight into your own preference of strings.My first ukulele was a cheap Makala MK-P. It was $47 from Austin Bazaar fulfilled by Amazon. I knew that factory strings on this uke was terrible, and ordered a separate set of strings with it. From what I've researched online, people everywhere rave about the Aquila strings. However, being a cheapo, I got this Martin M600s because it is almost half the price of a set of Aquila. Since the order was over $25, the Martins qualified as an "add-on" item.I loved my Makala - it played perfect, and with the M600 strings it had a wonderfully sweet, bright, and clear sound, despite being all laminate.Fast forward 1 months - I now own 3 more ukes: Kala ASLAS (Solid lacewood with solid spruce top), Kala GACT (golden acacia concert travel/thinline), Pono MS (mahogany soprano). With two more on the way: Kala Solid Acacia Tenor, Islander Acacia Tenor. I bought all these from HMS - the Kalas all came with Aquila strings and HMS offers an extra set at discounted price that I usually get. So I have a bunch of Aquila strings.The above paragraph basically leads to - now all my ukuleles are strung with Aquilas, as most every online sources I have researched praised Aquilas as "the strings to have", and you don't really see much said about these Martin strings. (Aquila and Worth seem to be what everyone talks about on UU and other sites). I have discarded my Martin strings, and got rid of my first ukulele, the Makala Pineapple, as I had better ukes, and thought I had better strings.However, I felt like my ukuleles weren't playing the sounds that I want or sound the way I thought they'd sound (except my Kala soprano with solid spruce top, that thing is bright as duck)I also felt that they weren't really good with finger picking or classical solos - the nylgut-esque material of the Aquila kind of sticks to your hands, or is easy to get caught in your fingernails if you are a fingernail picker (like a classical guitarist, which I am not because I dislike long grey nasty fingernails, no offense). Still, I blamed the fault to my lack of skills and perhaps improper ukulele setup, because, well, Aquila is like ukulele string god.Recently, I decided to purchase more Martin strings to put on my Kala ASLAS, because Aquila + solid spruce top + soprano size = ear piercing high shrill sound. Since Amazon sells M600 as "add-on" items, I bought a ukulele song book + 3 sets of these martins.Long story short: I have just now restrung all my soprano ukues with these Martin M600s, and THEY ARE FANTASTIC. I have fallen in love with ukulele all over again. Sure, the Aquila is bright, happy, and bouncy sounding that is really good for strumming, I feel like they aren't really suited for the smaller size ukes (soprano and perhaps even concert). One of the things I felt was that my concert sounded more clear and pure, with each string singing beautifully when strummed, and that sopranos sounded muddy in comparison. I thought it was just the difference between the two sizes. HOWEVER, with the M600s, my sopranos sound MUCH better. When strummed you can feel and hear each string contributing to the overarching harmony. It is truly beautiful. Also, these clear nylon strings have made arpeggios and classicals much easier and pleasurable to play. Also they sound better.With the M600 my ukes have lost a bit of the bounciness that the Aquila gives. However, they were already very uke-sounding ukuleles to begin with, now they sound much more balanced. Below you will find what I thought about the M600 on my ukes:Pono Mahogany Soprano:To be honest, I was really disappointed with this Pono when first got it, and I expected the most of it out of the three I have, because Kala is just a cheap brand made in China. Pono is still made in China, but they have their own factory (Kala shares factory space with Lanikai and many other uke makers), own training and culture, and they are all inspected and set up in Hawaii at the Koolau factory. However, there was nothing special with the sound - with stock strings it sounded dead, and with Aquilas it sounds bouncy and bright but not as fun as the Kala soprano.With the M600, I can finally understand why mahogany soprano ukuleles were so so so popular back then. The factory strings really muted out the sweet and docile tone, while the Aquila strings overrode the tone with its own bright bouncy sound. However, with the M600 everything is balanced and nice. I can really hear the wood sing!Putting M600 on my Pono also took care of some weird issues I had with tuning and buzzing. Now the friction tuners work wonderfully and I actually love them now (before the M600s, I was ready to swear off of friction tuner ukes for the rest of my life). The pono now strums and picks beautifully, sounding sweet and clear as ever.Kala Soprano Lacewood:It is now less edgy, THANK GOODNESS! This uke sounded so bright that videos of it causes my speakers to buzz. Now it still have that hard, clear spruce tone, minus the over-bounciness and edginess. It is still a bit bright, but compliments the mellow Pono perfectly.Tuning and playability have also improved, just as with the Pono. I must sound like I work for Martin but swear I don't. With the Kala I always had problem with the E string staying in tune (even took apart the friction tuners, put together and restrung, and tightened the screw). However, after restrung with M600 it has stayed in tune since!Anyway, these are awesome. Aquilas are over-used everywhere now and I think people are realize it is just a hype. Aquila strings really make lower end ukuleles sing, such as with the Makala Dolphine, that the bounciness works very well with the dolphine's plastic body. However, if you have a solid instrument, Aquila does not really add much to it. Even my Makala Pineapple, now that I think about it - I had so much fun with it BECAUSE it was strung with the martins! After I got my other ukes (remember, they came with extra sets of Aquilas), I restrung my Makala with the Aquilas, and quickly lost interest in the Makala.The end.

I have to admit that at first I wasn't thrilled to put these on my baritone ukelele; I was an Aquila girl thru and thru. But I have to say, these are amazing! Great sound, and talk about durable, I have used them now for about 6 months, maybe more, and they are still doing the job, and I play my Bari every day! They give my Bari the lovely warm sound you can expect from a Bari, and they stand the test of time for sure! For the price, I highly recommend. As I always say, Martin does not make anything cheap. They stand by their quality always, in everything they make!

Martin M600 strings came standard on my Martin ukulele. I like the loud bright clear sound and bought a new set when the originals wore out. These are thinner and lighter and easier on my fingers than the thick nylon Aquila strings that are standard on many mid-priced ukuleles. I think the Martin fluorocarbon strings give me more detail and just as much volume as the Aquilas. The Martin strings also break-in faster. In less than a week, I only have to tune them once a day (compared to 3 weeks to break in Aquilas). Martins are also cheaper than Aquilas ($5 for the Martins when I bought them). You should be able to find Martin strings for inexpensive prices at most music stores as well.Fluorocarbon strings are all the rage for ukuleles right now and Martin strings are a cheap and easy way to try out fluorocarbons. Other brands of fluorocarbons are somewhat more expensive as well as more difficult to buy, but the sound difference between Martins and the others is much more subtle than the difference between Martin and Aquila.The Martin M600 strings are for soprano and concert ukuleles only. Tenor ukulele owners should buy Martin M620 strings instead. Martin M620 Ukulele Strings Fluorocarbon, Tenor